An all-time great in sports broadcasting has died.
Pat Summerall, whose six decades in sports broadcasting included 26 Super Bowls on television and radio, died Tuesday at age 82. According to The Dallas Morning News, Summerall had been recovering from hip surgery.
Summerall worked for CBS Sports from 1962 to 1994 in a variety of roles, but will be best remembered for his work on the NFL. He began as a game analyst before making the difficult transition to play-by-play. Including his years at FOX, Summerall was the lead voice of the NFL’s NFC broadcast package for 27 consecutive years — from 1975 to 2002.
Most of Summerall’s NFL tenure was spent working alongside analyst John Madden. The Summerall/Madden team was, and still is, one of the most highly-regarded pairings in the history of sports broadcasting.
Beyond the NFL, Summerall had an eclectic career that included The Masters, tennis’ U.S. Open, and — briefly — the NBA. His final NFL assignments came in 2004, when he filled in for an ailing Mike Patrick on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” for the first four weeks of the season.
(Tuesday’s news from The Dallas Morning News)
