Curt Gowdy
Curt Gowdy | |
---|---|
Sportscaster | |
Spouse | Jerre Dawkins (m. 1949–2006; his death) |
Children | 2 sons, 1 daughter |
Awards | |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | U.S. Army Air Forces |
Years of service | 1942–1943 |
Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American
Early years
The son of Ruth and Edward "Jack" Gowdy (Curt's father was a manager and dispatcher for the
After graduating in 1942 with a degree in business statistics, he entered the army, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.[3] Gowdy planned to become a fighter pilot, but a ruptured disk in his spine from a previous sports injury cut short his military service in the Army Air Force, leading to a medical discharge in 1943. Gowdy would continue to suffer from persistent back problems for many years.[4]
In November 1943, recovering from back surgery, Gowdy made his broadcasting debut in
Gowdy's distinctive
Family background
In June 1949, Curt married Geraldine (Jerre) Dawkins. She had a bachelor's degree in Education from
Boston Red Sox
Gowdy began his Major League Baseball broadcasting career working as the No. 2 announcer to
In April 1951 at the age of 31, Gowdy began his tenure as the lead announcer for the Red Sox. For the next 15 years, he called the exploits of generally mediocre Red Sox teams on
Gowdy called Ted Williams' final at-bat where he hit a home run into the bullpen in right-center field off Jack Fisher of Baltimore. He also called Tony Conigliaro's home run in his first at-bat at Fenway Park on April 17, 1964 at the age of 19.[citation needed]
He left WHDH after the 1965 season for NBC Sports, where for the next ten years he called the national baseball telecasts of the Saturday afternoon Game of the Week and Monday Night Baseball during the regular season (and the All-Star Game in July), and the postseason playoffs and World Series in October.[citation needed]
National broadcaster
Early ABC Sports career
Following a stint calling NBA games for NBC from 1955 to 1960, Gowdy moved to ABC, where he teamed with Paul Christman to cover college football in 1960 and 1961 and the American Football League from 1962 to 1964. On February 27, 1966, Gowdy called his final major event for ABC, the 1966 Daytona 500 which aired as part of the long running sports anthology series Wide World of Sports.
NBC Sports
In the fall of 1965, he moved full-time to NBC, with whom he would be employed for over a decade. Gowdy was the lead play-by-play announcer for the network for both the American Football League (AFC from 1970 on) and Major League Baseball, but Gowdy also covered a wide range of sports, earning him the nickname of the "broadcaster of everything." He called the 1969 Final Four in Louisville and during the closest played game of the tournament, the semi-final between UCLA and Drake, he confused Drake with Duke, mistakenly calling the Drake Bulldogs by the wrong name no fewer than three times. It was Drake that came within three points of upsetting the mighty Bruins.
Besides Christman, who followed him from ABC to NBC, Gowdy's other football broadcast partners were
Departure from NBC's baseball telecasts
After the 1975 World Series, he was removed from NBC's baseball telecasts, when sponsor Chrysler insisted on having Joe Garagiola, who was their spokesman in many commercials, be the lead play-by-play voice. While Gowdy was on hand in the press box for Carlton Fisk's home run in Game 6 of the 1975 Series, the calls were made by two of Gowdy's Red Sox successors, Dick Stockton on TV and Ned Martin on radio. Gowdy was Martin's color man on that home run. Gowdy returned to the NBC World Series broadcast in 1978 as "Host" with Garagiola handling play-by-play and Kubek and Tom Seaver providing color.[11] After umpire Frank Pulli decided not to call interference on a significant base-running play involving Reggie Jackson in Game 4 of the 1978 Series, Gowdy interviewed Pulli on NBC shortly before Game 5 began.
Later work
He continued as NBC's lead NFL announcer through the 1978 season, with his final broadcast being Super Bowl XIII between Pittsburgh and Dallas. With NBC anxious to promote Dick Enberg to the lead NFL position, NBC orchestrated a “trade” with CBS for the up-and-coming Don Criqui, who enjoyed a long career with NBC.[12] After switching networks, Gowdy called NFL games on CBS for two seasons with former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Hank Stram, and also did baseball on radio. He returned to ABC to call regional college football in 1982 and 1983. In 1987, Gowdy was the radio voice of the New England Patriots.
In 1976, when Gowdy otherwise still worked for NBC, he was loaned to ABC to work on their
.Notable moments called by Gowdy
Curt Gowdy was present for some of American sports' storied moments, including Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat in 1960, Super Bowl I, the AFL's "Heidi" game of 1968, and (after the 1968 pro football season) the third AFL-NFL World Championship game (Super Bowl III) in which Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeated the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. Two years later in Super Bowl V, Gowdy called the dramatic 16–13 Colts' win over Dallas. The next year in 1971, Gowdy's telecast on NBC caused many a Christmas dinner to be delayed as the country locked in that Christmas Day to the longest game in pro football history when the Miami Dolphins defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 27–24 in the final game at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. He also covered Franco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" of 1972, Clarence Davis' miraculous catch in a "sea of hands" from Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, to defeat the Miami Dolphins in the final seconds of a legendary 1974 AFC playoff game, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run in 1974.
Gowdy endeared himself to long-suffering American Football League fans when it was learned that in an off-air break towards the end of a game, he asked rhetorically: "“I want to see Tex Maule, that —————.”", a reference to the Sports Illustrated writer who for years had denigrated the AFL.[13] On-air, in contrast to some of his contemporary announcers of NFL games, he avoided their hyperbole and transparent adulation of players, and gave steady, nonpartisan, but colorful descriptions of AFL games.[citation needed] Gowdy was also known for the occasional malapropism, including a consoling comment just after the Red Sox lost the 1975 World Series: "Their future is ahead of them!"[citation needed]
Notable assignments
Over the course of a career that stretched into the 1980s, Gowdy covered pro football (both the
Gowdy called all the Olympic Games televised by ABC from 1964 to 1988 with Roone Arledge's sports department at ABC.
In the mid-1970s, Gowdy was host and producer of
Relationship with Roone Arledge
Gowdy was also close friends with Arledge, and acknowledged that he gives Arledge all the credit for making ABC what it is today, including the creation of the network's sports department, and the innovations for televising sporting events that made the sports departments at NBC and CBS jealous. The two were the creators, and very first producers for the
In 1970, he was coveted by ABC's Arledge for the new Monday Night Football, but Gowdy was bound by his contract to NBC Sports (although he continued with Grits Gresham of Natchitoches, Louisiana, to host The American Sportsman on ABC).
Commentating style
Gowdy was said to have a warm, slightly gravelly voice and an unforced, easy style that set him apart from his peers. (Author John Updike once described him as sounding "like everybody's brother-in-law.") Unlike many well-known sportscasters, Gowdy never developed catchphrases or signature calls, but merely described the action in a straightforward manner. Examples:
Jack Fisher into his windup, here's the pitch...Williams swings, and there's a long drive to deep right...it could be...it could be...IT IS! A home run for Ted Williams, in his last time at bat in the major leagues!
— Calling Williams' final career at-bat on September 28, 1960.
The ball's hit deep... deep...it is gone! He did it! He did it! Henry Aaron... is the all-time home run... leader now!
— Calling Aaron's 715th career home run on April 8, 1974.
Retirement
Gowdy's career wound down after The American Sportsman was canceled in 1985.
He briefly came out of retirement in
In May 2003, a few months shy of his 84th birthday, Gowdy called a Red Sox–Yankees game from Fenway Park, as part of the ESPN Major League Baseball "Living Legends" series. At the end of the broadcast, he thought he could have done better. ESPN's Chris Berman said, "We'll give you another chance." Gowdy replied, "Call me back."
Gowdy also co-hosted the
Other appearances
Film cameos
Gowdy made cameo appearances in the movies The Naked Gun (1988) and Summer Catch (2001), and his voice can be heard in Heaven Can Wait (1978) and BASEketball (1998).
- Heaven Can Wait (1978) – TV Commentator
- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) – The Baseball Announcer #5
- An American Summer (1990) – Himself
- BASEketball (1998) – World Series Announcer (voice)
- Summer Catch (2001) – Himself
Television and radio commercials
In the 1950s and '60s, 'Curt Gowdy did pre-recorded and live commercials for Red Sox sponsor
Author
Gowdy, who also did some sportswriting during his early broadcasting days, wrote two books: Cowboy at the Mike (1966), with Al Hirshberg, and Seasons to Remember: The Way It Was in American Sports, 1945–1960 (1993), with John Powers. He also wrote the foreword for the 2000 book The Golden Boy, authored by Dr. George I. Martin, in which Gowdy described the subject of the book, Jackie Jensen, as possibly the best athlete he had ever covered.
Radio stations
In 1963, Gowdy purchased radio stations WCCM and WCCM-FM in Lawrence, Massachusetts, later changing the FM station's call letters to WCGY to somewhat match his name. Gowdy also owned several radio stations in Wyoming, including KOWB and KCGY in Laramie. He sold his broadcast interests in Massachusetts in 1994 and his Wyoming stations in 2002. He also owned WEAT and WEAT-FM in West Palm Beach, Florida, and WBBX in New Hampshire. The year away from broadcasting the Red Sox in 1957 awakened him to the fact that he might need an alternate way of making a living, leading to his interest in station ownership.
Awards
In 1970, Gowdy became the first sportscaster to receive the
Curt Gowdy's 23 Halls of Fame honors/inductions:
- Conservation Hall of Fame International – April 16, 1973
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement – 1973[16]
- International Fishing Hall of Fame – 1981
- National Sportscasters & Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame – 1981
- Sportswriters & Broadcasters Hall of Fame – 1984
- Ford C. Frick Award recipient, awarded by the National Baseball Hall of Fame – 1984
- American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame – 1985
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame – 1990, Curt Gowdy Media Award recipient
- Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame – 1990
- Gold Medal Hall of Fame Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New England
- Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame – 1992
- Pro Football Hall of Fame – 1993, Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recipient
- Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame – 1994
- American Football League Hall of Fame – 1995
- University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame – September 25, 1998 [17]
- Florida Sports Hall of Fame – 1999
- Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame – 2000[18]
- Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame – 2001
- International Game Fish Association (IGFA) Fishing Hall of Fame – 2003
- Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame – 2003
- Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame – 2004
- National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame – 2005
- Rose Bowl Hall of Fame – 2005 inductee (January 3, 2006)
Curt Gowdy State Park
A state park in Wyoming, opened in 1971, was officially named for Gowdy on March 27, 1972, one of numerous honors bestowed on the native son from the state of Wyoming on "Curt Gowdy Day." The 11,000 acre (44 km2) Curt Gowdy State Park is halfway between his high school hometown of Cheyenne and his college town of Laramie. Additional land was acquired by the state for the park in 2006. "It has two beautiful lakes, hiking trails, camping, boating, fishing, and beauty," said Gowdy. "It has everything I love. What greater honor can a man receive?"
Gowdy was proud of his Wyoming heritage and loved the outdoors, and said that he was "born with a fly-rod in one hand," and that the sports microphone came a little later. In 2002, he recalled that his father, Edward Curtis Gowdy, who had taught him to hunt and fish, was the best fly-fisherman in the state. "We had free access to prime-time fishing and hunting. The outdoors was a way of life for me. I should have paid them to host The American Sportsman."
On July 31, 2013, on the 94th anniversary of his birth, the state park opened an interpretive center with exhibits about the history of the park and Gowdy's work to preserve area natural resources. Milward Simpson, director of the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources Department, describes the 7,400-square foot building, which also includes meeting rooms and a lobby, as a monument to the "fantastic legacy" left by Gowdy.[19]
Death
Gowdy died at the age of 86 at his winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, after an extended battle with leukemia. His funeral procession circled Fenway Park and he was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pallbearers included his former NBC baseball broadcast partner and New York Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek.
Curt Gowdy Post Office Building
On October 12, 2006, the United States Postal Service building in Green River, Wyoming, was officially designated as the "Curt Gowdy Post Office Building," honoring the place of Gowdy's birth. The legislation required for the USPS name change was introduced by Wyoming House Representative Barbara Cubin.[20]
References
- ^ Matt Bohn. "Curt Gowdy". Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
- ^ "Clicks from the Rails." Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, December 29, 1935, p. 30.
- ^ "Cowboy Basketball Star Reports for Army Duty July 4." Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune, June 23, 1942, p. 6.
- ^ John Cronley. "Once Over Lightly." (Oklahoma City) Daily Oklahoman, July 12, 1966, p. 13.
- ^ "News." Broadcasting, September 17, 1945, p. 72.
- ^ "Gowdy Announces Plans for Injun Broadcasts." (Oklahoma City) Daily Oklahoman, April 11, 1948, p. 32.
- ^ "Murphy Takes Post at KOCY." (Oklahoma City) Daily Oklahoman, February 6, 1949, p. B4.
- ^ "Curtis E. Gowdy and Jerre Dawkins Will Be Married." (Oklahoma City) Daily Oklahoman, February 20, 1949, p. 51.
- ^ "Curt Gowdy, Jr., SNY, Senior Vice President, Production and Executive Producer : League Technology Summit 2012". Archived from the original on May 7, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
- ^ "Curt Gowdy Replaces Jim Britt as Announcer for Red Sox Games." Hartford Courant, November 4, 1950, p. 11.
- ^ "10 Oct 1978, 22 - Lexington Herald-Leader at Newspapers.com".
- ^ "Once upon a time, NBC traded Curt Gowdy for Don Criqui". October 8, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
- ^ "Gowdy's finest hour was Super Bowl III". The Washington Times. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
- ^ "Rondinaro remembers Gowdy". www.dci.org. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
- ^ "Classic Jingle: Curt Gowdy Red Sox Radio Spot". July 1, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "1998 University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees." Casper (WY) Star-Tribune, February 22, 1998, p. 27
- ^ "Red Sox Hall of Fame". MLB.com. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
- Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Archived from the originalon August 2, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
- , enacted October 12, 2006
Further reading
- Gowdy, Curt; Hirschberg, Al (1966). Cowboy at the Mike. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
External links
- Curt Gowdy Ford C. Frick Award biography at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
- American Football League Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy's citation
- Curt Gowdy at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
- Curt Gowdy at IMDb
- Ex-Red Sox Broadcaster Curt Gowdy Dies
- "Curt Gowdy dies at 86". The Boston Globe. February 20, 2006.
- "Sportscaster Curt Gowdy dies at 86". The Boston Globe. February 21, 2006.
- Red Sox mourn the loss of Hall of Fame broadcaster Curt Gowdy[permanent dead link] – Boston Red Sox press release
- Sports E-Cyclopedia's Memoriam to Curt Archived June 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Curt Gowdy dies at 86 The New York Times February 21, 2006
- In memory of Curt Gowdy – U.S. Senator Craig Thomas February 27, 2006
- Curt Gowdy State Park – 1972 west of Cheyenne, Wyoming
- Curt Gowdy, Milo Hamilton and Vin Scully's Calls of Aaron's 715th Home Run from Archive.org
- Curt Gowdy at Find a Grave