Pat Summerall’s career as America’s most beloved sports broadcaster began with a happy accident. After the 1961 NFL season—his last one playing as a placekicker for the New York Giants—a radio producer called the hotel room that Summerall was sharing with quarterback Charlie Conerly to ask Conerly if he’d like to audition to be a broadcaster. When the producer heard Summerall’s sonorous bass on the phone, he offered him the tryout instead.
By then Summerall had played 10 seasons in the NFL, said the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His greatest on-field moment came on a snowy afternoon in 1958, when he kicked a 49-yard field goal to beat the Cleveland Browns and earn his team a berth in the playoff game against the Baltimore Colts “that helped put the NFL on the map.”
Summerall then became “the uncle who took us all to the game,” said ESPN.com. Over four decades, “his courtly, economic, Southern-honeyed bass was the accompaniment to a symphony of sports,” including 16 Super Bowls, 20 U.S. Opens in tennis, and 27 Masters golf tournaments. “Summerall always gave the impression that he not only knew what he was talking about, but that he loved talking about it, too.”
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Summerall had a serious drinking problem until friends persuaded him to seek treatment in 1992, said The New York Times. “He emerged sober, remained so, and became a born-again Christian.” He broadcast his last Super Bowl in 2002 with his longtime foil, John Madden, who said that listening to Summerall call a game was like “bringing a gentleman into your house.”
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