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Obit: Pat Summerall, CBS/FOX sportscaster, 82

Pat was old school in that once he retired from football and went into broadcasting, he made a real effort to work at becoming a good announcer.

He became good enough to where he could call golf and tennis matches without missing a beat.

A lot of former football players these days skate by on the fact that they're former players and can just be a talking head without putting forth a real effort to improve their broadcasting skills.
 
A lot of people tend to forget that before he was teamed with John Madden, he was teamed Tom Brookshire as the lead announcing team for NFL games on CBS, who, INHO, were just a good or maybe better than the Summerall/Madden team. And before he was CBS lead play-by-play man for many sports, he was a Color Analyst with Ray Scott on CBS. So he was also, one of the few that was able to make that transition from credible Color Analyst to a very credible Play-By-Play guy. Most of the others that tried that bombed as play-by-play announcers (Tom Brookshire, for instance).

Also heard local sports reporter when he was reporting that Pat Summerall had passed away made the statement that "He was unaware that Pat Summerall had been sick recently". Since when does anyone in their late 70s or older need to be in bad health in order to pass away?
 
If my memory serves me correct, Pat Summerall and then-Boston Bruins' TV announcer Don Earle did a short post-game segment from inside the team's dressing room at the end of CBS' coverage of the fourth (and what turned out to be the final game) of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals (WSBK-38, which was the team's TV flagship then, simulcast the CBS coverage and did a longer post-gamed locker-room segment after CBS' coverage ended). Thuis, I am pretty sure, is the only time he worked an NHL telecast, and only for the postgame segment.

I don't know if this is true, but I once heard an urban legend that Summerall, a CBS technician, and Doug Orr (the father of Boston superstar Bobby Orr) were in the Boston dressing room ready to be joined by Earle for postgame interviews if Boston won the championship. Reportedly, the elder Orr was too nervous to go back to his seat for the start of overtime.

But after Bobby scored the championship-winning goal after just 40 seconds, so the story went, Summerall turned to Doug Orr and yelled over the crowd in the stands above "Mr. Orr, your son has scored and Boston has won the Stanley Cup!". Doug Orr is said to have told Summerall "I know Boston scored, but we didn't see it! What makes you think my son scored?". Summerall supposedly replied "Because they wouldn't be yelling this loudly if (Phil) Esposito (another high-scoring Boston player of the era) had scored!".

I don't know if it's true or not, although I have in recent years seen a clip or two of Don Earle's postgame interviews. But I'm pretty certain Summerall was there for the three or four minutes while CBS was still on the air, with Earle helping out.
 
Even if Pat Summerall had never become an NFL all-star, I'm sure he would have worked his way up the television sports ladder to the top of play-by-play men. He had a natural talent for it.

He also had a "spare" style in television play-by-play which worked well.

This is how he'd call a touchdown (if he had been doing the NFL this past season): "Flacco....(pause).....To Anquan Boldin....(pause).......Touchdown, Baltimore Ravens!"
 
He also had a "spare" style in television play-by-play which worked well.

This is how he'd call a touchdown (if he had been doing the NFL this past season): "Flacco....(pause).....To Anquan Boldin....(pause).......Touchdown, Baltimore Ravens!"
Click to expand...

Which I'm sure he learned from Ray Scott. Part of the soundtrack of Sundays (and Thanksgiving, of course.)
 
Remember watching him mainly during the time he was on FOX; but still feel strongly enough about his being the best that ever was that if I was a network sports executive, I would strongly recommended any potential play-by-play hires watch a series of games Pat called as an example of how to keep the game the main focus instead of themselves.

RIP Pat and farewell.
 
He also groomed and mentored Troy Aikman as well as CBS 11 DFW Sportscaster Babe Lofenberg
 
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