Dick Enberg

Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including NBC (1975–1999), CBS (2000–2014), and ESPN (2004–2011), as well as for individual teams, such as UCLA Bruins basketball, Los Angeles Rams football, and California Angels and San Diego Padres baseball.

Enberg was well known for his signature on-air catchphrases "Touch 'em all" (for home runs) and "Oh, my!" (for particularly exciting and outstanding athletic plays). He also announced or hosted the Tournament of Roses Parade for many years, sometimes with the help of family members. Enberg retired from broadcasting in 2016, after seven seasons as the Padres' primary television announcer.

Early life and education

Enberg was born on January 9, 1935, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, as the first child to Belle Elizabeth (Weiss) and Arnie Enberg. His paternal grandparents were Finnish immigrants, whose original name was Katajavuori, which means juniper mountain. Before they lived in America, they changed their name to the Swedish-sounding Enberg. His mother was of English, French, German and Native American descent. He had a younger brother, Dennis. Enberg's family first moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, when he was two years old, then to southern California in 1940 for several years, and then back to a farm near Armada, Michigan.

Following high school in Armada, Enberg attended Central Michigan University, where he played college baseball and earned a bachelor's degree in 1957. In his senior year at Central Michigan, Enberg was elected president of the student body. During this time, he was employed at WSAM in Saginaw, Michigan, then a Detroit Tigers radio affiliate. Enberg then went on to graduate school at Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned master's and doctorate degrees in health sciences. While at Indiana, Enberg voiced the first radio broadcast of the Little 500, the bicycle racing event popularized in the film Breaking Away.

He was also the play-by-play announcer for Indiana Hoosiers football and basketball games and in 1961 called his first NCAA basketball tournament event, the championship game between Cincinnati and Ohio State. From 1961 to 1965, he was an assistant professor and baseball coach at Cal State Northridge, then known as San Fernando Valley State College. Enberg was also a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.

Career in Los Angeles

In the late 1960s, Enberg began a full-time sportscasting career in Los Angeles, working for KTLA television (anchoring a nightly sports report and calling UCLA Bruins basketball) and KMPC radio (calling Los Angeles Rams football and California Angels baseball). After every Angels victory, he would wrap up his broadcast with "And the halo shines tonight" in reference to the "Big A" scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium and the halo at the top, which would light up for everyone in the area to see, particularly from the adjacent freeway. Enberg was named California Sportscaster of the Year four times during this period.

In the 1960s, Enberg announced boxing matches at L.A.'s Olympic Auditorium. Enberg also presided over the Trophy presentation for Super Bowl VII in 1973.

In 1968, Enberg was recommended by UCLA athletic director J.D. Morgan to be the national broadcaster for the syndicated TVS Television Network to cover the "Game of the Century" between the Houston Cougars, led by Elvin Hayes, and the UCLA Bruins, led by Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

In the 1970s, Enberg called the 1979 NCAA Championship game between Michigan State, led by Magic Johnson, and Indiana State, led by Larry Bird. He also hosted the syndicated television game show Sports Challenge and co-produced the Emmy Award-winning sports-history series The Way It Was for PBS.

NBC Sports (1975–1999)

In 1973, Enberg hosted the game show Baffle, which lasted just a year before being cancelled in 1974. A year later, producer Monty Hall hired Enberg to host the shorter-lived Three for the Money.

In 1975, Enberg joined NBC Sports. For the next 25 years, he broadcast a plethora of sports and events for NBC, including the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the U.S. Open golf championship, college football, college basketball, the Wimbledon and French Open tennis tournaments, heavyweight boxing, Breeders' Cup and other horse racing events, and the Olympic Games.

Enberg replaced Curt Gowdy as lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL on NBC in 1979, and on the network's telecast of the Rose Bowl in January 1980. He was in the booth in Pasadena for nine straight years, until ABC took over the broadcast in 1989.

The NFL on NBC

While on The NFL on NBC, Enberg called eight Super Bowls (alongside such former NFL players Merlin Olsen, Bob Trumpy, Phil Simms, and Paul Maguire), the last being Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998. Enberg also anchored NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XIII (called by Curt Gowdy) in 1979. He also called three Canadian Football League games in 1982 during the NFL strike.

Among the notable games called by Enberg was the 1986 Week 3 51–45 shootout between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins and the 1987 AFC Championship Game between the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns.

Well, and so the end of the 1997 NFL season and for NBC Sports, Super Bowl XXXII is the end of our 32 years covering AFL, NFL action. NBC's been there from the start, from Joe Namath all the way to John Elway, from Curt Gowdy to those of us who had the honor of calling this game tonight, and on behalf of all of our crew, all the men and women who have brought you the sights and sounds of NFL football here on NBC since 1960, we want to thank you for your effort, and those of you who have watched, and we congratulate the Super Bowl champions. The underdogs have won. The 13 years of defeat have been erased at least for tonight as Denver wins it, 31–24. Don't wander away, more to come from San Diego. Greg Gumbel will be back after station identification. Denver Broncos are Super Bowl champs.

Major League Baseball on NBC

In 1977, Enberg provided play-by-play for Game 2 of the American League Championship Series and Game 4 of the National League Championship Series Series alongside Don Drysdale. Two years later, Enberg teamed with Wes Parker and Sparky Anderson to call the ALCS for NBC. And then in 1981, Enberg alongside Tom Seaver, called the National League Division Series between the Montreal Expos and Philadelphia Phillies and then, the NLCS between Montreal and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

According to his autobiography, Oh My!, Enberg was informed by NBC that he would become the lead play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball Game of the Week beginning with the 1982 World Series (for which he served as pregame host and shared play-by-play duties with Joe Garagiola alongside analyst Tony Kubek) and through subsequent regular seasons. He wrote that on his football trips, he would read every Sporting News to make sure he was current with all the baseball news and notes. Then he met with NBC executives in September 1982, and they informed him that Vin Scully was in negotiations to be their lead baseball play-by-play man (teaming with Garagiola while Kubek would team with Bob Costas) and would begin with NBC in the spring of 1983.

According to the book, Enberg wasn't pleased about the decision (since he loved being the California Angels' radio and television voice in the 1970s and was eager to return to baseball) but the fact that NBC was bringing in Scully, arguably baseball's best announcer, was understandable. Enberg added that NBC also gave him a significant pay increase as a pseudo-apology for not coming through on the promise to make him the lead baseball play-by-play man. Enberg returned to the Angels' radio booth to call 40 games in 1985, citing a desire to reconnect with the sport, which he has described as having been "in my DNA since I was in diapers".

Enberg hosted NBC's pregame shows of the 1985 National League Championship Series with Joe Morgan. It was Enberg who broke the news to most of the nation that Vince Coleman was injured before Game 4. NBC even aired an interview with one of the few people who actually saw the incident, a Dodger batboy. Enberg was also in Toronto to do the pregame for Games 1 and 7 of the 1985 American League Championship Series alongside Rick Dempsey (who was still active with Baltimore at the time).

NBC planned to use Enberg as one of its announcers for The Baseball Network coverage in 1994, but the players' strike that year ended the season before he had the opportunity to call any games.

Wimbledon Championships

As NBC's voice of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, the last tournament for him being in 1999 (alongside Bud Collins and, later, John McEnroe), Enberg regularly concluded NBC's coverage of the two-week event with thematically appropriate observations accompanied by a montage of video clips.