41 Facts About Curt Gowdy

Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster.

Curt Gowdy called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s.

Curt Gowdy coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from the Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.

The son of Ruth and Edward "Jack" Gowdy, Curtis Edward Gowdy was born in Green River, Wyoming, and moved to Cheyenne at age six.

Curt Gowdy showed an early interest in journalism, serving as sports editor of his high school newspaper.

Curt Gowdy was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

Curt Gowdy would continue to suffer from persistent back problems for many years.

In November 1943, recovering from back surgery, Curt Gowdy made his broadcasting debut in Cheyenne calling a "six-man" high school football game from atop a wooden grocery crate in subzero weather, with about 15 people in attendance.

Curt Gowdy found he had a knack for broadcasting, and worked at the small KFBC radio station and at the Wyoming Eagle newspaper as a sportswriter.

Curt Gowdy was hired primarily to broadcast Oklahoma college football and Oklahoma State college basketball games.

When Curt Gowdy announced in early 1949 that he was leaving Oklahoma to work in New York, his replacement was fellow Oklahoma City sportscaster Bob Murphy.

Curt Gowdy had a bachelor's degree in Education from Central State College, and was studying for a master's degree in Radio Speech at the University of Oklahoma when they became engaged.

Curt Gowdy did nightly sports reports on WHDH radio when his schedule permitted.

Curt Gowdy was the narrator of several Red Sox highlight films during his tenure in Boston which described the season in depth along with its key moments; this would lead to him eventually narrating World Series highlight films during his time with NBC.

Curt 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.

Curt Gowdy called Tony Conigliaro's home run in his first at-bat at Fenway Park on April 17,1964 at the age of 19.

Curt Gowdy 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 postseason playoffs and World Series in October.

Curt Gowdy had many different partners for basketball, including Tommy Hawkins and Billy Packer.

Curt 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.

Curt Gowdy continued as NBC's lead NFL announcer through the 1978 season, with his final broadcast being Super Bowl XIII between Pittsburgh and Dallas.

Curt Gowdy returned to ABC to call regional college football in 1982 and 1983.

In 1987, Curt Gowdy was the radio voice of the New England Patriots.

Curt Gowdy called swimming with Donna de Varona and basketball with Bill Russell.

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 the third AFL-NFL World Championship game in which Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeated the NFL champion Baltimore Colts.

Curt Gowdy 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.

Curt Gowdy was involved in the broadcast of 13 World Series, 16 baseball All-Star Games, 9 Super Bowls, 14 Rose Bowls, 8 Olympic Games and 24 NCAA Final Fours.

Curt Gowdy hosted the long-running outdoors show The American Sportsman on ABC.

Curt Gowdy called all the Olympic Games televised by ABC from 1964 to 1988 with Roone Arledge's sports department at ABC.

Curt Gowdy was 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.

In 1970, he was coveted by ABC's Arledge for the new Monday Night Football, but Curt Gowdy was bound by his contract to NBC Sports.

Curt Gowdy was said to have a warm, slightly gravelly voice and an unforced, easy style that set him apart from his peers.

Curt Gowdy co-hosted the Drum Corps International Championships on PBS from 1989 to 1993 with Steve Rondinaro.

Curt Gowdy made cameo appearances in the movies The Naked Gun and Summer Catch, and his voice can be heard in Heaven Can Wait and BASEketball.

Curt Gowdy's voice speaking the famous line: "Hi Neighbor, have a 'Gansett" was known to Red Sox fans everywhere.

Curt Gowdy 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.

Curt Gowdy owned several radio stations in Wyoming, including KOWB and KCGY in Laramie.

Curt Gowdy sold his broadcast interests in Massachusetts in 1994 and his Wyoming stations in 2002.

In 1970, Curt Gowdy became the first sportscaster to receive the George Foster Peabody Award.

Curt Gowdy served as the organization's vice president and was a member of its board of directors.

Curt 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.

Curt Gowdy died at the age of 86 at his winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, after an extended battle with leukemia.