50 Facts About Keith Jackson

Keith Max Jackson was an American sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality, known for his career with ABC Sports.

Keith Jackson was the only surviving child in a poor family and grew up listening to sports on the radio.

Keith Jackson began as a political science major, but he became interested in broadcasting.

Keith Jackson graduated in 1954 with a degree in speech communications.

Keith Jackson served as the pregame, halftime, and postgame anchor for ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII in 1988.

Keith Jackson began his career as a broadcaster in 1952, when he called a game between Stanford and Washington State on the Tidewater Associated Oil Co.

Keith Jackson then worked for KOMO radio in Seattle, and later for KOMO-TV from 1954 to 1964 as co-anchor for their first news team covering Seafair hydroplane races, minor league Seattle Rainiers baseball games, and University of Washington football games.

In 1958, Keith Jackson became the first American sports announcer to broadcast an event from the Soviet Union, a crew race between the Washington Huskies and a Soviet team.

Keith Jackson became a radio news correspondent for ABC News Radio and sports director of ABC Radio West in 1964 before joining ABC Sports in 1966.

Keith Jackson helped Walter Cronkite cover the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

Keith Jackson found out that he had been taken off the Monday Night package from 38 messages, not from Roone Arledge himself.

Keith Jackson was the lead play-by-play announcer for the United States Football League broadcasts on ABC from 1983 to 1985.

Keith Jackson was paired with Lynn Swann and Tim Brant.

Keith Jackson called all three championship games in the league's short history.

Keith Jackson was involved in the ABC coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympics and continued to contribute even when an attack by Palestinian terrorists transformed the coverage from that of a typical sporting event to a greater international and historical news event.

Keith Jackson covered swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics and track and field at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Keith Jackson covered speed-skating during the 1980 Winter Olympics featuring Eric Heiden.

Keith Jackson was offered the position of play-by-play for hockey, but turned it down.

Keith Jackson called speed skating and ski jumping at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Keith Jackson was the weekend afternoon host for ABC's final Olympics in 1988 from Calgary.

Keith Jackson was ABC's lead basketball play-by-play announcer with legendary NBA player Bill Russell for two years until ABC lost the NBA broadcasting rights to CBS following the conclusion of the 1973 Finals.

Keith Jackson was a regular part of ABC's popular Wide World of Sports, covering both popular sports and obscure events like wrist wrestling.

For WWOS he covered Evel Knievel's successful jump at Exhibition Stadium, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 20,1974; He handled WWOS' first coverage of boxer Sugar Ray Leonard at the North American Continental Boxing Championships on July 26,1975, who Keith Jackson called a young boxer to watch.

Keith Jackson teamed with Jackie Stewart and Chris Economaki in coverage of auto racing; among the notable events covered by Jackson was the 1974 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the 1975 Indianapolis 500.

In baseball, Keith Jackson called the famous 16-inning sixth game of the 1986 National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and Houston Astros.

Keith Jackson called various Monday Night Baseball and other regular-season games for ABC throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1978, Keith Jackson called another Oklahoma-Texas football game for ABC on the afternoon October 7, then flew to New York, arriving just in time to call Game 4 of the 1978 American League Championship Series that same night.

On October 11,1980, Keith Jackson called an Oklahoma-Texas football game for ABC in the afternoon, then flew to Houston to call Game 4 of the 1980 National League Championship Series.

Keith Jackson genuinely enjoyed the sport and the purity of it.

Keith Jackson began announcing college football when television play-by-play announcers did not always have regular analysts.

Keith Jackson was joined in the booth by Joe Paterno for the 1974 Michigan-Ohio State game in Columbus, while Woody Hayes accompanied him for the 1974 Notre Dame-USC game.

Keith Jackson called 16 Sugar Bowls and 15 Rose Bowls during his time at ABC.

Keith Jackson is credited with coining the nickname for Michigan Stadium, The Big House.

Keith Jackson had a 3-month "retirement" until new ABC Sports President Dennis Swanson personally offered him a 3-year contract, which he accepted.

In 2006, Keith Jackson introduced the Nebraska Cornhuskers' "Tunnel Walk" video on the stadium "HuskerVision" screens.

On September 26,2009, for the 300th consecutive sellout of Memorial Stadium, Keith Jackson again provided a video tribute to the fans of Nebraska.

Keith Jackson would call the 1972 USC Trojans football team the greatest team he ever saw.

Keith Jackson, who was in his first year in ABC football broadcasting narrating the taped highlights of the 1967 USC vs UCLA football game, declared it many years later to be the greatest game he has ever seen.

Keith Jackson failed to see or comment on Hayes' actions, which had been captured from a different vantage point on camera.

Keith Jackson rescinded his decision the following fall and began to do a more limited schedule of games, teamed with Dan Fouts, Tim Brant, and later Fouts again, almost exclusively sticking to venues on the West Coast, closer to his home in California.

Keith Jackson strongly hinted that he was interested in retiring for good after the 2005 season, telling The New York Times that he was feeling his age after 53 seasons and had become upset at the increased number of mistakes in his play calling in the last few years.

ABC tried convincing Keith Jackson to stay, but his decision was firm.

The Edward R Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University awarded their alumnus with the Murrow Award for top leaders in the communication industry in 1999; Jackson was a charter member of the WSU Foundation, founded in 1979, provided scholarship money to the Murrow School and chaired the fund-raising drive for the school's alumni center.

In 1994, Keith Jackson was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame.

Keith Jackson had a minor career as an actor, often either playing himself, as on an episode of Coach; or a sportscaster like himself, as in The Fortune Cookie, appearing in the first speaking role of the film "Football Announcer" as a CBS play-by-play man, a network for whom he never worked.

Keith Jackson has appeared in and narrated several sports documentaries.

Keith Jackson has appeared in numerous commercials, especially in the latter stages of his career.

Keith Jackson appeared in "The Legend of Gatorade" ads, which he humorously alluded to during his live coverage of the 2006 Rose Bowl.

Keith Jackson was portrayed by actor Shuler Hensley in the 2002 made-for-cable film Monday Night Mayhem, which aired on TNT.

Keith Jackson died on January 12,2018, at the age of 89.