Oh my

[Halldan1]

RIP


Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg dies at age 82
By Joseph Staszewski

December 22, 2017

Legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg died Thursday night, his wife told the San Diego Union Tribune. He was 82.

Enberg, who worked for NBC, CBS and ESPN, had a broadcast career that spanned 60 years, covering 10 Super Bowls, 28 Wimbledons and eight NCAA Tournament title games. He was well known for his signature catchphrases such as “Touch ’em all” and “Oh my!”

Enberg’s wife Barbara told the paper the family believes it was a heart attack, because Enberg never made it to the San Diego airport. He was scheduled to catch a flight to Boston, where his wife was supposed to meet him.

“He was dressed with his bags packed at the door,” she told the Union Tribune.

Enberg, who stepped away from broadcasting in 2016, was behind the mic for the college basketball “Game of the Century” between UCLA and Houston in 1968 and the 1979 NCAA title game featuring Magic Johnson against Larry Bird and the 1987 AFC championship game, which is known for “The Fumble” by Browns running back Earnest Byner.

“He’s just a marvelous announcer,” famed Dodgers announcer Vin Scully told the LA Times in September 2016 while Enberg was ending his second stint as the Padres’ television voice. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for his abilities.

“With Dick, his brilliance spread over a number of sports. It didn’t make any difference whether he was doing the French Open or the Super Bowl. Whatever he did, I just thought he was outstanding.”

Enberg was awarded a host of honors during his illustrious career, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award (2015), the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Rozelle Award (1999) and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Gowdy Award (1995). He won 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy.

He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and UCLA named its media center in Pauley Pavilion after Enberg this year.

Enberg, who was born in Mount Clemens, Mich., was married twice and had six children.

 

[Section112]

A terriic announcer and seemed like a really good guy too. May he RIP.

 

[Stevie_H]

He was a goodie. RIP Dick.

 

[Piratz]

A legend. RIP, Dick Enberg.

 

[HALL85]

A real professional...RIP

 

[Halldan1]

 

[SPK145]

Ah shoot, him and Al McGuire were great together on college basketball.

 

[Halldan1]

 

[batts]

Miss his broadcasts of the NFL games in the late 80s to the mid-90s. I loved when he got excited about a play.

 

[Halldan1]

 

[Halldan1]

 

[hallwins]

Ah shoot, him and Al McGuire were great together on college basketball.

Those two really helped make college hoops my favorite sport!!

 

[shu09]

His call of Illinois' comeback against Arizona in the 2005 regional finals is something I'll always remember. Incredible game.

 

[IHM Pirate]

Al McGuire, Dick Enberg and Billy Packer the Best announce team in the History of Sports.

 

[Pirate Russ]

I primarily associated Enberg with the NFL. I really liked him. Although 2 of my favorites were Don Criqui and Charlie Jones. Someone played a clip of win against Louisville in 2008 and Criqui was on the call. It just brought back memories of him calling playoff games....esp the Dolphins Chargers game in 1983.

 

[Hall91]

One of the best ever. RIP Mr. Enberg.

 

[HallLine69]

A legendary broadcaster for sure. God rest his soul.

 

[Halldan1]

Dick Enberg's death leaves a void in our hearts

BOB RAISSMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, December 23, 2017, 12:29 PM

This was back in the 1980’s inside a Third Avenue eatery, Charlie Jones, one of NBC Sports' top NFL voices, was talking about Dick Enberg, who was THE voice of pro football for the Peacock working with Merlin Olsen.

Jones’ tone projected both admiration and professional envy. In those days there were many solid sports voices who came through radio into television. They were artists, painting the word picture. Even when they went to television where the director called the shots, filling the screen with pictures, the play-by-play man did not put down the brush.

Jones asked his companion why he thought Enberg, who like Jones lived in La Jolla, California, was No. 1. Jones, the Silver Fox, who died in 2008, launched thousands of football dreams with his calls during the days of the old American Football League, had to know the answer he was about to receive.

“Because Enberg is Enberg,” the companion said.

Jones swigged hard on his drink. He heard what he knew he would hear. We thought of that scene early Friday morning when a voice on the radio told us Dick Enberg, 82, was dead, likely of a heart attack. He was going to fly to Boston on Thursday to see his new grandson. That thought created a new image.
Enberg holding the baby in his arms, looking into his eyes and simply saying, “Oh, my!”

It would have been another case of Enberg being Enberg, an immaculately dressed man with a perennial tan and a smile on his face. His full baritone voice mixed with a Midwestern accent made for some sweet music. Enberg had a big game voice. No matter the combatants, the game seemed bigger than it really was only because Enberg was at the microphone.

Those were physical attributes, the outside of the package. The soul, the inside, was filled with an ability to tell stories, clearly describe the action that was unfolding in front of him with proper rhythm, and build the drama that hopefully was going to be produced by the game he was calling. Perhaps Enberg’s greatest attribute was making the people working with him better.

And he worked with a lot of them including Olsen, John McEnroe, Bud Collins, Don Drysdale, Johnny Miller and more. Yet his greatest accomplishment was serving as the glue between Billy Packer and Al McGuire on NBC’s NCAA basketball coverage from 1978-81. This was simply the greatest three-man booth in the history of sports television.

Enberg was in deep. Although he had an extensive college hoops background (he called the famous UCLA-Houston Astrodome battle between Lew Alcindor, who would later become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elvin Hayes), Packer thought he invented basketball and was the quintessential know-it-all from Tobacco Road.

McGuire, who coached Marquette to an NCAA title, had his own language. It was bathed in a New York accent. He was all about the streets of the city, a funny guy but as stubborn as Packer. This led to verbal on-air battles, mediated by Enberg, that often ended with McGuire dishing a non-sequitur.

“Our reportage wasn’t soft violin music,” Enberg once said.

More like a loud staccato sound. Somehow Enberg managed to conduct this symphony in hoops just like he managed to deal with transitions. During his career, Enberg worked for NBC, CBS and ESPN. In the profession he had chosen there is much back-stabbing delivered by colleagues with massive egos. On the surface, Enberg controlled his. Yet there were times when he was tested, like in 2000 when he left NBC Sports, where he was the signature voice for 25 years, to move to CBS where he would be able to again call NFL games.

But CBS downgraded Enberg to the No. 2 team working with Dan Dierdorf. Greg Gumbel and Phil Simms would continue to as the No. 1 team. Enberg checked his ego at the door, realizing doing anything else would only hurt him.

“What you’re really talking about is measuring the size of an announcer’s ego,” Enberg said at the time. “If it’s so important for you to be in that No. 1 position that you can’t stand anything else — because you need that image — well, that can be disastrous.”

So, it wasn’t all ego that made him run, taking a job as the Padres play-by-play voice when he was 75. The money was good but his love and enthusiasm had not diminished. Only getting behind the microphone could satisfy his being, even in his 70s.

“My dream is to die in the booth,” Enberg said during his Padres stint. “I’d like to keep going until my head hits the table and I say, ‘The Padres win the World Series.’”

Maybe the voices from Enberg’s generation had a similar dream about how it all would end. Then again maybe there was no time. They all kept on running, running hard from basketball courts, to baseball diamonds, to football fields, to hockey arenas. Some were more about style, others were more about emotion.

The rare ones like Enberg were about the beauty of it all.

“I loved acknowledging the subtle arrogance of Hall of Famer Rod Carew’s drag bunt. The sleight hand of Brooks Robinson magically reducing a double into 5-3 putouts,” Enberg said at his own HOF induction ceremony. “The towering arc of a Ted Williams monster shot deposited in the bleachers high. The classic confrontation of the best hitter against the best pitcher and the immaculately executed bullet of a double play.”

The words were spoken gently with feeling, the kind of style Enberg often used during games or on his essays. No screaming, no searching for the next catch phrase that will be immediately posted on Twitter. The death of Enberg marks the passing of another play-by-play poet, ultimately replaced by just another shrill shill looking to put the focus on himself.

Oh, my! Indeed.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/dick-enberg-death-leaves-void-hearts-article-1.3717442