George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he also announced major golf and tennis events. In total, he announced 16 Super Bowls on network television (more than any other announcer), 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens.[1] He also contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst.
Summerall played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and then in the National Football League (NFL) from 1952 through 1961. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions and played with Bobby Layne. The best playing time in his career was with the New York Giants as a kicker. After retiring as a player, he joined CBS as a color commentator the next year. He worked with Tom Brookshier and then John Madden on NFL telecasts[2] for CBS and Fox. Although retired since 2002, he continued to announce games on occasion, especially those near his Texas home.
In 1970, Summerall and then-Boston Bruins' TV announcer Don Earle did a short postgame 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, the Bruins' TV flagship at the time, simulcast the CBS coverage and did a longer post-game locker-room segment after CBS' coverage ended. After Bobby Orr scored the championship-winning goal after just 40 seconds, so the story went, Summerall turned to Bobby's father, Doug Orr (who was reportedly, too nervous to go back to his seat from the Bruins' dressing room for the start of overtime) 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!"
| NHL on CBS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Related programs | CBS Sports Spectacular - NHL on RKO General - Olympics on CBS - WHA on CBS | ||||||
| Related articles | History of the NHL on US TV )1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s - Stanley Cup Finals television ratings) | ||||||
| Commentators | All-Star Game - Stanley Cup playoffs (Original Six era) - Stanley Cup Finals - American television | ||||||
| Current figures |
| ||||||
| Stanley Cup Finals | 1967 (Games 2, 5) - 1968 (Games 1, 4) - 1969 (Games 1, 4) - 1970 (Games 1, 4) - 1971 - (Games 3, 6, 7) - 1972 (Games 1, 4, 6) - 1980 (Game 6) | ||||||
| All-Star Game | 1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1979 (Challenge Cup) (Game 2, third period only) | ||||||
| Lore | 1967 NHL expansion - Super Series '76 (Soviet Wings/Buffalo Sabres)
| ||||||
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedusatoday_obit - ↑ Firsts and lasts from the NFL TV career of Pat Summerall (October 21, 2013). Retrieved on November 21, 2013.