Famous Sports Radio Broadcasts – Keep the Thrills Alive
They are the voices in the night, the play-by-play announcers, whose calls have erupted from radio speakers since August 5, 1921, when Harold Arlin called the first baseball game over Pittsburgh’s KDKA. That fall, Arlin made the first college football broadcast. From then on, radio microphones reached stadiums and arenas around the world.
The first three decades of radio sports broadcasting provided many memorable broadcasts.
The 1936 Berlin Olympics were crowned by impressive performances by Jesse Owens, an African-American who won four gold medals even though Adolf Hitler refused to wear them around his neck. The games were broadcast in 28 different languages, the first sporting events to achieve worldwide radio coverage.
Many famous sports radio broadcasts followed.
On the sultry night of June 22, 1938, NBC radio listeners joined 70,043 boxing fans at Yankee Stadium for a heavyweight fight between champion Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling. After just 124 seconds, listeners were stunned to hear NBC commentator Ben Grauer growl “And Schmeling is down… and here’s the score…” as “The Brown Bomber” pulled off a stunning knockout.
In 1939, New York Yankees captain Lou Gehrig gave his famous valedictorian speech at Yankee Stadium. The “iron man” of baseball, who had previously ended his record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, had been diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative disease. That 4th of July broadcast included his famous line, “…today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
The 1947 World Series provided one of the most famous sports radio broadcasts of all time. In game six, with the Brooklyn Dodgers leading the New York Yankees, the Dodgers inserted Al Gionfriddo into center field. With two men on base, Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio, representing the tying run, came to bat. In one of the most memorable calls of all time, announcer Red Barber described what happened next:
“Here’s the pitch. Turned, tight… it’s long to deep left-center. Back goes Gionfriddo… back, back, back, back, back, back… and… MAKES A ONE -! HAND CATCHING AGAINST THE BULLPEN Oh, doctor!
The “Oh doctor!” de Barber became a catchphrase, like many others coined by broadcasters. Some of the most famous sports radio broadcasts are remembered for those phrases. The Cardinals and Cubs express Harry Caray’s phrase “Could be, could be, it’s… a home run” is a classic. So are “He Shoots! He Scores!” from pioneering hockey announcer Foster Hewitt, the voice of Johnny Best’s Boston Bruins “He touches and plays…”, the “Yes!” by Marv Albert.
Some announcers have been so proficient with the language that special phrases were unnecessary. On April 8, 1974, Los Angeles Dodgers voice Vin Scully watched as Atlanta’s Henry Aaron hit home run number 715, a new record. Scully simply said, “Fastball, there’s a high fly to left center field…Buckner’s back at the fence…he’s…gone!”, then got up to get a drink of water as the crowd . and the fireworks thundered.
Broadcasters rarely color their broadcasts with creative catchphrases now and sports videos have become ubiquitous. Still, the voices of radio at night follow the paths paved by memorable sportscasters of the past.