Dick Enberg

Dick Enberg
Born	(1935-01-09) January 9, 1935 Mount Clemens, Michigan
Occupation	Sportscaster
Spouse(s)	Jeri Taylor (1959-1975) Barbara Hedbring (1983-present)

Richard Alan "Dick" Enberg (born January 9, 1935) is an American sportscaster currently employed by the San Diego Padres, CBS, and ESPN. His current duties include play-by-play for Padres telecasts on 4SD and coverage of three Grand Slam professional tennis tournaments for CBS, ESPN and ESPN2. He is well-known for his signature catchphrase ("Oh, my!") that he uses after exciting and outstanding athletic plays.

Biography

Early life and education

Enberg was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Following high school in Armada, Michigan, he played college baseball and earned a bachelor's degree in 1957 at Central Michigan University. Enberg then went on to graduate school at Indiana University, where he earned master's and doctorate degrees in health sciences. While at Indiana, Enberg voiced the first radio broadcast of the Little 500, the bicycle racing event popularized in the film Breaking Away. He was also the play-by-play announcer for Indiana Hoosiers football and basketball games, and in 1961 called his first NCAA basketball tournament event, the championship game between Cincinnati and Ohio State. From 1961 to 1965 he was an assistant professor and baseball coach at Cal State Northridge, then known as "San Fernando Valley State College."

Dick Enberg is also a member of the fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa.

Early career

In the late 1960s, Enberg began a full-time sportscasting career, calling radio broadcasts for the California Angels of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League, and UCLA Bruins basketball. After every Angels victory, he would wrap up his broadcast with, "And the halo shines tonight." This was in reference to the " Big A" scoreboard, and the halo at the top, which would light up for everyone in the area to see, particularly from the stadium-adjacent freeway. Four times Enberg was named California Sportscaster of the Year.

In the 1960s, Enberg announced boxing matches at L.A.'s Olympic Auditorium.

In 1968, Enberg was recommended by UCLA athletic director J. D. Morgan to be the national broadcaster for the syndicated TVS Television Network to cover the "Game of the Century" between the Houston Cougars and the UCLA Bruins. Enberg continued to call the occasional UCLA game for TVS through the early 1970s, usually teaming with Rod Hundley.

In the 1970s, Enberg hosted the syndicated television game show Sports Challenge, and co-produced the Emmy Award-winning sports-history series The Way It Was for PBS.

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"

In the 1970 opening conference game in Pauley Pavilion, Oregon went into a stall against the UCLA Bruins. Enberg had run out of statistics and began to fill his radio broadcast with small talk. The movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had just been released, and Enberg was humming the tune to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head", but did not know the words. Two nights later, at the Oregon State game, many students brought the lyrics to the song. Enberg promised that he would sing the song if UCLA won the conference championship. He sang the song following the final game of the season. The event was recorded in the Los Angeles Times and was later recounted in the book Pauley Pavilion: College Basketball's Showplace by David Smale. During the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship broadcast, there was a short feature on the event.

NBC

In 1973, Enberg hosted the game show Baffle, which lasted just a year before being canceled in 1974. A year later, producer Monty Hall hired Enberg to host the shorter-lived Three for the Money.

In 1975, Enberg joined NBC Sports. For the next 25 years, he broadcast a plethora of sports and events for NBC, including the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the U.S. Open golf championship, college football, college basketball, the Wimbledon and French Open tennis tournaments, heavyweight boxing, Breeders' Cup and other horse racing events, and the Olympic Games.

Enberg replaced Curt Gowdy in the play-by-play role for the NBC telecast of the Rose Bowl Game in 1980. He would be in the booth in Pasadena every year until ABC picked up the broadcast in 1988.

The NFL on NBC

While on The NFL on NBC, Enberg called eight Super Bowls (alongside the likes of Merlin Olsen, Bob Trumpy, Phil Simms and Paul Maguire), the last being Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998. Enberg also anchored NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XIII (that particular game was called by Curt Gowdy) in 1979. He also called three Canadian Football League games in 1982 during the NFL strike.

Major League Baseball on NBC

According to his autobiography, Oh My!, Enberg was informed by NBC that he would become the lead play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball Game of the Week beginning with the 1982 World Series (where he shared the play-by-play duties with Joe Garagiola alongside analyst Tony Kubek) and through subsequent regular seasons. He wrote that on his football trips, he would read every Sporting News to make sure he was current with all the baseball news and notes. Then he met with NBC executives in September 1982, and they informed him that Vin Scully was in negotiations to be their lead baseball play-by-play man (teaming with Joe Garagiola while Tony Kubek would team with Bob Costas) and would begin with the network in the spring of 1983. Therefore, rather than throw him in randomly for one World Series, Enberg wrote that he hosted the pregame/postgame shows while the team of Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek did the games.

According to the book, Enberg wasn't pleased about the decision (since he loved being the California Angels' radio and television voice in the 1970s and was eager to return to baseball) but the fact that NBC was bringing in Scully, arguably baseball's best announcer, was understandable. Enberg added that NBC also gave him a significant pay increase as a pseudo-apology for not coming through on the promise to make him the lead baseball play-by-play man. Enberg would go on to call some cable TV broadcasts for the Angels in 1985, citing a desire to reconnect with the sport.

NBC planned to use Enberg as one of its announcers for The Baseball Network coverage in 1994, but the players' strike that year ended the season before he had the opportunity to call any games.

Wimbledon Championships

As NBC's voice of the Wimbledon tennis championships (alongside Bud Collins and, later, John McEnroe), Enberg regularly concluded the network's coverage of the two-week event with thematically appropriate observations accompanied by a montage of video clips.

CBS

Enberg was hired by CBS Sports in 2000, calling the network's NFL and college basketball action as well as the US Open tennis tournament. For several years he also contributed to CBS' coverage of The Masters and PGA Championship golf.

Another enduring element of Enberg's broadcasting legacy is his ability to provide warm and poignant reflections on the sporting events he covers. Enberg Essays, as they came to be known, were a regular feature of CBS' coverage of college basketball's Final Four. Enberg continues to provide end-of-tournament commentaries on the three grand slam tennis events he covers.

2009 US Open controversy

On September 14, 2009, Juan Martín del Potro upset Roger Federer to win the Men's US Open Championship. Enberg hosted the post-match ceremony during which a victorious Del Potro requested to address his fans in Spanish. Enberg declined the request saying that he was running out of time but went on to list the corporate sponsored prizes Del Potro won. A couple of minutes later, Del Potro made the same request again and only then Enberg relented saying "Very quickly, in Spanish, he wants to say hello to his friends here and in Argentina". An emotional Del Potro finally spoke a few sentences in Spanish to a cheering crowd. Many viewers expressed disappointment with Enberg and broadcaster CBS over the interview. A CBS executive later defended Enberg, noting that the contract with the United States Tennis Association required that certain sponsors receive time during the ceremony.

ESPN

Since 2004, Enberg has served as play-by-play for ESPN2's coverage of Wimbledon, French Open, and Australian Open tennis tournaments. Dick Enberg came to ESPN on lease from CBS, where he already calls the US Open, the one Grand Slam tournament not covered by ESPN until 2009. At the 2004 French Open, Enberg called a match per day and also provided his "Enberg Moments". At Wimbledon in 2004, he participated in a new one-hour morning show called Breakfast at Wimbledon. ESPN asked CBS for permission to use Enberg during the summer of 2004 at both the French Open and Wimbledon. Enberg then surprised his new bosses by volunteering for the 2005 Australian Open in January 2005. "I've never been to Australia," he said. "At my age then [69], to be able to work a full Grand Slam is something I'd like to have at the back of my book."

San Diego Padres

In December 2009, Enberg was hired as a television play-by-play announcer by the San Diego Padres. Enberg is expected to announce 110–120 Padres games a season for channel 4SD under a multi-year contract.

Other appearances

On March 27, 2010, Enberg called his final college basketball game for CBS, an East Regional tournament final featuring the Kentucky Wildcats versus the West Virginia Mountaineers. Due to his Padres duties he no longer covers the French Open for ESPN but continues to cover the Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships for the network as well as the US Open for CBS. Enberg had hoped to continue calling late-season NFL games for CBS, but his name was omitted from the network's announcing roster for 2010.

In 2006 and 2007, Enberg called Thursday night and postseason NFL games for Westwood One radio. Also in 2006, he began narrating a documentary style television series for Fox Sports Net called In Focus on FSN.

In addition to his career in sports broadcasting, Enberg hosted three game shows besides the aforementioned Sports Challenge: The Perfect Match in 1967, Baffle on NBC from 1973 through 1974, and Three for the Money on NBC in 1975. He also lent his voice to the animated CBS cartoon series Where's Huddles? (1970), the film Rollerball (1975), and the American-dubbed version of the animated UK Christmas special Hooves of Fire (2002); made appearances in the films Two-Minute Warning (1976), Gus (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Naked Gun (1988), and Mr. 3000 (2004); and appeared as himself in episodes of such television programs as The King of Queens and CSI: NY. In addition, Enberg was seen in a series of commercials for GTE during the 1980s and early 1990s, and was the voice of the announcer in the classic Talking FootBall game from Mattel.

Career timeline

• 1957–1961: Indiana Hoosiers football play-by-play
• 1957–1961: Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball play-by-play
• 1961–65: assistant professor and baseball coach at California State University, Northridge
• 1966–1977: UCLA Bruins men's basketball play-by-play
• 1966–1977: Los Angeles Rams radio play-by-play
• 1967–1968: The Perfect Match host
• 1969–1978, 1985: California Angels radio & TV play-by-play
• 1971–79 Sports Challenge host
• 1973–74: Baffle host
• 1975: Three for the Money host
• 1975–1981: NCAA Basketball on NBC play-by-play
• 1977–1998: NFL on NBC play-by-play
• 1977–1982: MLB on NBC play-by-play
• 1979, 1981–1999: Wimbledon play-by-play (NBC)
• 1980–88: Rose Bowl play-by-play (NBC)
• 1983–89: MLB on NBC studio host
• 1988: 1988 Summer Olympics Gymnastics play-by-play (NBC)
• 1990–99: NBA on NBC play-by-play
• 1992: 1992 Summer Olympics host (NBC)
• 1995–99: PGA Tour on NBC host
• 1996: 1996 Summer Olympics contributor (NBC)
• 1998–99: Notre Dame Football on NBC play-by-play
• 2000–2010: NFL on CBS Play-by-Play (2000–2005 #2) (2006–2010 #3)
• 2000–2010: NCAA Basketball on CBS play-by-play
• 2000–present: US Open (tennis) play-by-play (CBS)
• 2000–2006: The Masters contributor (CBS)
• 2000–2006: PGA Championship contributor (CBS)
• 2004–present: Wimbledon and Australian Open play-by-play (ESPN2)
• 2004–2009: French Open play-by-play (ESPN2)
• 2006–2007: Westwood One Thursday Night Football play-by-play
• 2006–present: In Focus on FSN narrator
• 2010–present: San Diego Padres TV play-by-play

Honors

Enberg has garnered many awards and honors over the years, including 13 Emmy Awards (as well as a Lifetime Achievement Emmy), nine National Sportscaster of the Year awards from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (and induction into that organization's Hall of Fame), the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Award, the NBA's Curt Gowdy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Enberg is the only sportscaster thus far to win Emmys in three categories (broadcasting, writing, and producing), and in 1973 became the first U.S. sportscaster to visit the People's Republic of China.

Enberg was inducted into Central Michigan University's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. (source: cmuchippewas.com) The university named an academic center for him in 2007.

Enberg was raised in Armada, Michigan and was responsible for the naming of the Armada High School yearbook, the Regit (Tiger spelled backwards), a name it has to this day. A hallway in the Macomb Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is run by Armada school district and shares the building with its administration office, was named after him.

Indiana University awarded Enberg an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2002. He would be inducted into the Indiana University Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2006.

Enberg also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Marquette University in 2009, and also gave the commencement address as the university's May 2009 commencement ceremony.

In 1997, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) honored Enberg with an award in recognition of his longtime support of the organization's Academic All-America program. The Dick Enberg Award is given annually to a person whose actions and commitment have furthered the meaning and reach of the Academic All-America Teams Program and/or the student-athlete while promoting the values of education and academics. Enberg continues to be an avid supporter of the program, often lending his voice to video presentations related to CoSIDA's annual Academic All-America Hall of Fame ceremony.

Personal

Dick Enberg's surname is of Swedish origin. While starting out at KTLA-TV, Enberg was pressured into changing his name professionally to "Dick Breen" out of fear that "Enberg" would be seen as too ethnic sounding (i.e. Jewish).

During an ESPN television broadcast from the Wimbledon tennis championships on June 24, 2010, Enberg said his father was born in Finland, and changed his name from the Finnish "Katajavuori" to the Swedish equivalent Enberg on arrival in the US as he felt it would be a more simple name. The surname means "juniper mountain". Dick Enberg said it pleased him that Jarkko Nieminen was doing so well as Finland is close to his heart and it is a small nation with little tennis facilities. The story of his surname is also detailed in his autobiography, Oh My!.

Enberg is the father of actor Alexander Enberg and musician Andrew Enberg by former wife Jeri Taylor. He is currently married to Barbara Hedbring and they have one son, Ted Enberg, and two daughters, Nicole and Emily.

Enberg penned a one-man theatrical play titled (Al) McGuire after his former television broadcast partner and late friend. It debuted at Marquette University's Helfaer Theater in 2005. It drew positive reviews as an accurate portrayal of the eccentric coach. At the 2007 NCAA Final Four in Atlanta, Enberg presented three performances of McGuire at the Alliance Theater. Those attending the April 1 matinée included Hall of Famers coach Dean Smith (whom McGuire defeated in the 1977 NCAA Championship in Atlanta) and former UCLA All-American center Bill Walton. The play was then performed at Hofstra University, near Al's old neighborhood on Long Island in New York. It has since been booked in San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and Portland, Maine. Actor Cotter Smith portrays McGuire in the one-man show.

Bibliography

• Einhorn, Eddie (2006). How March Became Madness: How the NCAA Tournament Became the Greatest Sporting Event in America. Chicago, Illinois: Triumph Books. ISBN 1-57243-809-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |origmonth=, |month=, |chapterurl=, and |origdate= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Enberg, Dick (2004). Oh My!. Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing L.L.C. ISBN 1-58261-824-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |editon=, |origmonth=, |month=, |chapterurl=, and |origdate= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Smale, David (1989). Pauley Pavilion: College Basketball's Showplace. Manhattan, Kansas: Sports Memories Publishing / Jostens Publishing Company. LCC GV885.43.C34 S63 1989. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |origmonth=, |month=, |chapterurl=, |origdate=, and |coauthors= (help)

External links

• CBS Biography: Dick Enberg
• Academic center named for Enberg

{{succession box| title=NFL on NBC lead play-by-play| before=Curt Gowdy| years=1979-1997| after=Al Michaels (in 2006)}