2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Steve Gorsuch, Tech Master and Mentor By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, December 5, 2024 - 11:26 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Steve Gorsuch, who spent decades at CBS Sports in a variety of roles and 15 years as head of broadcasting for the US Open tennis tournament, built his career on learning new skills and constantly challenging himself.
After all, he began his career as a camera operator and captured such epic shots as Secretariat's 31-length victory at the Belmont Stakes in 1973 and The Catch in 1982, when San Francisco 49er quarterback Joe Montana scrambled and threw a pass to tight end Dwight Clark, who snagged the pass in the end zone and leapt into football lore. Almost everyone else might have said, Being a cameraman is who I am and stopped there. But Gorsuch did not.
Instead, in a career spanning more than 40 years, Gorsuch, who died in March at the age of 74, redefined both tennis and golf operations, oversaw the transition from SD to HD, dabbled in 3D, and was known for having a great understanding not only of how technology works but of people as well.
Steve was instrumental to our success across a variety of sports and was the cornerstone to our golf operations on CBS Sports, says Patty Power, EVP, operations and engineering, CBS Sports. His contributions are immeasurable, and his impact will live on for years to come. Steve was a friend to all and mentor to so many across our industry.
CBS Sports President/CEO David Berson describes Gorsuch as a true legend in the business. Many of the people leading innovation at companies and leagues throughout our industry learned from Steve. Mentoring new and aspiring people in our business was a priority of Steve's and a genuine hallmark of his lasting impact.
Starting Out In the summer between his junior and senior years at American University in Washington, DC, Gorsuch was walking down a hallway in Monmouth Park Racetrack and saw a sign that said TV Control Room. At the time, he was studying TV production at school.
I walked in, Gorsuch once recalled, and the head guy in the control room said, What do you do?' And I said, I'd like to do camera.' He said, OK, great, you start on Monday.' That was basically the interview.
Gorsuch operated camera at Monmouth Park for the rest of that summer. Although his interests tended more toward sports video and photography, he secured an internship with NBC News in Washington, DC, during his senior year. After graduating, he continued to do racetrack camerawork for two more years, adding Aqueduct, Saratoga, Belmont, Yonkers, Roosevelt, Liberty Bell, Atlantic City Racecourse, and Freehold to his r sum .
While working at Belmont and Saratoga, Gorsuch became acquainted with the CBS Sports team covering the races. Two years after graduating from college, he went to work for the company packaging CBS Sports Spectacular, Marvin Sugarman Productions. In 1975, while covering a race at Yonkers, he heard that CBS Sports was hiring. Once again, Gorsuch decided to walk into the place where he wanted to work and see what would happen.
I heard that the next day was the last day they were hiring, he said, so I went down to CBS, walked in the door, went up to be interviewed, and they hired me on the spot. Luckily, a lot of the production people were CBS Sports people I had worked with on CBS Sports Spectacular, so they already knew me [even though] I wasn't a CBS Sports guy.
It didn't take long for Gorsuch to become a CBS Sports guy. From 1975 to '82, he served as a camera operator, covering various events including the U.S. Open and the Super Bowl. Gorsuch's last year in this capacity coincided with John Madden's first as a Super Bowl commentator - Super Bowl XVI at the Pontiac Silver Dome - for which Madden stressed the need for camera assignments when televising football.
[Madden] took the whole camera crew and said, Listen, guys. We're going to do assignments,' remembered Gorsuch. Instead of having each camera operator follow a wide receiver in motion, who may do nothing, Madden encouraged the entire crew to recognize the plays and to break away in the middle to focus on the action.
Somewhere during the first quarter, I think, everybody on the camera crew realized this really works, said Gorsuch. We [would get] a million angles without having a million tape machines.
Former CBS Sports Co-ordinating Producer Lance Barrow says he first worked with Gorsuch while Barrow was a spotter for Pat Summerall. At the time, Gorsuch handled the camera in the booth, but it was on the golf events where their relationship blossomed.
In golf, Barrow notes, you're dealing every week with different organizations, different groups, and different people running the tournament. Steve made everybody feel comfortable and made everybody feel like they were as important as anyone in the room. And he had experience at so many positions and knew what it was like to be in different kinds of positions. I think that's what made him so good, along with being a great person.
In 1982, Gorsuch retired his camera in favor of a new career as a technical director. After spending two years with WCBS New York and a year with CBS Evening News, he returned to CBS Sports as a sports technical director. Soon, he was named CBS Sports' first hyphenate, a position created by CBS fusing the technical director and manager roles.
No one has affected technical operations and engineering for the two sports of golf and tennis like Steve Gorsuch, says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Ken Aagaard, former EVP, operations and production services, CBS Sports, who worked closely with Gorsuch at CBS Sports and the US Open. His legacy in how these sports are covered is e
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
2024 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Steve Gorsuch, Tech Master and Mentor By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
