2026 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Dick Stockton, a Play-by-Play Announcer With a Journalistic Bent

Dick Stockton's broadcasting career was marked by longevity, versatility, and an unmistakable voice familiar to anyone who heard his calls. Over a half century of play-by-play announcing, he worked 27 years at FOX Sports, 16 years at CBS Sports, and 19 overlapping years with Turner Sports.

As of late 2026, Stockton called the second-most pro games than anyone in history: 1,545 network events, and that does not include NCAA basketball-tournament matchups, countless other college games, and two Olympics. He was at the microphone for 714 NFL games, second most behind fellow Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Pat Summerall.

Stockton's r sum also includes the 1983 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki and the 1982 World Swimming and Diving Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He is most known for his calls of the NFL, Major League Baseball, and the NBA.

In his nine-year stint as CBS's lead play-by-play announcer during the 1980s, he was at the center of perhaps the most glorious era of professional basketball. Though preceding the domination of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls, the period was marked by Julius Erving's long-awaited title with the Philadelphia 76ers, the legendary Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers Finals rivalry featuring the individual greatness of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the emergence of Jordan and his personal-record 63-point game, and the back-to-back titles of the renowned Bad Boys, the Detroit Pistons.

Stockton initially dreamed of a career as a sportswriter. Growing up in Queens, NY, he lived in an area rich in professional teams, and he took advantage of it.

His father, Joe, an avid and knowledgeable sports fan, took him to many games at the Polo Grounds, the home of the MLB's New York Giants before their move to San Francisco in 1958. He was taught the game by his father, including the inner workings of the sport. He witnessed Willie Mays's iconic back-to-the-plate catch of Vic Wertz's long drive to centerfield in the first game of the 1954 World Series between the Giants and Cleveland Indians, as well as the 1958 sudden-death NFL Championship between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Football Giants.

But his love of sports extended far beyond simply going to the ballpark. His dad brought home several New York newspapers every night, and the two would compare how the beat writers covered the same Giants game from the previous day.

Broadcasting was furthest from his mind. Stockton attended Syracuse University for its renowned journalism program. The famed Newhouse School of Communications was not completed until after Stockton graduated, but he auditioned for the campus radio station, WAER-FM, and began the shift from print to on-air work.

He started his professional on-air career as an all-night newscaster at KYW radio in Philadelphia and did a stint as the weekend sports reporter on KYW-TV's newscasts. He was sports director at KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, working the sports segments on the 6, 7, and 11 p.m. newscasts, and subsequently performed the same duties at WBZ-TV Boston.

His nightly reports were marked by commentaries featuring essays, many of a critical nature, that were unique in the markets. But Stockton, who grew up adoring the world of sports, grew tired of the negative nature of many of his commentaries and decided his career should shift to play-by-play announcing and reporting.

He performed play-by-play duties announcing preseason football for the Steelers and Patriots and also worked with Celtic great Bob Cousy on local Celtics broadcasts.

Stockton first experienced network life when CBS Sports hired him to work several NFL pre/postgame onsite shows. This was prior to the advent of the NFL Today program, which set the standard for pre/postgame and halftime shows.

But the first of many gold-standard play-by-play opportunities arose when he was hired to call 100 Boston Red Sox games a season on WSBK-TV Boston. Following his maiden season in 1975, he was selected by NBC Sports to join the network team of Curt Gowdy, Joe Garagiola, and Tony Kubek, along with Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennaman, for 1975 World Series coverage. It was in that Series that Stockton, then 32, was behind the mike for the most memorable moment of his long career.

It was Game 6, the Reds leading the Series 3-2, a wild contest that extended to extra innings. The score was tied 6-6 into the bottom of the 12th inning. Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, the leadoff hitter, took the first pitch for a ball. Then came a swing, and a line drive down the left-field line headed for the famed 37-ft. Green Monster. Stockton quickly made his call: There's a long drive if it stays fair home run. It was that quick. No rhapsodic call of a towering fly ball. No time for that.

And that was all that was needed. The pictures and sounds told the story and then some. The fans were swarming the field; the organist, John Kiley, was playing the Hallelujah chorus; and Fisk ran around the bases determined to get to home plate, where he was mobbed by his teammates. Stockton stayed silent for nearly 45 seconds.

That became his signature call. Before the game, he was told he would do the first half of the game so that Garagiola, who was NBC's play-by-play man that night, would be on the mike if the Reds won to clinch the Series. Then came the 10th, and the NBC execs decided to continue the rotation: Stockton would do the 10th, Garagiola the 11th, and so forth.

It was the ultimate being in the right place at the right time.

Stockton shifted from local baseball back to the network and back to CBS, where he handled NFL, NBA, and college-basketball duties. And then he became host of CBS Sports Spectacular, the Eye Network's version of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

The assignment had him traveling the world for the so-called less

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/11/05/2026-sports-broadcasting-hall-o...
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