Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Bob Costas, Sports' Poetic Voice and Conscience

Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Bob Costas, Sports' Poetic Voice and Conscience By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Friday, December 7, 2018 - 8:00 am

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It's a scene that, today, brims with prophetic romance but, in retrospect, may have been a little peculiar at the time.

It's the early 1960s on Long Island, and there, sitting alone in his family's suburban driveway, is a little boy. No more than 10 years old, the boy has snuck the keys to his father's car. It's a hot, clear summer's night: the perfect kind of night for a young Bob Costas.

Sure, a television gleamed in the living room of the house, but young, baseball-obsessed Bob was in love with the radio, and, on a night like this, the big 50,000-W radio stations of the day streaked across American skies and landed in his father's dashboard like commercial jets touching down at Idlewild Airport.

The baritone voice of Bob Prince poured in from KDKA Pittsburgh, Ernie Harwell streamed in on the waves of WJR Detroit, and, on the best of nights, between the static, there was Jack Buck and Harry Caray all the way from KMOX Saint Louis.

The games, says Costas, were inseparable from the voices that brought the games to me.

Mickey Mantle may have been his hero on the field, but it was the likes of Mel Allen, Red Barber, and Marty Glickman who would be his influences. At even that young age, Costas had his eyes set on a dream, one that would ultimately see him become one of the most impactful broadcasters of the modern television era.

Costas, a 28-time Emmy Award winner, has been the face of many of the largest sports events that U.S. television has ever produced, while mastering his craft in a variety of roles. Whether it was the play-by-play call of the World Series or the NBA Finals or sitting behind the desk to welcome viewers to familiar gridirons across America for a big night in the NFL or to foreign cities across the globe for the Olympic Games, he was the benchmark of sportscasting.

We came up at around the same time, and I admired him from afar, says Jim Nantz, veteran CBS broadcaster and fellow 2018 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee. I marveled at his composure and his sophistication on the air. [In the beginning], it was well beyond his years. That admiration has never wavered. Bob's career has been absolutely remarkable. It is rich with so many great broadcasts and legendary experiences. He has been a tremendous part of the history of this business.

Graduating from Syracuse in 1974, Costas quickly landed on the scene in what would become his adopted hometown, St. Louis, calling games for the Spirits of St. Louis of the old ABA on the same KMOX that he could catch on those clear nights on Long Island. He even got the chance to learn from and work with one of his childhood idols, Jack Buck. Soon came regional swings of NBA and NFL broadcasts for CBS before getting his big break when he was hired by NBC Sports.

With that break, however, came a dose of adversity. At just 28 years old, there was no denying that Costas was young for the national scene. NBC Sports was putting up a fresh face as one of its top anchors, and his new boss, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Don Ohlmeyer, let the kid know he thought he looked like a 14-year-old.

I didn't, by appearance, fit the mold of national sportscasters people were used to seeing at that time, Costas recalls. I thought that I would have a credibility problem just because of my actual youth and my even younger appearance. I think, almost unconsciously, I tried to sound more serious, more authoritative, more buttoned-up and completely prepared and completely professional than was necessary. Of course you want to be prepared. Of course you want to be professional. But part of what makes a good broadcaster is spontaneity and, if you have it, a sense of humor.

Costas found that sense of humor in himself in perhaps the unlikeliest of places: late-night television. David Letterman, who was also at NBC at the time, began to have Costas on for comedy bits, making the broadcaster announce all kinds of wacky events - such as elevator races in 30 Rockefeller Plaza - in his serious, grandiose style. Costas credits those appearances - in addition to stops at shows hosted by Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and even Johnny Carson - with helping break him in.

When [those] went over well and I was well-accepted, more and more of that began to make its way into the broadcasts themselves ,which I think humanizes you, says Costas. It gives the broadcast texture. Yeah, you want to have all the facts. Yeah, you want to have it all buttoned-up and make sure you know what you're doing. But, at the same time, if you can fill a little bit of your actual personality and there's a little bit of human there, that makes it all the better.

The baby face quickly turned into boyish charm as U.S. viewers fell for the intelligent, well-spoken young man who would become one of the most respected minds and voices in the history of sports media. Through his storied career, Costas was part of many of sports television's biggest blockbusters.

That is especially so with the property he is most commonly associated with: the Olympic Games. Costas served as NBC's primetime host for a U.S. television-record 11 Olympics (1992-2016), when the Games were at the peak of their television glory. The 2012 London Games were the most-watched multi-day television event in U.S. history, reaching a staggering 217 million viewers.

From 2006 to '16, he also hosted the wildly successful Football Night in America. NBC Sports'

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/12/07/sports-broadcasting-hall-of-fam...
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