J-Speaks: The Passing of The Voice of Sports

There was a time when many sports play-by-play commentators broadcasts every sport across the spectrum. One of those announcers was a proud man from Georgia, who would go on to become the voice of college football. He made history calling the first game of what has become a pro sports institution. He had many catch phrases, and nicknames for a football stadium, a football offensive unit, and a famed college bowl game that has become a part of the sports vocabulary today. On Friday, the sports, and broadcast world said goodbye to this iconic voice, and what many of those in this great field call him a true gentleman. 

Keith Jackson, who is regarded as the voice of college football passed away late Friday night. He was 89 years old, and is survived by his wife, the former Turi Ann Johnsen, their three children Melanie Ann, Lindsey, and Christopher, and three grandchildren. 

Jackson, a long-time California resident of California, who resided in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, CA spent nearly half a century calling sporting events in a folksy, down-to-earth tone that made him one of the most popular play-by-play commentators in the business. 

He used that unique tone particularly during his four-decade run with the American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC’s) “Wide World of Sports” to come up with some of the greatest sayings that are used by many commentators today. 

His phrases also described two iconic football stadiums for the Michigan Wolverines, which is called “The Big House,” and “The Granddaddy of Them All,” which Jackson called to describe The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, which inducted Jackson into their Hall of Fame in 1999.  

Among them was “Whoa, Nellie,” which trended over the weekend on Twitter, according to Sunday’s edition of Newsday was used to describe a big-time play made on the gridiron. Jackson attributes that phrase to his great-grandfather, who used it when he was in the fields. 

“Fummmbille,” was Jackson’s phrase when an offensive player lost the football. Jackson’s phrase “Big uglies,” describes offensive lineman. 

Along with being great at his job, he was a true gentleman that earned the respect of all those that he worked with. 

“I woke up this morning very blue, as so many others did as well,” Jim Nantz of CBS sports said during the network’s telecast of the American Football Conference’s (AFC) Divisional Playoff contest of the Tennessee Titans versus New England Patriots on Saturday night. “Very said times.” 

Those same sentiments were echoed in the other AFC’s other Divisional Playoff tilt between the Jacksonville Jaguars versus Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday when play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle, who also is the lead broadcasters of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA called Jackson a “legendary broadcaster.” 

“As a broadcaster, we’ll never experience a better one, ever again,” Fouts, who was alongside Jackson for the broadcast of the 41-38 victory by the Texas Longhorns over the Southern California Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl, also said during the broadcast on Sunday. “But more importantly to me, he became a mentor. An important part of my life as a friend.”

That thrilling national championship contest that saw former Longhorn, Titans’, and Philadelphia Eagles’ QB Vince Young defeat the Trojans, and their two Heisman Trophy winners, in former Arizona Cardinals signal caller Matt Leinart, now college football studio analyst for FOX Sports Matt Leinart, and former New Orleans Saints’ Miami Dolphins, and Buffalo Bills running back Reggie Bush was also the final broadcast for ABC Sports as separate network before being joined by ESPN.

Some of Jackson’s other great collegiate football broadcasts consists of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State versus University of Miami; 1994 contest of Colorado versus Michigan, dubbed Kordell Stewart’s Hail Marry in the 1994 “Miracle at Michigan;” Desmond Howard’s “Hello Heisman,” 1991 for the Wolverines; and “Wide Right I,” and “Wide Right II,” in the Florida State-Miami rivalry.  

“For generations of fans, Keith Jackson was college football,” Bob Iger, chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. “When you heard his voice, you knew it was a big game. Keith was a true gentleman, and a memorable presence. Our thoughts, and prayers go out to his wife, Turi Ann, and his family.”

In an ironic way, the merger of ESPN and ABC was a fitting way to begin a new era, and the conclusion of a prior one, where it was headlined by Jackson, who was a jack of all sports broadcasts, which began with the calling of college football games for ABC in 1966 when the network acquired the broadcast rights by the NCAA. 

Jackson also commentated NFL, and NBA contests, while also working 11 World Series for MLB, 10 Winter, and Summer Olympics, and auto racing. He also traveled the globe to 31 countries for the “Wide World of Sports,” for ABC. 

Among his broadcasting accomplishments, Jackson was the first voice of “Monday Night Football,” which is now broadcast on ESPN, when it debuted on Sept. 21, 1970 with the New York Jets versus Cleveland Browns, working alongside Howard Cosell, and Don Meredith. The Browns won that contest 31-21. He was on the call for Bucky Dent’s run against the Boston Red Sox in 1978, as well as Reggie Jackson’s three-run blast in the 1977 World Series. 

Mark Spitz’s record seven Gold medals in the 1972 games, and speed skater Eric Heiden’s five golds eight years later were amongst Jackson’s famed calls in the summer. 

Jackson was born on Oct. 18, 1928 in Roopville, GA, and grew up on a farm outside of Carrollton, at the state line of Alabama. As a child, he grew up listening to sports on the radio. 

After an enlistment, and service in the United States Marine Corps as a mechanic, Jackson attended Washington State University in Pullman, WA under the G.I. Bill. He started as a political science major, but his interest turned to broadcasting. 

His sports broadcast journey began in 1952 calling games a game between the Stanford Cardinal and the Cougars. 

After graduated in 1954 with his B.A. in speech communications, Jackson worked for KOMO radio in Seattle, WA, and then worked for KOMO-TV for 10 years as co-anchor for the stations first news team. He covered Sefair hydroplane races, minor league Seattle Rainiers baseball games, and University of Washington Huskies football contests. 

In 1964, Jackson became a radio news correspondent for ABC News Radio, and sports director of ABC Radio West before joining ABC Sports 52 years ago. 

His broadcast career doing pro football came in the early 1960s covering the American Football League (AFL). 

When he was chosen to be the first play-by-play commentator for Monday Night Football in 1970, Jackson was the fallback choice because for New York Giants star the late Frank Gifford was unable to get out of his analyst deal with CBS Sports until the conclusion of the 1970 campaign. Gifford did land the job one year later when they removed Jackson, and that led to some contention between him and the ABC top brass. 

When Gifford, the husband of Kathie Lee Gifford, and father to Cody and Cassidy passed away in August 2015, Jackson became the only living member of the original broadcast team from the MNF team from the early 1970s. 

For a two-year period (1983-85), Jackson was the lead play-by-play man for the United States Football League (USFL) broadcast for ABC, pairing with Lynn Swann, and Tim Brant, calling all three title games in the league’s short history. 

He also at one time was the lead play-by-play announcer calling NBA games on ABC with the 11-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, and Hall of Famer Bill Russell as his co-pilot for four years. 

“I am saddened to hear the news of Keith Jackson’s death,” Swann, the Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver, and current USC Athletic Director said in a statement on Saturday. “Keith covered games I played in, and we worked together at ABC Sports for decades. Every step of the way, he shared his knowledge, and his friendship.” 

“Not just his voice, but the spirit of college football. My heart, and prayers go out to his wife, and children on this day, and I thank them for allowing so many of us to have shared in Keith’s life.”

As mentioned earlier, the sports world said goodbye to a legend. A jack of all sports. Jackson had the ability to broadcast any sport. He was not just a broadcaster, he was a story teller who can take what we say on the small screen, and could articulate the images we saw in a way that made us feel like we were right there as the action was unfolding. 

He was the last of an iconic baby booming generation of voices that were fading into the sunset, which included the recent passing of the legendary Dick Enberg, who we lost last month. 

While we have said to goodbye to two of the greatest voices that have called some of the best moments that college, and professional sports has to offer, the great work of Jackson, and Enberg paved the way to some of the best voices of sports broadcasting today like the previously mentioned Nantz, Al Michaels, who the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, Joe Buck of FOX Sports, and Mike Tirico of NBC, and previously with ESPN/ABC. 

Jackson however was one of a kind. When Saturday afternoon came around in the fall, you knew that Jackson was going to be lead voice at the headline game of that day, and you hoped to catch his call. That is what made as many have called him the soundtrack of college football, period. 

Two of the great coaches of college football in the late Joe Paterno of the Penn State Nittany Lions, and former Wolverines lead man on the sidelines Lloyd Carr both concur to that. 

“I don’t think you could say that there is any one person who is not a coach, athletic director, or administrator who has done more for college football than Keith Jackson,” Paterno once said. 

“A symbol of all the good things in college football,” is what Carr said of his description of Jackson.

His great work on the air made him the first broadcaster to be awarded the National Football Foundation, and Hall of Fame Gold Medal in 1999. The National Sportswriters, and Sportscasters Association named him the National Sportscaster of the Year five straights times starting in 1995. He was the first sports announcer to receive the Stagg award. 

Keith Max Jackson was a legend in his profession. He was the voice of some of the best moments, games, and individual performances in sports for nearly five decades. He was kind, proud man who was a husband, father, and grandfather who had a special way of connecting with those that watched his telecast. He was a mentor, who made his co-pilot(s) as important to the broadcast as to those that commentated along with him, as well as those watching the action on the television. His impact has had a lasting impact on current, and future generations of studio, and game commentators great to be versatile in their knowledge, and commentary of all sports. 

“That big smiling face, and just the thrill, and love he had for doing college football,” ESPN/ABC color analyst Bob Griese said on “Sportscenter,” over the weekend when asked what he would remember about the man he worked with starting back in 1985. 

“He did it for a long, long time…. He never intruded on the game. It was always about the kids on the field. Never, never shining the light on himself. And that was one of the things that I most admired about him.” 

Information, and quotations courtesy of 1/13/18 www.espn.com article “Legendary Broadcaster Keith Jackson Dies at Age 89;” 1/14/18 Newsday article “Whoa, Nellie,” by Neil Best; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCS; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Swann; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jackson.