Veteran US Broadcaster Dies

By Don Goodwin

Some Canadian sports broadcasters will have known Curt Gowdy, an icon of US sports broadcasting, many others will have heard his work and been inspired to try their hand at the art and excitement of creating the words to describe the great events in sport or to accompany the TV pictures of events great and small.

Curt Gowdy died at his home in Florida on February 20th. He was, to borrow a line from the script of his broadcasting career, the true American Sportsman. In his forty years as a sports broadcaster, Curt covered almost every major sporting event, including 16 World Series, 12 Rose Bowls, 7 Olympic Games, and 8 Super Bowls.

Curt Gowdy

Curt Gowdy


His awards are just as impressive: the first Peabody award for outstanding journalistic achievement ever given to a sports figure, four Emmys, and induction into the media wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

During his twenty years as a broadcaster for ABC’s award-winning “American Sportsman”, his fifteen years as the team announcer for the Boston Red Sox, 10 years as NBC’s Game of the Week commentator, football and Super Bowl broadcaster, NCAA basketball, Olympics – he did it all. Gowdy’s distinctive voice, professionalism, and personal warmth won him fans and friends all across North America and around the world.