Carter Blackburn

Early life and education

Blackburn was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Kerrville, located in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. He got his start in broadcasting as a sophomore at Tivy High School, working at KERV/KRVL radio. By his junior year, he had become the station's sports director, delivering morning drive-time reports on local high school sports as well as Texas college and professional teams.

He also handled play-by-play for football, basketball, softball, and baseball on both radio and TV. After high school, Blackburn attended Syracuse University, graduating in 2001 from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. During his time at Syracuse, he served as the play-by-play announcer for football, basketball, and lacrosse broadcasts on WAER-FM.

Professional career

From 2001 to 2003, Blackburn worked for International Sports Properties in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Fox Sports Net South, covering games in what later became the NBA Development League. He joined CBS Sports (then known as CSTV) in 2003 when the channel launched. His national television debut came in January 2008, calling a Big Ten women's basketball game between Penn State and Michigan State. Later that year, he worked two NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and returned for the tournament in 2009 and 2016.

In September 2009, Blackburn moved to ESPN and ESPNU, providing play-by-play for NCAA football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. In 2011, he broadcast the 2008 Reebok Grand Prix, where Usain Bolt set a world record in the 100 meters with a time of 9.71, and also called the World Series of Softball tournament in Oklahoma City. The following year, he replaced Joe Tessitore for ESPN's Friday Night Football package and called Little League Baseball games.

In August 2014, CBS named Blackburn its lead play-by-play announcer for its sports network, covering college basketball, football, and baseball. He filled in for Verne Lundquist during the 2014 Sun Bowl and was part of the CBS Sports team providing feature group coverage for the 2015 Masters golf tournament. Blackburn also calls NFL games for CBS on occasion, partnering with Chris Simms in 2015 and 2016. By age 31, he had called the NFL on Fox, the NCAA basketball tournament on CBS, and college football on ABC.

In 2008, at 26, he was the second-youngest announcer of an NCAA Tournament game in CBS's run, behind only Jim Nantz, who was 26 in 1985.

Notable calls

Blackburn called Joe Paterno's record-setting 409th win for ABC, which turned out to be Paterno's last game as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. On March 18, 2016, he was the play-by-play announcer for Turner Sports' coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament first-round matchup between the Northern Iowa Panthers and the Texas Longhorns. In that game, Panthers guard Paul Jesperson hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to upset the Longhorns 75–72, just seconds after Isaiah Taylor hit a running floater to tie the game at 72.

On August 24, 2019, Blackburn called the CBS Sports college football Week 0 matchup between the Arizona Wildcats and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. In that game, Khalil Tate was tackled by Hawaii defensive lineman Manly Williams and defensive back Kalen Hicks at the one-yard line as time expired, preventing Arizona from bringing the game within one point pending the extra point.