Greg Gumbel

Biography

Gregory Girard Gumbel entered the world in 1946 in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the first child of Rhea Alice LeCesne and Richard Dunbar Gumbel, a judge. His family tree includes a German-Jewish ancestor who emigrated from the village of Albisheim. Raised Catholic on Chicago’s South Side, he attended De La Salle Institute and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Loras College in 1967, where he also played baseball. He had two sisters, Renee and Rhonda, and a younger brother, Bryant, who likewise became a network television broadcaster.

Career

In 1973, Bryant, then a sportscaster at KNBC in Los Angeles, tipped Greg off that WMAQ-TV in Chicago was holding auditions for a sports announcer. At the time, Greg was selling hospital supplies in Detroit. He landed the job, moved back to Chicago, and spent seven years at WMAQ-TV, replacing Dennis Swanson, who later rose to become president of ABC Sports. Before making his mark at CBS, Gumbel worked for MSG, ESPN, and WFAN radio in New York City.

At ESPN, he anchored SportsCenter and called play-by-play for early NBA games. On MSG, he served as a backup announcer for Marv Albert on New York Knicks broadcasts and covered college basketball. He also hosted the first radio morning show on WFAN, but management replaced him with Don Imus after WFAN took over WNBC’s AM 660 frequency. Gumbel’s CBS career started with part-time NFL announcing in 1988, and he began calling college basketball the following year.

After MSG signed a big contract to broadcast New York Yankees games in 1989, Gumbel hosted the pregame and postgame shows. He was the host of The NFL Today alongside Terry Bradshaw from 1990 to 1993. He also anchored CBS’s coverage of Major League Baseball and college football, and in 1999 served as studio host for the Daytona 500 and Pepsi 400. Beyond hosting, he provided play-by-play for the NBA with Quinn Buckner, Major League Baseball including the 1993 American League Championship Series with Jim Kaat, and the College World Series.

Legacy

Greg Gumbel is among a select group of announcers to handle pre-game, play-by-play, and radio duties across different Super Bowls. He was the television pre-game host for Super Bowls XXVI, XXX, XXXII, XLVII, and 50, called play-by-play for Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII, and hosted the radio pre-game show for Super Bowls XXV through XXVIII. As the main anchor of The NFL Today, he worked with co-anchors Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe, and Boomer Esiason. Some colleagues gave him the nickname "Gumby."