Iconic NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, whose booming play-by-play voice was the soundtrack of many of the country’s most important football games in the 1990s, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 82.
As the Dallas Morning News noted, Summerall (pictured to the left of John Madden) worked “a record 16 Super Bowls on network television, the first five as an analyst.” He worked eight Super Bowls alongside John Madden, who was his broadcast partner. Their final Super Bowl together was in 2002.
The tandem worked together for 21 seasons, and they became the voices of Sunday afternoon football for a generation, especially since the duo got assigned only the most important NFC games.
Summerall was terse, yet said so much. And Madden’s garrulousness, affability, and antics complimented Summerall’s to-the-point style perfectly, making them arguably one of the best NFL broadcasting tandems of all time.
Summerall worked for CBS from 1961 to 1993, and then moved to Fox in 1994 when Fox won the rights to televise NFL games.
The legendary broadcaster was a placekicker in the NFL, and he lived in Southlake, Texas with his second wife.
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