Pat Summerall, a well-known NFL voice for a generation of TV viewers and John Madden's broadcasting partner for two decades, has died.
He was 82, according to a Dallas Morning News web site, which first reported his death. Summerall also did high-profile golf and tennis coverage for CBS.
“There is no one more closely associated with the great legacy and tradition of CBS Sports than Pat Summerall," Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, said Tuesday. "His voice was synonymous with big events whether it was NFL football and the Super Bowl, the Masters or U.S. Open Tennis.”
Summerall worked a record 16 Super Bowls on network television, employing a signature staccato style that was brief and to the point, providing a counterpoint to the gleefully bombastic Madden. He worked for CBS from 1961 to 1993, then moved with the NFL from CBS to Fox in 1994. He retired after the 2002 season.
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“Pat was my broadcasting partner for a long time, but more than that he was my friend for all of these years." Madden said.
"We never had one argument, and that was because of Pat. He was a great broadcaster and a great man. He always had a joke. Pat never complained and we never had an unhappy moment. He was something very special. Pat Summerall is the voice of football and always will be.”
Summerall worked his final Super Bowl in February 2002. It was his eighth alongside analyst Madden, with whom he worked at CBS and Fox for 21 seasons. Their work at the San Francisco 49ers-Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl in 1982 remains the highest-rated sports program of all-time, with more than 49 percent of the nation tuned in.
Summerall came by his football expertise honestly. He spent nine-plus years as a kicker in the NFL, primarily for the then-Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants from 1952-61.
Summerall was named National Sportscaster of the Year in 1977 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994.
In 1994, he was recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, given by the Pro Football Hall of Fame "for longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football."
Summerall and Madden were regularly assigned to the NFL's No. 1 television attraction. That was frequently the Dallas Cowboys, which was convenient for Summerall, who lived barely 20 minutes away from Texas Stadium in Southlake, with his second wife, Cheri.
He had been ill off and on in his later years and had a liver transplant in 2004.