"I've done a lot of Super Bowls and appeared in a lot of big, big events and places and the Masters and what have you, but there was nothing as intimidating as speaking with Billy Graham." -- Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall (born May 10, 1930 in Lake City, Florida) is a former American football player and television sportscaster, having worked at CBS, Fox, and ESPN.
Summerall is best known for his work with John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox.
"But like Mrs. Ford, I think that the more people realize what a difficult and what an insidious disease it is, the sooner people will start to correct that situation.""I know I had been successful in football. I had been successful in broadcasting. I didn't think that anything could touch me. I thought, I can beat anything.""In football, there were drinks available everywhere you looked. On a golf tournament, you could find one free anywhere you wanted it. In tennis and NBA basketball, everybody had a hospitality suite, and so you could go there and load up if you wanted to.""My MELD score was pretty high. And the worse you get on that scale, the sooner you get a transplant. It's based on how sick you are. And believe me, I was pretty sick.""Seemed like everything I tried to do in broadcasting and as a player before that turned out successfully. I was succeeding. I got to the top of the heap in every facet of broadcasting.""So, I didn't get moved up because of celebrity status or anything like that. I got in line, and I passed the test. And they realized that I was sick enough, and as soon as the liver became available, I got one.""There were a couple of things in the intervention that made me know I needed help. One was a letter from my daughter saying that she was ashamed she had the same last name as I did, which will shock you a little bit.""Well, to take me from where I was, and the life I was leading, to the life I lead now with the church and with the Lord and with Jesus Christ, it's a total, total turn-around.""When someone saves your life and gives you life, there's gratitude, humility; there's a time you've been so blessed you realize you've been given another chance at life that maybe you did or didn't deserve."
Summerall played high school football at Columbia High School in Lake City, Florida, where he was recognized as an All-State selection in football, as well as basketball. He also earned varsity letters in both baseball and tennis. He was inducted into the FHSAA hall of fame and was later named to the FHSAA's All-Century Team.
College
Summerall played college football from 1949 to 1951 at the University of Arkansas, where he played defensive end, tight end, and placekicker positions. He graduated from UA in 1953.
Professional
Summerall spent ten years as a professional football player in the National Football League, primarily as a placekicker. The Detroit Lions drafted Summerall as a fourth-round draft choice in the 1952 NFL Draft. Summerall played the pre-season with the Lions before breaking his arm, which ended the year for him. After that season, he was traded and went on to play for the Chicago Cardinals from 1953 to 1957 and the New York Giants from 1958 to 1961, during which he was a part of The Greatest Game Ever Played. His best professional year statistically was 1959, when Summerall scored 90 points on 30-for-30 (100%) extra-point kicking and 20-for-29 (69%) field goal kicking.
Summerall's most memorable professional moment may well have been at the very end of the Sunday, December 14, 1958 regular season finale between his Giants and the Cleveland Browns at Yankee Stadium. Going into the game, the Browns were in first place in the Eastern Conference, holding a one-game lead over the second-place Giants. In that era, there was no overtime during regular season games, standings ties were broken by a playoff, and there were no wild-card teams. This meant that only the Eastern Conference champion would qualify for the NFL Championship Game to be held two weeks later, and it meant that the Giants had to win just to force a tiebreaker playoff game. For the Browns, on the other hand, they need only a tie in order to clinch the Eastern championship. As time was running out, the Giants and Browns were tied, 10-10 ... a situation that, as indicated, favored the Browns. The Giants got barely into Cleveland territory, and then sent out Summerall to try for a tiebreaking 49-yard field goal. To add to the drama, there were swirling winds and snow. Summerall, a straight-ahead kicker, made the field goal with just two minutes to play, keeping the Giants alive for another week (they defeated Cleveland a week later, 10-0, in the Eastern Conference tiebreaker playoff before losing the sudden-death playoff to Baltimore the week after that). Giants' offensive coach Vince Lombardi was said to have been against sending Summerall in (Summerall had missed 31 yard attempt a few minutes earlier), and then gleefully greeted Summerall as he came off the field with the words "You know you can't kick it that far." Sports Illustrated ran the story as one of its primary articles the next week, with a leading photograph showing the football heading between the uprights through the snow. See "Summerall's 49 Yarder Puts Giants in Playoff," The Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mon. Dec. 15, 1958, p. 10.
Summerall's last professional game was the December 31, 1961 NFL Championship Game held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers defeated Summerall's Giants, 37-0, holding New York to just six first downs. Summerall was not a factor in that game.
After retiring from football, Summerall became a broadcaster for CBS Sports. He started in 1962 working part-time on New York Giants' broadcasts. In 1964, CBS hired Summerall full-time to work its NFL telecasts, initially as a color commentator and then (beginning midway through the 1974 season) as a play-by-play announcer. Summerall also covered other events such as ABA basketball for the network, and through 1966 hosted a morning drive-time music/talk program for WCBS-AM radio in New York. In 1969, Summerall took part in NBC's coverage of Super Bowl III. He also co-hosted the syndicated NFL Films series This Week in Pro Football in the late 1960s and early '70s.
During the 1970s, Summerall usually worked with Tom Brookshier as his broadcasting partner for NFL (mostly NFC) games on CBS, and the colorful Summerall-Brookshier duo worked three Super Bowls (X, XII, and XIV) together. Summerall, Brookshier, NFL on CBS producer Bob Wussler and Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie appeared as themselves during the 1977 film Black Sunday, which was filmed on location at the Orange Bowl in Miami during Super Bowl X.
In 1981, Summerall was teamed with former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden, a pairing that would last for 22 seasons on two networks and become one of the most well-known partnerships in TV sportscasting history. Summerall and Madden were first teamed on a 1979 broadcast of a Minnesota Vikings–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. It is often mistakenly assumed that Summerall and Madden handled the call on CBS-TV for the 1981 NFC Championship Game, when San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark made "The Catch" to lift the 49ers to a 28–27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a berth in Super Bowl XVI. Summerall instead handled the call of the game on CBS Radio with Jack Buck, while Vin Scully and Hank Stram called the game on television. Meanwhile, John Madden was off to Detroit to prepare for his Super Bowl telecast with Summerall. Hank Stram returned to his normal position as the color analyst on CBS Radio alongside Buck for the Super Bowl, while Summerall and Madden teamed for the first of eight Super Bowls together.
Summerall's stature as the premier TV voice in pro football was a result of two things: first, his ability to play the "straight man" alongside John Madden's lively, verbose persona; second, his economical delivery that magnified the drama of a moment while allowing the pictures and his baritone-like voice to tell the story. His style was closely modeled on that of his predecessor as CBS' main NFL announcer, Ray Scott, also known for his minimalist style. One of Summerall's most memorable on-air calls was his account of Marcus Allen's electrifying touchdown run in Super Bowl XVIII. The transcript is surprisingly sparse: "Touchdown, 75 yards!" That the quote is memorable is testament to the weight of Summerall's voice when he was at the height of his powers as an NFL broadcaster. This was a hallmark of his broadcasting career as simple calls like "Montana......Rice.... Touchdown!"(describing a Joe Montana to Jerry Rice touchdown pass) to describe a big play were frequently used.
In the NFC Championship Game following the 1990 season, Summerall made two memorable calls. The first came after Giants DE Leonard Marshall put a bonecrunching hit on Joe Montana, knocking Montana out of the game (and the QB would miss all of 1991 and most of 1992 with a severe elbow injury). "Montana up... but woozy," Summerall said after Montana finally made it back to his feet. Then, following N.Y. Giants kicker Matt Bahr's game-winning 42-yard field goal as time expired at what was then called Candlestick Park, Summerall uttered, "There will be no three-peat," thus signifying the end of the Joe Montana era in San Francisco.
Summerall also broadcast professional golf and tennis (including the Masters and US Open) during his tenure at CBS, and was the play-by-play announcer for the 1974 NBA Finals, CBS' first season broadcasting the NBA.
Summerall's last on-air assignment for CBS Sports was the 1994 Masters.
The NFL on Fox
In 1994, the Fox network surprised NFL fans by outbidding CBS for the NFC broadcast package. One of the network's first moves was to hire Summerall and Madden as its lead announcing team. The two men thus continued their on-air partnership through the 2001 season.
Summerall and Madden's last game together was Super Bowl XXXVI. After that game, Summerall announced his retirement and Madden was signed by ABC for that network's Monday Night Football telecasts.
Post-Madden
NFL on Fox
Summerall was lured out of retirement and re-signed with Fox for the 2002 season, working with Brian Baldinger on regional telecasts (primarily featuring the Dallas Cowboys, since Summerall was a Dallas resident) before retiring again after one year.
In 2006, he returned to the broadcast booth with Baldinger. In Week 8 (October 29) of that year, he called a game between the eventual NFC champion Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers.
Summerall provided the play-by-play for the December 9, 2007 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and St. Louis Rams in Cincinnati.
NFL on ESPN
Summerall called several preseason and early regular-season NFL games for the ESPN network in 2004, substituting for regular announcer Mike Patrick while the latter recovered from heart surgery.
Cotton Bowl Classic
In January 2007, Summerall returned to Fox Sports as the play-by-play voice of the network's coverage of the Cotton Bowl Classic game between Auburn and Nebraska. He also called the 2008 game, which featured his alma mater, Arkansas, taking on Missouri; and the 2009 game between Texas Tech and the Ole Miss. Summerall teamed with Brian Baldinger on the 2007-09 Cotton Bowl Classic telecasts, and worked with Daryl Johnston on the 2010 game between Ole Miss and Oklahoma State.
Super Bowl legacy
Summerall has broadcast 16 Super Bowls on network television with CBS and FOX, more than any other announcer. He also contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst.
Awards and honors
The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named Summerall National Sportscaster of the Year in 1977, and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1994.
Summerall was the 1994 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, bestowed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame "for longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football".
In 1999 he was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame. American Sportscasters Association | Hall Of Fame - Pat Sumerall
Since 2006 the "Pat Summerall Award" has been presented at the annual Legends for Charity Luncheon given on Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel in the host city. The award is given "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents." Recipients have included James Brown (2006), Greg Gumbel (2007), Jim Nantz (2008), Chris Berman (2009), and Cris Collinsworth (2010).
During the 1990 season, Summerall was hospitalized after vomiting on a plane during a flight after a Bears–Redskins game, and was out for a considerable amount of time. While Verne Lundquist replaced Summerall on games with Madden, Jack Buck (who was at CBS during the time as the network's lead Major League Baseball announcer) was added as a regular NFL broadcaster to fill-in.
In the spring of 2004, Summerall, a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for many years, underwent a liver transplant.
In 2006, Pat Summerall underwent cataract surgery, and had an intraocular lens implanted.
In January 2008, Summerall had a hip replacement surgery. On June 19, he was hospitalized for internal bleeding caused by a new medicine he was taking.
Summerall currently provides voiceover sponsorship credits for CBS' Masters telecasts, and for game coverage on NFL Network. He has also provided game commentary for the Golden Tee Golf video game series.
For many years Summerall has been a commercial spokesperson for True Value. Ironically, his long-time broadcast partner Madden was the spokesperson for Ace Hardware, True Value's main competitor in the independent hardware store market. Summerall has served as the longtime radio spokesman for Dux Beds, a Swedish mattress maker, and their Duxiana stores.
In March 2008, Summerall signed on as the company spokesperson for Motivators, Inc., a Long Island based promotional products distributor. His image appeared on the company homepage at that time, and Summerall also recorded a radio commercial that can be heard on the website. He is no longer their spokesperson.
Summerall was also associated with a production company in Dallas, Texas, from about the year 1998 to 2005. It was called Pat Summerall Productions. He was featured and hosted different production shows such as, Summerall Success Stories and Champions of Industry. These qualified production segments would air on the Fox News Channel and later, CNN Headline News. During the mid-1990s, Summerall hosted the "Summerall-Aikman" Cowboys report with quarterback Troy Aikman. Currently, Summerall serves as the host of Sports Stars of Tomorrow and Future Phenoms, two nationally syndicated high school sports shows based out of Fort Worth, Texas.
Summerall was name-checked on The Simpsons in the 2007 episode "Springfield Up", where his caricature and name appear on the cover of a book held by Homer entitled "Smut Yuks." Summerall and then-partner Madden also appeared in (and lent their voices to) the 1999 Simpsons episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", which premiered following the duo's broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII on FOX.
Summerall also provided commentary, alongside Madden, on Cartoon Network's annual Super Bowl parodies, The Big Game, from 1998 through 2001.
Summerall also recently preached a sermon at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Summerall recently appeared in Forever The Sickest Kids newest music video "She Likes".
Summerall makes his home in Southlake, Texas, where he has lived for 14 years.
