Keith Jackson

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For the former professional American football player, see Keith Jackson (football player).
Keith Jackson
Born October 10, 1928 (1928-10-10) (age 79)
Roopville, Georgia, U.S.A.
Occupation Journalist, Author, Radio personality, Columnist, Sports commentator, Television personality
Spouse Turi Ann Jackson
Children 3 adult children, 2 grandchildren

Keith Jackson (born October 18, 1928) is an American former sportscaster, known for his long career with ABC Sports television, his coverage of college football as well as his style of folksy, down-to-earth commentary and deep voice.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Jackson was born and raised on a farm outside Carrollton, Georgia, near the Georgia-Alabama state line.[2] The only surviving child in a poor family, he grew up listening to sports on the radio.[2] After a stint in the Marines, he attended Washington State University under the G.I. Bill.[3] Jackson began as a police science major, but he became interested in broadcasting.[4] He graduated in 1954 with a degree in Speech Communications.[5]

[edit] Broadcast career

Though best known for his college football broadcasts, Jackson announced numerous other sports for ABC throughout his career, including Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, boxing, auto racing, and the Olympic Games. He briefly worked college basketball with Dick Vitale.[6] Jackson also served as the pregame anchor for ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII in 1988.

Jackson began his career as a broadcaster at Washington State in 1952, when he called a radio game between Stanford and Washington State. He then worked for KOMO-TV and Radio, an ABC affiliate in Seattle, from 1954 for the next ten years as co-anchor for their first news team (first co-anchor news team on the West Coast), covering Seafair hydroplane races, minor league Seattle Rainiers baseball games, and University of Washington Huskies football games. In 1958, Jackson became the first American sports announcer to broadcast an event from the Soviet Union, a crew race between the Washington Huskies and a Soviet team.[7] Despite heavy suspicion and numerous hurdles by the Soviet authorities, Jackson and his cohorts were able to cover the race: the first ever American sports victory on Russian soil.[8] He joined ABC Sports in 1962, full time in 1964 as a radio news correspondent and later became sports director of ABC Radio West.[2]

Jackson helped Walter Cronkite cover the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, California.[7]

In the early 1960s, Jackson covered American Football League games.[2] In 1970, he was chosen to be the first play-by-play announcer on Monday Night Football covering the NFL, but he remained in that capacity only for the program's first season.[2] Frank Gifford was ABC's initial target but could not get out of his CBS contract until after the 1970 season. In 1971, however, Gifford landed the job.

Jackson was involved in the ABC coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympics and continued to contribute even when an attack by Palestinian terrorists transformed the coverage from that of a typical sporting event to that of a greater international and historical news event.[9] He covered a total of 10 Summer and Winter Olympic Games.[7]

Jackson was a regular part of ABC's popular Wide World of Sports (WWOS), covering both popular sports and obscure events like wrist wrestling.[4] For WWOS he covered Evel Knievel's successful jump at Exhibition Stadium, in Toronto, Canada, on August 20, 1974;[10] as well as his spectacular May 31, 1975 crash while attempting to jump over thirteen double decker Routemaster buses at London's Wembley Stadium, prompting Jackson to exclaim, "Oh my God!".[11] He also handled WWOS' first coverage of boxer Sugar Ray Leonard at the North American Continental Boxing Championships on July 26, 1975, who Jackson called a young boxer to watch.[12]

In baseball, Keith Jackson called (alongside Tim McCarver) the now famous 16-inning long sixth game of the 1986 National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and Houston Astros.

[edit] College football

Jackson began his ABC career at a time when television play-by-play announcers did not always have regular analysts. He would only once miss working a college season in his over 50 years, starting in 1952.[2] Jackson was joined in the booth by Joe Paterno for the 1974 Michigan-Ohio State game in Columbus, while Woody Hayes accompanied him for the 1974 Notre Dame-USC game.[citation needed]

In his many years covering college football, Jackson has been paired with a wide variety of color commentators, including former Arkansas coach and athletic director Frank Broyles (1978-1986) and pro football legend Bob Griese (1987-1999). For many years, he was assigned by ABC to the primary national game of the week. His quirky expressions such as "Whoa, Nellie!", "Fum-BLE!" and "Hold the phonnnnne!" (following a penalty flag) are often the subject of comedic imitation. Though he greatly popularized it, Jackson notes that he learned the term "Whoa, Nellie" from earlier television announcer Dick Lane.[7] He has often referred to offensive and defensive line players as the Big Uglies. Jackson is also credited with coining the nickname for Michigan Stadium, The Big House.[13] In the season before his first retirement, during what was thought to be his final game at The Big House, the Michigan Marching Band's halftime show concluded by spelling out "Thanks Keith" across the field, the 111,019 fans turned toward the press box, stood up and cheered for the commentator, and as a part of the halftime event former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler presented Jackson with a jersey with "The Big House" across the front and a Michigan football helmet.[13]

In the 1990s, Jackson recorded videos for the centennial of the Alabama Crimson Tide. In 2006, Jackson became the voice behind the Nebraska Cornhuskers' "Tunnel Walk" video. This video is played before every home game at Memorial Stadium.

Jackson's connections to the University of Nebraska remain strong. It was Jackson himself that the university contacted when designing its new pressbox facility--Jackson's recommendation was that it needed a restroom, as few if any pressboxes had any suitable restroom facilities. When Jackson did the Nebraska/California game the following season (the debut of the Cornhuskers' new pressbox), he found a restroom with the following sign-"The Keith Jackson Memorial Bippy"; the sign was a joke from Jackson's longtime friend, Nebraska sports information director Don Bryant.

Jackson would call the 1972 USC Trojans the greatest team he ever saw.[14] Jackson, who was in his first year in ABC football broadcasting narrating the taped highlights of the 1967 USC vs. UCLA football game, declared it many years later to be the greatest game he has ever seen.[15]

Jackson's career was not free of incidents. During the 1978 Gator Bowl, Jackson missed Ohio State Head Coach Woody Hayes' infamous punch of Clemson defensive lineman Charlie Bauman and was unable to get a replay, leading to accusations that he was protecting the coach who was fired for the incident.[2]

[edit] Retirement

Jackson announced his first retirement from college football at the end of the 1998 season and his intention to live full time at his home in California. Choosing the 1999 National Championship at the Fiesta Bowl between Tennessee and Florida State as his last broadcast, he concluded the program by stating "Tennessee 23, Florida State 16. And so it is done. I say goodbye to all of you. God bless and good night."[4]

He rescinded this decision the following fall and began to do a more limited schedule of games, teamed with Tim Brant and later Dan Fouts, almost exclusively sticking to venues on the West Coast, closer to his home in British Columbia. One of the notable exceptions was the 2003 Michigan-Ohio State game, the 100th meeting between the two archrivals. He strongly hinted that he was interested in retiring for good after the 2005 season, telling The New York Times, that he was feeling his age after 53 seasons.[16] ABC tried to lure Jackson to stay, but he made up his mind.[1] Jackson decided to retire for good on April 27, 2006, at age 77, noting he didn't want to die in a stadium parking lot.[6] His last game call was the 2006 Rose Bowl featuring Texas vs. USC.

[edit] Awards and Honors

In 1999, the National Football Foundation awarded Jackson the Gold Medal Award, its highest honor.[17] The same year he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.[18] The Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University awarded their alumnus with the Murrow Award for top leaders in the communication industry in 1999;[19] Jackson was a charter member of the WSU Foundation, founded in 1979, provided scholarship money to the Murrow School and chaired the fund-raising drive for the school's alumni center.[4] On April 24, 1995, he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, having won its National Sportscaster of the Year five successive times.[9] The American Football Coaches Association awarded him its Amos Alonzo Stagg Award in 1993 as an individual "whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football."[20] He was the first sports announcer to receiver the Stagg award.[7]

Longtime Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno said of Jackson: "I don't think you could say that there is any one person who is not a coach, athletic director or administrator who has done more for college football than Keith Jackson".[7] Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr described Jackson as "a symbol of all the good things in college football".[7]

[edit] Film and television appearances

Jackson has had a minor career as an actor, often either playing himself (as on an episode of Coach) or a sportscaster like himself, as in The Fortune Cookie (1966). He has also appeared in and narrated several sports documentaries. His play-by-play of the 1977 World Series is used in the background of the Spike Lee film, Summer of Sam (1999). In 2007, he appeared in clips and voice on the ESPN original series, The Bronx Is Burning, featuring clips from ABC's Monday Night Baseball, and ABC Sports coverage of the 1977 World Series.

Jackson has appeared in numerous commercials, especially in the latter stages of his career. He once parodied his broadcast persona for a Bud Light beer commercial, in which he played the officiating minister at a wedding, finishing with his famous line, "Whoa, Nellie!" He also appeared in commercials for Shoney's, a chain of family-style restaurants well-known in the Southeast, especially in his native Georgia. Most recently, Jackson has appeared in "The Legend of Gatorade" ads, which he humorously alluded to during his live coverage of the 2006 Rose Bowl. In 2006, he also was shown in a commercial for Ice Breakers' Ice Cubes with Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, and Joey Lawrence, again contributing his famous "Whoa, Nellie!"

Jackson was portrayed by actor Shuler Hensley in the 2002 made-for-cable film "Monday Night Mayhem", which aired on TNT. This film told the story of the initial seasons of Monday Night Football.

[edit] Personal

Jackson is a long-time resident of California. He and his wife Turi Ann, have three grown children and homes in the Los Angeles, California area and Pender Harbour, British Columbia, Canada.[2]

[edit] Notable broadcasts

Preceded by
None		 Monday Night Football play-by-play man
1970		 Succeeded by
Frank Gifford
Preceded by
Jim McKay		 Television voice of the
Indianapolis 500
1975		 Succeeded by
Jim McKay
Preceded by
Joe Garagiola		 World Series network television play-by-play announcer (with Al Michaels in 1979 and 1981; concurrent with Joe Garagiola in odd numbered years)
1977-1981		 Succeeded by
Joe Garagiola and Dick Enberg
Preceded by
Chris Schenkel		 Play-by-Play announcer, NBA Finals
1972-1973		 Succeeded by
Pat Summerall
Preceded by
Dick Enberg		 Play-by-Play announcer, Rose Bowl
1989-2006 (except 1993, 1997, 2003)		 Succeeded by
Brent Musburger
v • d • e
Major League Baseball on ABC
Related programs:
Related articles:
Commentators
Key figures:
Lore televised by ABC:
League Championship Series broadcasted by ABC
1976 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1978 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1980 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1982 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1984 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1986 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1988 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1995 (ALCS/NLCS)
All-Star Games broadcasted by ABC
1976 · 1978 · 1980 · 1982 · 1984 · 1986 · 1988 · 1995
World Series broadcasted by ABC
1977 · 1979 · 1981 · 1983 · 1985 · 1987 · 1989 · 1995

[edit] See also

United States Marine Corps Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Broadcaster Keith Jackson set to retire, The Sporting News, April 27, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Jerry Crowe, Big man on campus - sportscaster Keith Jackson, The Sporting News, August 21, 1995.
  3. ^ 1994 Hall of Fame Inductee: Keith Jackson, American Sportscasters Association, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d 'God bless and good night', Associated Press, January 5, 1999.
  5. ^ Craig Murphy, Antique Dealer Can't Ignore a Bargain, Washington State Magazine, May 2004.
  6. ^ a b Steve Kelley, His voice is now ghost of Saturdays past, The Seattle Times, April 28, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Andrew Krebs, Wide world of Jackson, The Daily Collegian, November 8, 1997.
  8. ^ Howard Ramaley, 1922-2006, KOMO-TV, October 31, 2007.
  9. ^ a b NSSA Hall Of Fame: 1986-1995 Inductees, National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  10. ^ Classic Wide World of Sports Episode 25, TV.com, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  11. ^ WWOS Flashback: Evel Kneivel's '75 crash at Wembley, ABC Sports Online, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  12. ^ Wide World of Sports Highlights -- 1970s, ABC Sports Online, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Sharat Raju, One year later, Taylor still contributing to Wolverines, The Michigan Daily, November 9, 1998.
  14. ^ Beano Cook, All-time top 25: '47 Irish were greatest, ESPN.com, August 1, 2007.
  15. ^ Coach of the Year (2007) - hosted by Keith Jackson "Keith Jackson has been broadcasting college football since 1952 and has reported games like the “Game of the Century” between UCLA and USC in 1967."
  16. ^ Keith Jackson Mulls Retirement From ABC Sports, The New York Times, March 21, 2006.
  17. ^ Past Gold Medal Winners, National Football Foundation, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  18. ^ Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, Tournament of Roses, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  19. ^ Murrow Symposium, Washington State University, Accessed August 20, 2007.
  20. ^ Amos Alonzo Stagg Award - Past Winners, American Football Coaches Association, Accessed August 20, 2007.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jackson"
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