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After all, you recognize the calls. Verne Lundquist offered the soundtrack for thus many iconic sports activities moments, from Jack Nicklaus’ Seventeenth-hole birdie putt on the 1986 Masters (“Yes, sir!”) to Christian Laettner’s jumper on the buzzer within the 1992 NCAA Match (“Yes!”) to Tiger Woods’ famed chip at No. 16 on the 2005 Masters (“In your life, have you seen anything like that?!”) to Auburn’s kick-six within the 2013 Iron Bowl (“An answered prayer!”). So many extra, too.
However right here is one thing you could not know: On the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, Lundquist was only a 23-year-old weekend sportscaster on tv and afternoon disc jockey at KTBC-AM-FM-TV, an Austin, Texas, radio-television station owned by Lyndon Johnson and his spouse, Woman Chook. That night, he volunteered to drive CBS Information correspondent David Schoumacher and two different CBS staffers the 60 miles from Austin to Johnson Metropolis so they may interview pals, family and highschool classmates of Johnson, who would quickly turn into President of america. He by no means forgot that evening. How may you?
However my favourite Verne story is how he met his spouse, Nancy. It’s one he instructed me a few years in the past for a Sports activities Illustrated piece. Right here it’s, in his personal phrases:
We met in a bar — and I hasten so as to add it was an upscale bar in Dallas. It was a spot known as Arthur’s. I walked in after I did the ten o’clock information (at WFAA-TV in Dallas) and I simply didn’t wish to go house. Nancy and her date have been on the bar and her date acknowledged me from native tv and invited me over to have a drink. He launched me to his date and her identify was Nancy Miller. It was their first date, a blind date. So we sat and chatted and her date, Raymond Willie, stated to me, “Pay attention, I do know you might be single. I’m going to repair you up with a good friend of mine and we are able to all go to dinner.” He checked out Nancy and requested her, “What are you doing Thursday evening?” She stated, “Nothing.” He stated, “Good, you’ll be my date and we’ll repair Verne up with this schoolteacher good friend of mine and we’ll go to dinner.” In the meantime, I’m Nancy considering she is the prettiest factor I’ve ever seen in my life. So, Raymond lastly left to deal with his enterprise and I requested Nancy, “So, how concerned are you with Raymond?” She stated, “Oh, that is our first date and it’s a blind date.” So I stated, “Nicely, neglect what he’s speaking about on Thursday evening. What are you doing on Saturday evening?” She stated, “I believe I’m doing no matter you might be doing.”
On Sunday afternoon, Lundquist signed off the air for the final time at CBS Sports activities after working his fortieth Masters, a pleasant spherical quantity that he felt, at age 83, was the best way to exit.
“(CBS Sports activities chairman) Sean (McManus) and I had a dialog a few years in the past about what could be the right time to exit stage left, and he and I agreed that 40 had a pleasant spherical really feel to it and that we’d exit from the Masters and CBS on the finish of the second week in April this 12 months,” Lundquist stated on a current convention name. “I’ve received so many great reminiscences tied up with our visits to Augusta.”
It was an emotional week at Augusta for the CBS Sports activities workers due to the retirements of Lundquist and McManus, and Lundquist received so many flowers from numerous locations over this weekend, including Augusta National, ESPN, The Washington Post, and Golf Digest. CBS Sports activities ran a tribute that includes Verne and Nancy standing on the outlet the place we frequently heard him — No. 16.
“In your life have you ever seen something like that?”
On the subject of the legendary profession of Verne Lundquist, the reply is not any.
After 40 years at Augusta Nationwide, he says a fond farewell to the Masters. pic.twitter.com/9ZQSaKtPd5— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 14, 2024
“They celebrated their forty second marriage ceremony anniversary this week on the Masters,” host Jim Nantz stated of the couple as CBS got here out of the video tribute. “And we will probably be celebrating you for so long as there’s a Masters Match, Verne Lundquist.”
Lundquist already had a profitable profession earlier than reaching the community degree. He was the radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys from 1972-84 and the sports activities director for WFAA-TV in Dallas. The “SEC on CBS” job was the primary as a lead broadcaster for Lundquist, who has labored for ABC Sports activities and Turner Sports activities along with CBS. McManus provided Lundquist the play-by-play function for SEC soccer in 2000, which quickly turned a giant deal due to the SEC’s explosion nationally. It modified how sports activities followers noticed him too.
“(CBS) misplaced the NFL to Fox in 1994, and I stayed at CBS for one 12 months after that, after which a beautiful man, the late Mike Pearl who was our govt producer of the Olympics, went to Turner Sports activities and invited me to come back over there and I did for 2 years,” Lundquist stated. “I’ll always remember we have been in Nagano, Japan, and CBS had reacquired the rights to the NFL. Sean got here as much as me … earlier than the boys’s (determine skating) championships. We had about six or seven minutes to talk, and he tapped me on the shoulder and stated, ‘Are you prepared to come back house?’ That’s most likely the best query I’ve ever acquired in my life. So I got here again, and naturally, received again within the Masters rotation. It’s been an ideal run. Hey, I’m 83 years previous. I’ve been blessed to have a sensational skilled life and a beautiful private life. I wasn’t the primary to say this, however thanks for the reminiscences.”
In 2016, I traveled to Baton Rouge to watch Lundquist and the CBS SEC soccer group work in Lundquist’s final season. What I noticed in individual was how a lot the individuals round him cared for him. He was 76 on the time, and the crew taken care of him as if he have been a father determine.
“He’s the very same Uncle Verne that I knew again in 1985, the primary time I met him,” stated Nantz. “After all, I used to be very acquainted with him earlier than I joined the CBS workforce. We have been assigned to a Christmas Day soccer sport (the Blue-Grey Soccer Basic) in 1985. I used to be in my mid-20s, and I discovered myself working a present with Verne Lundquist. That’s actually massive. I used to be nervous about it. The evening earlier than the sport, Verne and Nancy invited me to affix them for dinner, which meant lots. In a variety of methods, I believe that type of confirmed me what the CBS tradition was about, the way you act as a teammate. … Verne unknowingly was mentoring me even again then on tips on how to be inclusive, be type, be caring, deal with individuals like household. It meant lots.”
It was beautiful to listen to Lundquist’s name one final time as Ludvig Åberg, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler every hit No. 16 within the 6 p.m. ET hour. At 6:30 p.m., as Morikawa and Scheffler acquired giant applause from the group strolling No. 16, Nantz stated, “And Verne, that crowd may simply as effectively be standing for you.”
There was Verne with one final birdie name when Scheffler took a 4-stroke lead.
“The hour belongs to Scottie Scheffler,” Lundquist stated because the eventual Masters champion left the outlet, however he actually may have been speaking about himself.
Verne, thanks for the reminiscences. pic.twitter.com/pUB5nTPWk9
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 14, 2024
Within the post-Caitlin Clark period, how can girls’s school basketball maintain TV momentum? Here’s my piece on it.
A trio of sports activities media podcasts that may curiosity you:
• A dialog with ESPN’s vice president of brand strategy and content research Flora Kelly. Kelly explains her function at ESPN, how that informs the corporate, how her analysis workforce works, and the macro tendencies she sees in sports activities in 2024.
• A dialog with James Andrew Miller, the best-selling author of books on CAA, ESPN, “Saturday Night Live,” and HBO. Miller discusses ESPN’s Norby Williamson, who had his hand in virtually all elements of ESPN’s content material and enterprise areas, from programming, manufacturing and information throughout his almost 4 many years at ESPN.
• A dialog with Jon Lewis, the founder and editor of Sports Media Watch. Lewis discusses viewership for the ladies’s and males’s tournaments.
Some issues I learn over the past week that have been fascinating to me (Be aware: there are a variety of paywalls right here):
• One of the best piece I’ve learn this month — Forsaken: 14 years, 140 officers and a darkish secret that consumed a small Ontario city. How the Lucas Shortreed case was solved. By Jon Wells of The Hamilton Spectator.
• Kentucky accused of “complicity” as former swim coach allegedly dedicated sexual violence. By Katie Strang of The Athletic.
• A narco revolt takes a once-peaceful nation to the brink. By Samantha Schmidt and Arturo Torres of The Washington Post.
• Masters of the Inexperienced: The Black Caddies of Augusta Nationwide. By Latria Graham of Garden and Gun.
• O.J. Simpson’s Corridor of Fame spot could also be assured, however there’s no rule in opposition to some context. By Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports.
• What occurs if a era of sports activities followers is swallowed up by playing? By Steve Buckley of The Athletic.
• Inside Amazon’s Push to Crack Dealer Joe’s — and Dominate All the pieces. By Dana Mattioli of The Wall Street Journal.
• To Construct Muscle, It’s the Units That Rely. By Alex Hutchinson of Outside.
• America’s Subsequent Troopers Will Be Machines. By Jack Detsch of Foreign Policy.
• Fifty years later, Henry Aaron’s legacy lives on in Atlanta and past. By Michael Lee of The Washington Post.
• A Vigilante Hacker Took Down North Korea’s Web. Now He’s Taking Off His Masks. By Andy Greenberg of Wired.
• Check Your Train I.Q. The New York Times
• The Key Element Lacking From the Narrative About O.J. and Race. By Joel Anderson of Slate.
• Caitlin Clark delivered a successful phase on “Saturday Night Live.”
• Did One Man Simply Cease a Large Cyberattack? By Kevin Roose of The New York Times.
• How AI may rework baseball endlessly. By Josh Tyrangiel of The Washington Post.
• What Occurred to Damages That O.J. Simpson Owed to the Victims’ Households? By Anna Betts of The New York Times.
(Picture of Verne Lundquist at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership in 2012: Augusta Nationwide / Getty Photographs)
