George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professional football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announced 16 Super Bowls on network television (more than anyone else), 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens. He contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst.
Summerall played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and then in the National Football League (NFL) from 1952 through 1961. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions and played with Bobby Layne. His best playing years were as a kicker with the New York Giants. In 1962 he joined CBS as a color commentator. He worked with Tom Brookshier and then John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox. Retiring after the 2002 NFL season, he occasionally announced games, especially those near his Texas home.
Summerall was named the National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1977, and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994. That year, he also received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. The Pat Summerall Award has been presented since 2006 during Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel "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."
Early life
Summerall acquired the nickname "Pat" after his parents divorced when he was a child. He was taken in by an aunt and uncle who had a son named Mike. "My aunt and uncle just started calling me Pat to go with their Mike", Summerall would say, referencing frequently named characters in Irish jokes told during that time.
Football career High school At Columbia High School, Lake City, Florida, Summerall played football, tennis, baseball, and basketball.Summerall and Levin, 2010 pg. 24–25 Basketball was his favorite sport; he was recognized as an All-State selection in basketball and football.Summerall and Levin, 2010 pg. 25 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 before leaving early for the NFL. He played defensive end, tight end, and placekicker for the Arkansas Razorbacks. An education major, he graduated in 1953 and later earned a master's degree in Russian history, according to ESPN.
Professional
Summerall spent 10 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 and Levin, 2010 pg. 27 Summerall played the pre-season with the Lions before breaking his arm, which ended his season after playing just two games for the Lions.Summerall and Levin, 2010 pg. 28–29 After that season, he was traded to the Chicago Cardinals where he played 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 December 14, 1958, regular-season finale between the 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. And the great Jim Brown was on the Cleveland roster. 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. The Browns, on the other hand, needed only a tie to clinch the Eastern championship. As time was running out, the Giants and Browns were tied, 10–10. The Giants got barely into Cleveland territory, and with two minutes left sent out Summerall to try for a tiebreaking 49-yard field goal. In spite of swirling winds and snow, Summerall, a straight-ahead kicker, kept the Giants alive for another week - who went on to beat Cleveland a week later, 10–0, in the Eastern Conference tiebreaker playoff before losing the sudden-death league championship final to Baltimore the following week.
Summerall had missed a mere 31-yard attempt a few minutes earlier. The Giants' offensive coach, Vince Lombardi, was against sending Summerall in,Maraniss, 1999 pg. 183 but gleefully greeted Summerall as he came off the field, "You son of a bitch, you can’t kick it that far!"Summerall and Levin, 2010 pg. 107Maraniss, 1999 pg. 184 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."Summerall's 49 Yarder Puts Giants in Playoff", The Daytona Beach Morning Journal, December 15, 1958, p. 10.
Summerall's last professional game was the 1961 NFL Championship Game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Lombardi's Green Bay Packers defeated the Giants, 37–0, holding New York to just six first downs.
NFL career statistics Legend Won the NFL Championship Led the league Bold Career high
Regular season Year Team GP Field goals Extra points Points FGA FGM Pct XPA XPM Pct 1952 DET 2 0 – – 0 – – 0 1953 CHC 12 24 9 37.5 23 23 100.0 50 1954 CHC 12 18 8 44.4 23 21 91.3 45 1955 CHC 11 19 8 42.1 25 23 92.0 47 1956 CHC 12 22 10 45.5 30 30 100.0 60 1957 CHC 12 17 6 35.3 26 24 92.3 42 1958 NYG 12 23 12 52.2 30 28 93.3 64 1959 NYG 12 29 20 69.0 30 30 100.0 90 1960 NYG 12 26 13 50.0 32 32 100.0 71 1961 NYG 14 34 14 41.2 46 46 100.0 88 Career 111 212 100 47.2 265 257 97.0 557
Postseason Year Team GP Field goals Extra points Points FGA FGM Pct XPA XPM Pct 1952 DET 0 Did not play due to injury 1958 NYG 2 2 2 100.0 3 3 100.0 9 1959 NYG 1 3 3 100.0 1 1 100.0 10 1961 NYG 1 0 – – 0 – – 0 Career 4 5 5 100.0 4 4 100.0 19
Broadcasting career In the early 1960s, Summerall was the morning host on WCBS (AM) radio in New York City. He left the job when WINS went all-news in 1965. He also co-hosted the syndicated NFL Films series This Week in Pro Football in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Summerall was also associated with a production company in Dallas from about 1998 through 2005 which was called Pat Summerall Productions. He was featured in and hosted various 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. Summerall served as the host of Sports Stars of Tomorrow and Future Phenoms, two nationally syndicated high school sports shows based out of Fort Worth, Texas.
CBS Sports
NFL After retiring from football, Summerall was hired by CBS Sports in 1962 to work as a color commentator on the network's NFL coverage. CBS initially paired Summerall with Chris Schenkel on Giants games; three years later he shifted to working with Jim Gibbons on Washington Redskins games. In 1968, after CBS abandoned the practice of assigning dedicated announcing crews to particular NFL teams, Summerall ascended to the network's lead national crew, pairing with Jack Buck and then Ray Scott. For the postgame coverage of the very first Super Bowl at the end of the 1966 season (which was simulcast by CBS and NBC), the trophy presentation ceremony was handled by CBS' Summerall (who worked as a reporter, while CBS' game coverage was called by Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford) and NBC's George Ratterman.
In 1969, Summerall took part in NBC's coverage of Super Bowl III. NBC used Summerall to provide an "NFL perspective" on the coverage, as in those pre-merger days NBC was the network television provider of the American Football League (while CBS was the network television provider for the National Football League). In return, CBS Radio's coverage of Super Bowls I, II and IV, used Tom Hedrick, normally the radio voice of the Kansas City Chiefs, to provide an "AFL perspective" for its coverage.
Midway through the 1974 NFL season, CBS shifted Summerall from color to play-by-play on the network's #1 NFL crew, alongside analyst Tom Brookshier (with whom he had previously worked on This Week in Pro Football). The Summerall-Brookshier duo worked 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 television sportscasting history. Summerall was initially opposed, preferring his longtime broadcast partner (and close friend) Brookshier, but CBS executives thought Brookshier and Summerall working together exacerbated their respective issues with alcohol. Summerall and Madden were first teamed on a November 25, 1979, broadcast of a Minnesota Vikings–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game due to Brookshier having a family commitment. The pair went on to call Super Bowls XVI, XVIII, XXI, XXIV, and XXVI for CBS.
In contrast to John Madden's lively, verbose persona, Summerall continued the traditionally minimalist delivery of his predecessor as CBS's main NFL announcer, Scott, allowing the pictures and his baritone-like voice to tell the story.
Summerall's last game alongside Madden for CBS (before the NFC television contract moved over to Fox) was the 1993 NFC Championship Game (which saw the Dallas Cowboys defeat the San Francisco 49ers in Irving, Texas to go to Super Bowl XXVIII against the Buffalo Bills in Atlanta).
Other CBS Sports assignments Summerall hosted a morning drive-time music/talk program for WCBS-AM radio in New York through 1966. He also covered other events such as professional golf, tennis, boxing, bowling, and the American Basketball Association (ABA).
Summerall broadcast PGA Tour golf tournaments on CBS, including the Masters Tournament, as well as the tennis US Open, during his tenure at CBS with Tony Trabert, and he was the play-by-play announcer for the 1974 NBA Finals (working alongside Rick Barry and Rod Hundley), CBS' first season broadcasting the NBA on CBS. In 1975, Summerall hosted the Pan American Games in Mexico, and in 1976 he teamed with Tom Brookshier to call some heavyweight boxing matches for CBS.
Summerall broadcast his first Masters in 1968, when he anchored the coverage at hole 18. In 1983, Summerall replaced Vin Scully (who had left CBS to work for NBC on their Major League Baseball and golf coverage) in the 18th hole tower role (a role that Scully was in since 1975). Summerall's broadcast partner during this period was Ken Venturi.
From 1969–1973, Summerall broadcast CBS' National Invitation Tournament coverage with Don Criqui. In 1985, Summerall once again called college basketball, working NCAA men's tournament games for CBS with Larry Conley.