Sportscaster Pat Summerall, who teamed with John Madden for more than two decades on NFL telecasts, forming one of the best known announcing duos in TV history, has died. He was 82.
His death was confirmed by Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell, according to the Associated Press. No other details were immediately available.
Summerall had been living in Southlake, Texas, in recent years.
Known for his deep, resonant voice and a smooth, understated delivery that wasted no words, Summerall worked with Tom Brookshier on the NFL for CBS from 1975 and was paired with Madden in 1981. Summerall and Madden went as a team to Fox in 1994 after that upstart network acquired NFL rights and the pair remained a team through the 2002 Super Bowl.
In 1999, Summerall was inducted into the American Sportscaster Assn.’s Hall of Fame.
Summerall worked 16 Super Bowls for CBS and Fox, the most by any network announcer.
In 2002, Madden left for ABC and Joe Buck replaced Summerall as Fox’s lead NFL play-by-play announcer.
Summerall was the low-key, concise counterpoint to Madden, the former NFL coach who offered exuberant yet knowledgeable analysis.
As Madden put it once: “I’d say about three or four paragraphs that didn’t make any sense, and he would say three words that would make sense out of my three paragraphs that didn’t make any sense.”
Before becoming a broadcaster, Summerall played 10 seasons in the NFL, primarily as a kicker with the Detroit Lions, Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants. His best years were with the Giants, who reached the NFL championship game in three of his four seasons with the team.
Summerall battled alcoholism throughout much of his life and wrote about it in his 2006 autobiography, “Pat Summerall: On and Off the Air.”
