Dick Enberg, Oh My!

Dick Enberg’s ambition as a boy was to be an outstanding athlete. He instead became an outstanding sportscaster. Since he first walked into a radio station in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, in 1955, Enberg has been one of the most versatile broadcasters in the country. Before signing with CBS in 2000 he spent 25 years at NBC, where he was known informally as "NBC’s Decathlete." In his long and colorful career he has announced NFL and college football, NBA and college basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, boxing, figure skating, gymnastics, horse racing, and track and field. He has won 13 Emmy awards as a sportscaster, writer, and producer and nine national Sportscaster of the Year awards. He has called just about every major sports event, including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Olympics, NCAA basketball finals, the Breeders’ Cup, Wimbledon, and golf’s U.S. Open and Ryder Cup. Besides his love of sports and his love of family—he has six children—Enberg has a deep and abiding love for education. Holding a doctorate in health education, he was an assistant professor at San Fernando Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge) before becoming a full-time sportscaster in 1965. He has served as spokesman for the CoSIDA Academic All-America program since 1985. He has also written Dick Enberg’s Humorous Quotes for All Occasions, a book that was published in 2000.

Jim Perry first met Dick Enberg in 1967 when he served as his sports producer at KTLA-TV in Hollywood. Besides his work at KTLA, Perry has spent 40 years as a sportswriter, broadcaster, and athletic administrator, including 10 years as sports information director at USC, where he produced two Heisman Trophy winners (Charles White and Marcus Allen), one Lombardi Award winner (Brad Budde), and 29 first-team All-Americans. He has also been a college football commentator for radio and television, the sports editor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and a writer-editor for NFL Properties. This is his second book.