Goodbye to an NFL Legend
"Voice of football" Pat Summerall dies at 82
The sports world lost a legend today. Player-turned-broadcaster Pat Summerall died Tuesday of cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He was 82.
Summerall’s longtime partner John Madden released a statement that read in part:
He was a great broadcaster and a great man. He always had a joke. Pat never complained and we never had an unhappy moment. He was something very special. Pat Summerall is the voice of football and always will be.”
Summerall played in the NFL for 10 years, from 1953 to 1961, for the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants. But the Southlake resident was better known to sports fans as a broadcaster, for the likes of CBS, Fox and ESPN.
He helped broadcast 16 Super Bowls and was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. Whether it was the NFL, Masters or U.S. Open, Summerall was considered the standard of broadcasting.
“I don’t have many, but Pat Summerall was one of my heroes,” remarked WFAA’s Dale Hansen. “If he’s not the best there ever was, he’s on that incredibly short list.”
“He was royalty in the broadcast booth,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in a statement. “He was respected and admired by players, coaches, commissioners and presidents of our country. His presence at an NFL game elevated that event to a higher level.”
