Brent Musburger

Brent Woody Musburger became one of sports broadcastings most iconic voices over nearly five decades transforming every game he called into a major event through his signature gravitas and storytelling ability that made audiences feel they were witnessing history Born May 26 1939 in Portland Oregon and raised in Billings Montana Musburger sold programs at Billings Mustangs games as a boy and played Little League Baseball alongside future major league pitcher Dave McNally After attending Northwestern Universitys Medill School of Journalism and working briefly as a minor league baseball umpire in the ClassD Midwest League during the 1959 season Musburger began his career as a sportswriter for a nowdefunct Chicago American newspaper In 1968 Musburger joined CBS starting as a sports anchor for WBBM radio and television before CBS Sports hired him fulltime in 1973 By 1975 he became the original host of The NFL Today the groundbreaking Sunday pregame show that consistently ranked as televisions highestrated NFL studio program His signature catchphrase You are looking live became synonymous with weekend sports broadcasts while his stylized pronunciation of CBS CB eeezz created another memorable trademark Musburger is credited with coining the phrase March Madness to describe the NCAA Division I mens basketball tournament while covering the Final Four His most legendary broadcasts captured sports history at its most dramatic On November 23 1984 he called Doug Fluties miraculous Hail Mary touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan that defeated defending national champion Miami 4745 in the Orange Bowl forever known as Hail Flutie In October 1995 working for ABC Musburger delivered an electric call when Edgar Martinezs eleventhinning walkoff double scored Ken Griffey Jr to send Seattle Mariners to their first League Championship Series Mariners win it Mariners win it He also provided the soundtrack to the 1988 MiamiNotre Dame showdown known as Catholics vs Convicts and the tripleovertime thriller between Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns in the 1976 NBA Finals Fired from CBS during the 1990 Final Four Musburger quickly joined ABC Sports and ESPN where he called seven BCS National Championship games succeeded Keith Jackson as Rose Bowl playbyplay announcer in 2007 and became the SEC Networks lead voice for football and basketball in 2014 He retired from ESPN in January 2017 Currently Musburger serves as managing editor of Vegas Stats Information Network VSiN hosting My Guys in the Desert from a custom studio at South Point Casino He and his sons sold VSiN to DraftKings in March 2021 but repurchased it in 2024 Musburger served as Las Vegas Raiders radio voice from 2018 through 2022 and received the Pete Rozelle RadioTelevision Award in 2025 Married to Arlene Clare Sander since 1963 Musburger remains active in sports media at age 86