Keith Jackson and Dick Enberg: Giants of the Mike

Keith Jackson and Dick Enberg were two of the most important voices of sports on TV in the late 20th century.  Much like Curt Gowdy, Chris Schenkel and Jim McKay in a previous generation, and Joe Buck, Al Michaels and Jim Nantz are in this one.

Both Jackson and Enberg covered the NFL, college football, the NBA, the Olympic games, boxing and golf.  Both had their trademark catchphrases.  For Jackson, it was "Whoa Nelly! and "Fum-BLE!".  For Enberg, it was "Oh My!" and "Touch 'em all".

Both men had different career paths.  Jackson was best known as ABC's voice of college football, covering many a big game from Michigan's "Big House" to the Rose Bowl aka "the granddaddy of them all", and everywhere in between.  He was also behind the mike for three World Series, the first season of "Monday Night Football" (1970), the United States Football League, and many other events for "Wide World of Sports".

Enberg began as a local sportscaster in Los Angeles in the 1960s, broadcasting Rams football, Angels baseball, and UCLA football and basketball during the John Wooden era.  Then for three different networks (NBC, CBS and ESPN, in that order), he called eight Super Bowls, nine Rose Bowls, and many Wimbledon tennis championships.  He also helped usher in college basketball as a TV sport with his coverage in 1968 of the Houston-UCLA game at the Astrodome, the first to be seen in prime time.  Later he did the NCAA Final Four men's tournament for NBC with Al McGuire and Billy Packer.

Both men did other things on TV besides sports.  Jackson appeared in commercials.  Enberg did game shows, most notably "Sports Challenge", along with a few acting roles in which he mostly played himself.

Both men chose to end their careers on a high note:  Jackson with the Rose Bowl national championship game between Texas and USC in 2006, Enberg with local San Diego Padres baseball telecasts.

And both men died within a few weeks of each other:  Enberg on December 21 at age 82, Jackson on January 12 at 89.  In an era where today's play-by-play announcers are anonymous by comparison and more likely to talk about "walk-off" home runs and "two touchdown" football games, they could have learned a thing or two from Dick Enberg or Keith Jackson on how to call a sports event without sounding like a corporate drone.