I'm a broadcast-journalism major at Syracuse University and I want to get into sports broadcasting for a career. There have been many different pioneers during the last 50+ years that have changed the way we listen to and watch sports. One of the greatest broadcasters/announcers/commentators or whatever you want to call them was Howard Cosell.
Cosell died 13 years ago today from a heart embolism in New York City. I thought I would honor his great work with some YouTube clips of him in action.
Cosell influenced popular culture more than probably any other sports broadcaster. He was the face of broadcasting. His legacy still lives on in movies today.
In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Cotton McKnight, the announcer, makes the epic call "Down Goes Goodman! Down goes Goodman." It's a spoof of Cosell's call the 1973 George Foreman and Joe Frazier fight. When Foreman knocks Frazier out, Cosell calls it as "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"
Cosell was not afraid to call out an athlete or speak his mind about him. He claimed Muhammad Ali would lose to George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle and then Ali would retire promptly after the fight. Cosell gave Ali bulletin board material with what he had to say.
Cosell and Monday Night Football had an odd relationship with John Lennon. The former Beatle appeared on MNF as a guest with Cosell talking about the differences between rugby and American football.
John Lennon would reappear on MNF, but for the wrong reason. Howard Cosell broke the news to the country that Lennon had been killed outside his apartment. The YouTube clip of this isn't embeddable, so here's the link.
Cosell also was a columnist for the New York Daily News. Here he does a Daily News commercial with Mike Lupica all the way back in 1985.
Cosell also hosted his own comedy show on ABC called "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell." The show only lasted three months, but it gave us this great skit with Dean Martin and Dick Martin.
Cosell died 13 years ago today from a heart embolism in New York City. I thought I would honor his great work with some YouTube clips of him in action.
Cosell influenced popular culture more than probably any other sports broadcaster. He was the face of broadcasting. His legacy still lives on in movies today.
In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Cotton McKnight, the announcer, makes the epic call "Down Goes Goodman! Down goes Goodman." It's a spoof of Cosell's call the 1973 George Foreman and Joe Frazier fight. When Foreman knocks Frazier out, Cosell calls it as "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"
Cosell was not afraid to call out an athlete or speak his mind about him. He claimed Muhammad Ali would lose to George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle and then Ali would retire promptly after the fight. Cosell gave Ali bulletin board material with what he had to say.
Cosell and Monday Night Football had an odd relationship with John Lennon. The former Beatle appeared on MNF as a guest with Cosell talking about the differences between rugby and American football.
John Lennon would reappear on MNF, but for the wrong reason. Howard Cosell broke the news to the country that Lennon had been killed outside his apartment. The YouTube clip of this isn't embeddable, so here's the link.
Cosell also was a columnist for the New York Daily News. Here he does a Daily News commercial with Mike Lupica all the way back in 1985.
Cosell also hosted his own comedy show on ABC called "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell." The show only lasted three months, but it gave us this great skit with Dean Martin and Dick Martin.
I leave you with one last Cosell video. The description from the person who posted this video says it all,
"This is the theme of MNF WAY before Hank and are you ready stuff. This is for us old timers who remember when MNF was great and looked forward to. "
R.I.P. Howard Cosell (3/25/1918 - 4/23/1995)
Photo Credit: kipadotta.com
8 comments:
Not to mention he was THE voice for Battle of the Network Stars, striking the perfect tone of both reporting and levity. I dare say that was some of his greatest work.
Unfortunately, Cosell always thought he was bigger than the event. He'd constantly jump on top of another announcer's call in a big moment and think nothing of it.
He was awful.
Howard was great on Monday Night Football. But he was also a pretty pompus person when he didn't need to be
Maybe it was that his wife died before him, but he just turned in to a disgruntled, grumpy person, who alienated just about everyone who came in to contact with him later in life.
Thanks for the tribute. If you want to be a journalist, perhaps you should spend some more time in your editing classes and less time embedding YouTube clips in a blog. If you got an A in that class I have lost a lot of respect for the Newhouse faculty.
There HAVE been many, not there has been
George FOREMAN, not FORMAN
"All the way back in 1985"? Damn you are young.
The show only LASTED three months, not last
That said, we all know broadcast journalists don't need to know how to spell as long they pronounce it properly.
"There has been many different pioneers during the last 50+ years that have changed the way we listen to and watch sports."
This is what they teach you at Syracuse?
Oh, I see someone already covered this. But I stopped reading right there.
Thanks ANONYMOUS for being the grammar police on my posts.
I'll make the change ASAP.
how anal do you have to be to correct grammar on a great blog?
anonymous @ 2:16 & @ 6:23 PM, 4/23:
Certainly there are ways in which you could go about offering unsolicited proofreading advice that don't involve your outing yourselves as unmitigated, gaping assholes.
CuseAdelphia: thanks for posting those vids; I hadn't seen footage of Ali in braggadocio mode since I was a little kid.
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