LEGENDARY VOICE

Pulling back the curtain to spend a few good minutes with the great Pat Summerall

Jamie Dougher

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 10:58am

BROADCASTS LEGENDS: (L-R) John Madden and Pat Summerall.

AT WORK: Summerall called the action on 16 Super Bowls.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: A legend at work.

It's not every day you end up in a dark room with Pat Summerall.

The legendary NFL broadcaster announced the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee's Venue Selection news conference on May 12, and I was assigned to watch the "man behind the curtain" and see how the magic happened.

The news conference was designed as a take-off on televised award shows — with two celebrities approaching the podium, ripping open an envelope and in dramatic fashion announcing the winner. In this case the celebs were mostly football greats (such as Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith) and instead of announcing awards they were revealing where Super Bowl-related venues would be placed around the region (the aforementioned running back greats, for instance, were responsible for delivering the news that Taste of the NFL was headed to Fort Worth).

Summerall’s job for the day was to announce the gridiron legends as they took the stage, his famous voice letting everyone know that this event was a big, big deal.

He recorded a voiceover a day before the event, and as I walked into the room and heard his signature baritone before seeing him, I could have been back home on my couch, hearing the man whose voice is instantly recognizable to any American who's ever sat in front of the TV, chicken wing in hand, ready to watch a football game.

Summerall, a Southlake resident, has cultivated a broadcasting career that spans nearly 50 years and includes 16 Super Bowls. While his turn at the Host Committee event was for a more select audience, Summerall approached it with the same dedication and professionalism. Ever polished, in a sharp gray suit with a blue handkerchief in the pocket, Summerall commanded the room with poise, yet a genial nature. After a life spent behind the scenes but still in the spotlight, he was focused on the task at hand, preferring to have a microphone technician turn the device on and off.

During sound check, Summerall prepared a cup of tea, which I assumed he drinks to take care of that famous voice. He sipped and talked with someone over his headset while I tried to think of something clever to say. Somehow I don't think I came off as verbose or as colorful as his most familiar partner in the broadcast booth, John Madden.

As Summerall delivered his introductions, his hands gently clasped the lectern. He would glance upward with his bright blue eyes when he said a person's name, almost as if the person was right in front of him, and not shielded by a thick, black curtain. Perhaps this is Summerall's method, even if his subject is toiling on a football field below him. When a photographer came in to take some shots of Summerall at work, he didn't even seem to notice.

After his announcing duties and a short appearance in front of the crowd were over, he wanted to know if I needed anything else. Well, I said, there is one thing I was kind of curious about.

"Do you drink tea for your voice, or just because you like it?"

"I just like it," Summerall said with a smile. "But it was just hot water, I couldn't get the teabag open."

I guess even football and broadcasting icons fumble every once in a while.

 

FIVE THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT PAT SUMMERALL

HOW DID YOU GET INTO BROADCASTING?
“It was all totally by accident. I was playing with the Giants. I played 10 years in the NFL. I was playing for the Giants and I was in New York with a friend of mine and we were just sort of experimenting; looking to see what New York was all about, and he got a call. I didn’t get the call. And he got a call from CBS reminding him that he had an appointment that afternoon for an audition at CBS to read an audition script for a radio show. And he couldn’t come to the phone, so the gentleman that was on the phone asked me if I could relay the message to remind him that he was supposed to be over at CBS that afternoon to read this audition script. Then I told him that I’d be glad to tell him, but just before I hung up the phone, I heard him say something and I put the phone back to my ear. He said to me, “What are you doing this afternoon?” and I said, “Nothing. I don’t know what—I’m going out with the boys and we’re going to look around somewhere.” And he said, “Why don’t you come and read the audition script?” So I went with the guy that was my roommate and teammate, with the Giants at that time; and they liked the way I sounded. So I got the job. That’s the way I got started in broadcasting.”

WHAT’S YOUR MOST EMOTIONAL MOMENT IN THE BOOTH?
“In 1986 at Augusta, at the Master’s, when Jack Nicklaus won the tournament—when nobody gave him a chance. He was 46 years old. I remember sitting on the 18th tower, when Jack came up the 18th fairway. His son was caddying or him. The crowd was giving him such an ovation every step that he took up the 18th fairway, as I said. It was an ovation like I had never heard in sports before or since. And when he made the putt on 18 and dropped his putter on the green and his son dropped the bag—and they embraced on the 18th hole. It was something. I was overcome with emotion as I think everyone that was there or saw it on television was. It’s a good thing that I didn’t have to say anything. The picture told the story itself. Because I was so emotionally involved myself, I couldn’t have said anything, I don’t think if I had to.”

MANY PEOPLE REGARD THE 1958 GIANTS-COLTS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AS THE GREATEST GAME EVER. DO YOU AGREE?
“Well, as a matter of fact, I scored the first points in that game (on a 36-yard field goal). In my mind, we were tired. The Colts had had a week off, were rested. They were a better team ... I don't think by any classification it was the best game ever played. It was the first overtime game. And the New York papers happened to be on strike, so if you're gonna get coverage, you had to send a reporter from all over the country (to New York). So I think that had a big affect on the game. But ... I think the Colts were clearly a better team. In fact, we played them in a pickup game 25 years later in Central Park — and we still couldn't cover Raymond Berry.”

WHAT’S YOUR LASTING MEMORY FROM THE GAME?
“I remember that none of us, including the officials, coaches or captains, knew what to do when we finished the regulation game at 17-17. I turned to the guy sitting next to me on the bench and I said, 'What do we do now?' And I said, 'I think we've got to play some more.' I think the normal time between a regulation game and overtime was two or three minutes. But it was at least 15 minutes before we started the overtime quarter. Nobody knew what to do. “

WHAT ARE THE MOST MEMORABLE SUPER BOWLS YOU COVERED?
“(Super Bowl) I — though not necessarily a great game — but was No. 1 because it was a simulcast and No. 2, the Packers didn't want to be there. They thought they had won the championship of the league the week before. So they were reluctant to be there. I remember before the 49ers played Denver in New Orleans (in Super Bowl XXIV). We were riding with Mike Holmgren, now the Seahawks' coach and then the 49ers' offensive coordinator. We were with him on John Madden's bus the Thursday before the game and we were talking about how Denver played and this and that. And Holmgren said, "I'll tell you what. If Denver stays in that same defense, the renowned Orange Crush, my guy — meaning Joe Montana — will pick them to pieces." And I often thought since then, after talking to Holmgren and thinking about how good Montana was, if I'd have been a betting man, boy, that's a game I would have bet on. But I didn't. The 49ers won 55-17 and he picked them apart.”