Renowned American sports commentator Greg Gumbel has died of cancer at the age of 78, his family announced Friday.
Gumbel worked for CBS Sports for decades and was considered an integral part of American sports, particularly American football and basketball.
In 2001, he became the first black sports commentator to serve as the play-by-play announcer for the Super Bowl.
“He leaves behind a legacy of love, inspiration and dedication for 50 extraordinary years in the sports broadcasting industry, and his iconic voice will never be forgotten,” his family said in a statement. said.
The statement added that Gumbel “passed away peacefully surrounded by so much love after a courageous battle with cancer.”
“Greg approached his illness as one would expect, with stoicism, grace, and positivity.”
A native of New Orleans, Gumbel grew up in Chicago and first joined CBS in 1989 after years working on the Madison Square Garden Network’s New York Knicks basketball and Yankees baseball games.
But his beginnings were in the early 1970s, when executives at Chicago’s local NBC affiliate asked him to broadcast high school basketball games every weekend.
“He said, ‘I have this idea and I want you to take it and run with it,'” Gumbel recalled in a 2021 interview. “We introduced our viewers to a lot of people who later became famous.”
Jim Nantz, a CBS Sports veteran and another prominent sports anchor, called Gumbel “broadcasting royalty.”
“He was as selfless a broadcaster as anyone in this industry knows,” he said. “Our careers have intersected for nearly 35 years and he has been the perfect teammate and friend.”
“He was truly one of the greats,” Leslie Visser, another longtime colleague, told the BBC’s US partner CBS News. “He was just light-touch, witty, and everyone loved working with him.”
“Greg had an innate dignity that he brought to us,” she added.
At CBS Sports, Gumbel twice hosted the popular NFL Today pregame, halftime and postgame shows, including three Super Bowls in 1992, 2013 and 2016.
Gumbel also worked for NBC Sports for four years, hosting the “NFL on NBC” show and several other Super Bowl pregame shows.
He briefly took a break from NFL coverage in 2003, but returned in 2005 and continued in that role until 2022.
A longtime sportscaster, he was CBS Sports’ primetime anchor for the 1994 Winter Olympics and co-anchored the weekday broadcast for the 1992 Winter Olympics.
Additionally, he served as a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball and became an integral part of college football broadcasts.
In March of this year, he missed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament for the first time since 1997 due to unexplained health problems.
He has signed an extension with CBS in 2023, allowing him to return to covering college basketball while taking time off from his NFL reporting duties.
Gumbel is survived by his wife Marcy, daughter Michelle, and brother Bryant, a prominent broadcaster and former host of the “Today” show.
