Keith Jackson was the voice of college football.
The sports community lost a broadcasting legend on January 12 when Keith Jackson passed away at the age of 89.
Jackson was considered the voice of college football for almost 50 years getting his first start in broadcasting in 1952 calling games for Washington State on the radio.
From there, his career would span 52 years covering college basketball, Summer and Winter Olympics, NFL, NBA, MLB, auto racing and even a rowing match in the former Soviet Union.
His exemplary work as a broadcaster is unmatched. He is credited for the most iconic phrases including “Big Uglies” and “Whoa, Nellie,” and naming the Rose Bowl “Granddaddy of Them All,” and Michigan Stadium “The Big House.”
One of my favorite books about the game is Sporting News Presents Saturday Shrines: College Football’s Most Hallowed Grounds.
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Jackson did the forward for the book. In it, he writes, “The Rose Bowl…what ambience! Zin and shorts have replaced the chardonnay and crinoline, but it is still as close to the perfect place to watch a college football game as anyplace I know.”
Jackson’s career concluded at the Texas-USC national championship game at the Rose Bowl in 2006.
Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler are a good team, but I still have trouble not hearing Jackson call the Rose Bowl and the Game.
Jackson will always be my favorite broadcaster. I feel a little bad for the younger generation of fans and players. They never got to watch a master skillfully call a game while avoiding the pompous flair that often mires today’s game.
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I am sure there will be an extraordinary amount of tributes to Keith Jackson next fall. He earned it, but I doubt he would like the attention. That’s what made him special.