Musburger calls it quits
Sportscaster Brent Musburger retires after a great career.
cBrent Musburger decided to call it a career on January 31st. He has played a pivotal role of announcing play-by-plays for a career that extended nearly 50 years.
The 77 year-old sportscaster has announced that he will get a sports handicapping business in Las Vegas.
“What a wonderful journey I have traveled with CBS and the Disney company. A love of sports allows me to live a life of endless pleasure. And make no mistake, I will miss the arenas and stadiums dearly. Most of all, I will miss the folks I have met along the trail.
— Brent Musburger
Musburger started working for CBS as a part time announcer for the NFL in 1973. While at CBS, Musburger was able to announce NCAA football and basketball games, also. Becoming the top voice for the NBA and the NCAA, Musburger found himself at the center of sportscasting.
In 1990, Musburger and CBS parted ways, and Musburger inked his new contract with ABC Sports. He went on to call college football, college basketball, the Little League World Series, MLB, host Monday Night Football, the 1991 Pan American Games, and contribute to ESPN Radio as either a commentator or calling the NBA.
Nearly a decade later, Musburger became ESPN’s lead sportscaster for college football. He called the 2000, 2004, and 2010-2014 BCS National Championship games.
His time at ESPN and serving as the major voice for college football led to one of the most memorable Musburger phrases: “You are looking live at…”
Along with this extraordinarily memorable saying, Musburger made a famous quote about the Clemson football team by saying, “When Clemson players rub that rock and run down the hill, it’s the most exciting 25 seconds of college football.”
Of Musburger’s career, most notably, in the 2013 BCS title game, Musburger changed the focus from a lackluster 42-14 beat-down to the girlfriend of former University of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, Katherine Webb.
Elliot Reiring adds, “Musburger made a pig of himself. He didn’t have to say anything at all and the audience would have been able to tell.”
The 2013 BCS title game seems to be what most of the millennial generation and generation Z will remember about Musburger. However creepy and excessive, Musburger’s comments about Webb made the quarterback’s girlfriend a celebrity.
He later attempted to defend these comments by saying, “I called a beauty queen beautiful… Are you kidding me?”
He called his final game on January 31, 2017 as the Kentucky Wildcats beat the Georgia Bulldogs in overtime.
Though Brent Musburger was never one to wow you with his statistical knowledge of the game, He will forever be remembered as a great story teller.
He was quoted saying, “I was never going to change because I’m a people guy. I like pulling up a chair in a saloon with a cold beer and telling stories.”
No matter what the future of sportscasting entails with its transition from story-telling to statistical knowledge, it will advance without the legend that has been Brent Musburger.
