Tag: Brent Musburger

Brent Musburger still jokes with Brian Kelly about Katherine Webb

‘Coach, you’d have been under the gun if it wasn’t for me.’

It has been 10 years since the echoes were awakened by [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] at Notre Dame when his Fighting Irish squad earned a berth in the BCS National Championship and took on mighty Alabama.

As for that game, the fun ended seconds after the team ran onto the field in what wound up a 42-14 massacre in favor of the Crimson Tide.

One part of that game that still gets mentioned by not just Notre Dame fans but college football fans all over is when legendary broadcaster Brent Musburger pointed out Katherine Webb, Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s then-girlfriend, in the stands.

Musburger joined Matt Fortuna and Pete Sampson on “The Shamrock” podcast this week and shared how he still jokes with Kelly about that to this day.

“Coach Kelly, who I know very well, now down at LSU having left Notre Dame,” he said. “I still tease him when he got blown out by Alabama in the national championship game, I took all the heat off him because I called a beauty queen beautiful. I was the villain that night in the eyes of the media, especially the woke journalists in some of the papers around the country.

“And, I say, ‘Coach, you’d have been under the gun if it wasn’t for me.’ And he laughs. He’s a good old politician. We’ll see what he does.” – Brent Musburger

Who says romance doesn’t exist?  A decade later McCarron and Webb are married with three kids.

Related:

Alabama, Florida, and Michigan among highlights of future Notre Dame opponents

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Mind-blowing facts about Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, part of Final Four and college hoops history

Jim Nantz will no longer do play-by-play at the Final Four after 2023. It’s the end of a long era in college basketball, leaving behind lots of truly remarkable facts.

It’s the end of an era in college basketball television.

Jim Nantz, the voice of the Final Four on network television since 1991, will step down from his college basketball play-by-play role at CBS Sports after the 2023 Final Four in Houston. Nantz attended the University of Houston, so next year’s Final Four offers Nantz a chance to leave his coveted seat in a city which means a lot to him. Ian Eagle will replace him at the 2024 Final Four, becoming the new lead voice for CBS-Turner’s NCAA Tournament coverage.

There’s a lot to unpack, and a lot of history to note for the record, in the wake of Nantz’s big decision:

Jason Horowitz named Raiders new radio play-by-play voice

Raiders have a new radio play-by-play voice

Since moving on from Brent Musburger this offseason, the Raiders have been in search of a new radio play-by-play voice. On Tuesday, they announced they have their man.

His name is Jason Horowitz and you may know him if you caught any Army Football games for CBS Sports Network or heard any of Westwood One’s NCAA Football and Basketball coverage over the past 13 years.

Said Horowitz in a statement to the Raiders website:

“As a kid, I used to pretend I was the voice for a team calling an epic interception, or the game-winning touchdown I want to thank Mark Davis and the Raiders organization for making that dream become a reality. I am humbled to join an historic franchise, following in the footsteps of the legends who have called games for the Silver and Black to the sport’s greatest fanbase.”

Horowitz’s additional work with Westwood One includes NCAA tournaments and Final Four games since 2014 and various shows on SiriusXM NFL Radio and ESPNU over the past 12 years.

Returning to the booth will be Raiders legend Lincoln Kennedy as the studio analyst — a role has held over the past four seasons.

All Raiders preseason, regular season and postseason game broadcasts originate via Compass Media Network on the Silver and Black’s flagship radio stations in Las Vegas, Lotus Broadcasting Corp’s Raider Nation Radio 920AM, the “Home of the Las Vegas Raiders” and KOMP 92.3 The Rock Station.

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Brent Musburger no longer Raiders radio play-by-play announcer

Brent Musburger’s time as Raiders radio play-by-play announcer is done

Shortly after the Raiders announced they would be relocating to Las Vegas, there was a change in the radio broadcasting booth. Longtime play-by-play man Greg Papa left and took over as the 49ers play-by-play voice. He was replaced by veteran NFL voice Brent Musburger.

Now, after years on the job, Musburger’s time as Raiders radio announcer is done. Musburger announced his departure on twitter Friday morning.

The 83-year-old was always going to be a short term option. Initially he signed a three-year contract that was up in 2020, but was retained for one more season after that.

Most well-known for his time as a CBS announcer in the 80s, he had long since bounced around to various networks, and up until 2017 had called college football games for ESPN.

He was 78 at the time of his announced retirement from play-by-play work and, as it happened, had started a sports handicapping business in Las Vegas, making for a somewhat convenient temporary fit until the Raiders could find a more long term play-by-play voice. He’s now 83 years of age.

No word yet on who will replace Musburger, or if Lincoln Kennedy will still be part of the broadcast team.

Las Vegas Raiders could put together MNF alumni booth

Jon Gruden, Brent Musburger and Jason Witten all have Monday Night Football on their resumes and currently, all are with the Las Vegas Raiders.

If everything doesn’t work out in the AFC West for the Las Vegas Raiders and changes come, the team could put together three of its most famous to compose a broadcast booth of Monday Night Football alums.

AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth

Jason Witten left the Dallas Cowboys to be an analyst in 2018. The one-year experiment did not work out well and the tight end returned to America’s Team last season. He left this offseason and signed a contract with the Raiders.

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Then, of course, Las Vegas could tap its coach, Jon Gruden, who was an analyst from 2009-17 before deciding to return to the sidelines as coach of the Raiders.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

What about a play-by-play voice? Well, the man who calls the Raiders games on the radio would make a splendid choice. Brent Musburger joined ABC in 1990 and one of his responsibilities was as the studio host for MNF through 1995. Al Michaels was calling the games so the way to work Musburger into MNF was as a host, including hosting halftime duties for Monday Night Football and Wild-Card round games.

 

Former Miss America, CBS football host Phyllis George dies at 70

Phyllis George had a remarkable life. Miss America, pioneer for women in sports broadcasting and a First Lady of Kentucky.

Phyllis George, one of the pioneers for women in sports broadcasting, died Thursday at age 70.

The former Miss American and First Lady of the State of Kentucky had developed a rare blood disorder in his 30s and had been told it would be problematic as she aged.

“Phyllis was a fighter and her children have shown her incredible love during this struggle,” Gov. John Y. Brown. “She was an incredible first lady for Kentucky.”

Per Kentucky.com:

The Browns, who divorced in 1998, had two children: Lincoln Tyler George Brown, a Lexington businessman, and Pamela Ashley Brown, who is White House correspondent for CNN.

Lincoln Brown said that he and his sister were with their mother during her final days.

“It’s an extraordinary story what she has been through in the last seven years with this,” he said.

George lived and extraordinary life.

She was crowned Miss America in 1971.

In 1975, George joined the cast of CBS Sports’ “The NFL Today.” She co-hosted live pre-game shows before NFL games, one of the first women to hold such a job. She worked with Brent Musburger, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, and Irv Cross on the pre-eminent show.

Each Sunday afternoon, The NFL Today aired three live versions of the half-hour pregame show — one at 12:30 p.m. for the East, another at 1:30 for Midwest stations and again at 3:30 for the West Coast — in addition to brief half-time breaks during the long afternoon. Until then, pregame shows had little cache; it was the postgame program with highlights from the Sunday games that held sway.

“When you’re the first, you’re a pioneer,” George told USA Today in a 1999 interview. “I felt they didn’t know who Phyllis George was. They played me up as a former Miss America, a sex symbol. I can’t help how I look, but below the surface, I was a hard-working woman. If I hadn’t made that work, women eventually would have come into sportscasting, but it would have taken them longer.”

 

Watch: Notre Dame’s Top Ten Men’s Basketball Buzzer-Beaters

Notre Dame has had some classic basketball finishes over the years. Relive the 10 best buzzer-beaters in program history by watching here.

Nothing in basketball is better than a game that comes down to a last second shot.  Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes Pat Connaughton leaps out of a gym and stuffs it before it ever has a chance to find the bottom of the net.

In their latest edition of #NDTop10, Notre Dame released their ten best men’s basketball buzzer beaters in program history.  Take the next three minutes and enjoy a couple hand-fulls of epic Fighting Irish basketball finishes.

I love that Rex Pflueger averaged 5.4 points per game during his Notre Dame career but managed to make the list twice, including the top spot.  I still don’t know how the Irish got by Stephen F. Austin that day but I’m not complaining.

Glad to see Torin Francis on the list on what was to me, Chris Thomas’s most-memorable play/assist at Notre Dame.

I still contest that stuffing someone at the buzzer should count for this though.