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Dick Enberg Press Clips

Friday, December 22, 2017

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Dick Enberg, broadcast legend, dies at 82 SD Union Tribune Miller 2

Hall of Fame broadcaster Enberg dies at 82 MLB.com Cassavell 4

Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg dies at age 82 ESPN.com ESPN News 6

Sportscaster Dick Enberg — voice of baseball, football, Los Angeles Times Kupper 9

tennis and more — found dead at his La Jolla home at 82

TV sports great Dick Enberg shined when ceding spotlight Chicago Tribune Rosenthal 12

to others

Longtime sports broadcaster Dick Enberg dies at 82 USA Today Perez/Nightengale 15

Dick Enberg, legendary sportscaster, dies CNN Sterling 16

‘He’s a Mount Rushmore guy’: Dick Enberg remembered The Washington Post Bonesteel 18

as sports broadcasting’s versatile gentleman

Remembering Dick Enberg's One-In-A-Million Sports Sports Illustrated Deitsch 20

Broadcasting Career, Life

Dick Enberg, legendary sportscaster, dies at 82 NFL.com Maya 22

Dick Enberg (1935-2017): An appreciation LA Daily News Hoffarth 23

Legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg, voice of Super Bowls CBS Sports CBS Sports staff 26

and Wimbledon, dies at 82

Broadcasting Legend Dick Enberg Dies at Age 82 Bleacher Report Polacek 27

Longtime Sportscaster Dick Enberg Found Dead at Home at 82 Associated Press AP 28

Sportscaster Dick Enberg, Whose Career Spanned 60 NPR McCallister 31

Years, Dies At 82

Dick Enberg, 82, found dead at his Southern California Fox News Fox News 32

home, family says

US sports broadcasting legend Dick Enberg, 82, dies in CNBC.com CNBC 33

San Diego: Media

Dick Enberg, Hall of Fame sportscaster, died at the age of 82 Entertainment Weekly Romano 34

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Dick Enberg, broadcast legend, dies at 82

Bryce Miller

Legendary sports broadcaster and former Padres play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg died Thursday morning at his La Jolla home, said his wife, Barbara. He was 82.

Barbara Enberg said the family found out later in the day after Dick Enberg failed to catch a flight to Boston, where they were scheduled to meet. She said her husband appeared to be waiting for a car that was set to shuttle him to San Diego International Airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

“He was dressed with his bags packed at the door,” she said. “We think it was a heart attack.”

Enberg defined versatility as a broadcaster, covering 28 Wimbledon tournaments, 10 Super Bowls and eight NCAA basketball title games as the play-by-play voice of the UCLA Bruins during their dynasty-building run.

Enberg’s talented voice was paired with relentless preparation and a zest for telling the stories behind a generation’s biggest games. He cared as much about calling a water polo match as a rising star in Los Angeles as the Super Bowls, Rose Bowls, Olympics and Breeders’ Cup spotlights that followed.

His last full-time role came as the TV voice of the Padres. He retired after the 2016 season.

“We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg,” the Padres said in a statement released late Thursday night. “Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family.”

The farm kid raised in rural Armada, Mich., also gained a fierce appreciation for the small guy, the underdog and especially education — sparking the Central Michigan graduate to fund an annual scholarship.

“I’m heartbroken,” former Padres broadcast booth partner Mark Grant said Thursday night. “It’s so sad. I thought Dick was the type of guy who was going to live until he was 100, going on the circuit, talking to everybody about baseball and football and tennis.”

Enberg — known for his signature call of “Oh, my!” — channeled his passion for sports and the people behind them into a new podcast called “Sound of Success,” interviewing stars such as Billie Jean King, Bill Walton, Johnny Bench and Steve Kerr.

He told the Union-Tribune earlier this week that he hoped to lure NBA legend Magic Johnson, controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and actor Jack Nicholson to his online world.

“At the very top of the list,” he said, “is Serena Williams.”

Enberg’s six-decade career felt unparalleled.

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Former NFL partner Dan Dierdorf told the Union-Tribune for a 2016 story: “The man is a walking monument to sports television.”

In the same story, tennis great John McEnroe put Enberg’s mammoth, unmatched resume in perspective.

“If people ask me the top tennis players, when I throw out (Rod) Laver, (Pete) Sampras, Rafa (Nadal), Roger (Federer), I would put him in the same category,” McEnroe said. “He’s a Mount Rushmore guy.”

Service information is pending. Padres Chairman Ron Fowler, who has known Enberg for more than 25 years, said Thursday night that the team has offered the family use of Petco Park for a celebration of life.

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Hall of Fame broadcaster Enberg dies at 82 By AJ Cassavell MLB.com @AJCassavell 12:10 AM ET

SAN DIEGO -- For half a century, the biggest moments in sports were often accompanied by the warm and inviting tones of Dick Enberg's voice. Enberg, who won the 2015 National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award and earned equivalent honors from the football and basketball Halls of Fame, passed away on Thursday. He was 82.

Enberg is the only person to win an Emmy as a sports broadcaster, writer and producer, and during his ceremony in Cooperstown, he deemed the Frick Award "the culmination" of his professional life behind the microphone. Enberg concluded a career that spanned six decades with seven seasons as the play-by-play voice of the San Diego Padres from 2010-16.25th, 2015

"We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg," read a statement from Padres ownership. "Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family."

:06 AM ET

In a 50-year career, Enberg called 42 NFL seasons, 28 Wimbledon tennis tournaments, 15 NCAA basketball title games, 10 Super Bowls, nine Rose Bowls and the 1982 World Series. He earned 14 Emmy awards and nine Sportscaster of the Year awards. Name a major sporting event, chances are Enberg called it.

"He was the voice of my childhood in sports," said Padres color commentator Mark Grant, who worked alongside Enberg for seven seasons. "He was the voice that when you heard it on a game, it mattered. Football, Wimbledon, college basketball, Super Bowls, his resume speaks for itself., 2016

"It was an honor to sit next to him for seven years. Here I am as a little kid, 8 years old, watching UCLA basketball games with my dad in the basement of our house, and Dick Enberg is doing the game. Fast forward in my career, and all of a sudden, I'm sitting next to him, talking about Padres baseball. It's surreal. You find out that people who you admire are regular people, too. They have passions about certain things. They have good hearts. It's sad, it really is. I honestly thought Dick was going to be a guy who was going to live to like 105."

Baseball, Enberg constantly reiterated, was always his first love. He served as a teacher and baseball coach at San Fernando Valley State College from 1962-65. It was there that he developed his two signature catchphrases: "Oh, my!" and "Touch 'em all!" AM ET

Enberg called his first Major League Baseball game in 1969 and spent time on Angels and national broadcasts for parts of the next two decades. He called his 2015 ceremony in Cooperstown "the greatest weekend of my life."

"I've loved this game as far back as I can remember, being teethed on a baseball bat," said Enberg upon the announcement that he'd be honored in Cooperstown. "To have this, and my

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love for a sport, it's too good to be true, especially in light of those who are so qualified to earn this Ford C. Frick Award."

Enberg's colleagues from around the broadcasting world immediately took to social media to convey their sadness of his passing, while also celebrating one of the most beloved members of the industry.

Born and raised in Michigan, Enberg earned his bachelor's degree at Central Michigan University and got his first experience broadcasting college athletics at Indiana University. He began a full-time broadcasting career at KTLA in Los Angeles, serving as a voice for UCLA basketball, Los Angeles Rams football and California Angels baseball games. He gained fame calling the dominant Bruins basketball teams of the 1970s, and also called the famous 1979 NCAA championship game featuring Indiana State's Larry Bird and Michigan State's Magic Johnson.AM ET

Enberg joined NBC Sports in 1975, when he got his first experience calling MLB postseason contests. The Angels hired him back to broadcast for the team in 1985 before he went on to be a national voice once again for CBS Sports. Throughout his career, Enberg called nine no-hitters, noting upon his retirement, "There's no drama like that in any other sport."10th, 2014

Enberg regularly recounted the story of how he received his first job in the business. In his early 20s, he walked into a Mount Pleasant, Mich., radio station in search of a custodial job. Instead, he was given work as a weekend disc jockey and local sports show host.

"What if I had been given the job I wanted?" Enberg often quipped, with a wry grin.

Instead, more than half a century later, Enberg has passed away as an icon in the sports world, one of the most fabled and soothing voices the industry has ever known.

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Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg dies at age 82 p 6:17 AM PT

ESPN News Services

Dick Enberg, the Hall of Fame broadcaster whose "Oh my!" calls rang familiar with so many sports fans, has died, his wife and daughter confirmed Thursday night.

He was 82.

Enberg's daughter Nicole said the family became concerned when he didn't arrive on his flight to Boston on Thursday and that he was found dead at his home in La Jolla, a San Diego neighborhood, with his bags packed for a trip to see his third grandchild for the first time. The family said it was awaiting official word on the cause of death but believed he had a heart attack.

The family "is grateful for the kind thoughts and prayers of all of Dick's countless fans and dear friends," according to a statement released by Enberg's attorney, Dennis Coleman. "At this time we are all still processing the significant loss, and we ask for prayers and respectful privacy in the immediate aftermath of such untimely news."

Enberg was one of America's most beloved sports broadcasters, with his versatile voice spanning the world on networks such as NBC, CBS and ESPN. In all, he covered 28 Wimbledons, 10 Super Bowls and eight NCAA men's basketball title games, including the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird showdown in 1979.

His work was celebrated with a host of honors, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award (2015), the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Rozelle Award (1999) and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Gowdy Award (1995). He won 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and UCLA named its media center in Pauley Pavilion after Enberg this year.

Most recently, Enberg had served as the primary play-by-play television voice of the San Diego Padres, retiring in 2016 after seven seasons with the team.

"Baseball," he said then, "has been in my DNA from the time I was in diapers."

The Padres released a statement Thursday night.

"We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg," the statement read. "Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family."

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Padres chairman Ron Fowler, who has known Enberg for more than 25 years, said Thursday night that the team has offered the family use of Petco Park for a celebration of his life.

Born and raised in Michigan, Enberg graduated from Central Michigan, where he began his broadcasting career as an undergraduate. He later moved to California, doing TV work for the UCLA Bruins and radio work for the California Angels and Los Angeles Rams. During his nine years broadcasting UCLA basketball in the 1960s and '70s, the Bruins won eight NCAA titles. He said the Jan. 20, 1968, Houston-UCLA game, dubbed "The Game of the Century," in which the Bruins' 47-game winning streak was snapped in front of 52,693 fans at the Astrodome, was the most historically important event he covered. It was the first NCAA regular-season game broadcast nationwide in prime time.

"That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere," Enberg said. "The '79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to credit that as the greatest game of all time. That was just the booster rocket that sent it even higher. ... UCLA, unbeaten; Houston, unbeaten. And then the thing that had to happen, and Coach [John] Wooden hated when I said this, but UCLA had to lose. That became a monumental event.''

In 1975, Enberg joined NBC Sports and remained with the network for 25 years, covering the World Series, NFL games and Wimbledon, among other sports and marquee events.

He went on to do work for CBS Sports and ESPN, with his voice commonly associated with the NFL and college basketball games, as well as the all-grass tennis tournament in England.

"All of us at CBS Sports are saddened to hear of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Enberg," read a statement from Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. "There will never be another Dick Enberg. As the voice of a generation of fans, Dick was a masterful storyteller, a consummate professional and a true gentleman. He was one of the true legends of our business. His passion, energy and love for the game will surely be missed. Our deepest sympathies go out to Barbara and his entire family."

An Enberg interview was published Thursday as part of his Sound of Success podcast. His guest was veteran TV producer and executive Andy Friendly. At one point in the extensive interview, Friendly paused to share his admiration for the legendary Enberg.

"I'm especially honored to be talking to you," he said. "I mean -- 'Oh my!' I grew up watching you do the NFL, especially Wimbledon. I was a tennis player growing up. ... I'm a golfer, a bad one now. ... And I just watched you religiously. ...

"This is a true honor, and I can't wait to read your book on Ted Williams, who is a true hero of mine.

"You are one of my true heroes and one of the true greats of our business, Dick. It's a real honor, and I'm not just blowing smoke, and I know your listeners know this already. I am talking to broadcast royalty today, and I am thrilled to be doing it."

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Enberg is the only person to win Emmy Awards as a sportscaster, a writer and a producer.

His death comes just weeks shy of his 83rd birthday, which would have been on Jan. 9. He is survived by his wife, five children and three grandchildren.

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Sportscaster Dick Enberg — voice of baseball,

football, tennis and more — found dead at his La

Jolla home at 82 Mike Kupper

He had a bad cold and his voice, what was left of it, was croaky and raw. This was his fourth NCAA basketball tournament game in two days, and Dick Enberg didn’t think he could finish it. That had never happened before, but it was happening now.

So, during a commercial break, Enberg turned to his broadcast partner Al McGuire and asked the former Marquette coach, who had never done play-by-play, to take over.

Shaking his head, McGuire said, “Dicksie, if you’re goin’, I’m goin’.”

So, of course, Enberg carried on, whispering his way to the finish in true the-show-must-go-on fashion.

Enberg, who got into the broadcast business accidentally and stayed in it to supplement his teacher’s salary, died Thursday morning at his La Jolla home, his wife, Barbara, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

He was 82.

Barbara Enberg said the family found out later in the day when Dick Enberg failed to get off a flight in Boston, where they were scheduled to meet. She said her husband had appeared to be waiting for a car that was set to shuttle him to the San Diego airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

“He was dressed with his bags packed at the door,” she said. “We think it was a heart attack.”

Long recognized as one of the most versatile and enthusiastic sports announcer of his era, Enberg did it all: major league baseball, college and pro football, college basketball, boxing, tennis, golf, Olympics, Rose Bowls and Super Bowls, Breeders’ Cup horse racing — earning a trophy case full of Emmys, awards from the pro football, basketball and baseball halls of fame, niches in several broadcasting halls of fame and other assorted honors.

He also was an author, a longtime fixture at Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses parade, the host of several sports-themed TV game shows and was still calling San Diego Padresbaseball games into his 80s.

“Sportscasting is a kid’s dream come true, which is one of the reasons that I keep doing it,” he said in his autobiography, “Dick Enberg, Oh My!” the “Oh my!” having been his signature call. “I can’t let my dream go. I’m still in love with what I do.”

And how well did he do it? “He could orchestrate a telecast better than anyone I’ve ever worked with,” Billy Packer, former college basketball analyst and longtime Enberg broadcast partner,

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once told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I think anybody who worked with him would just stand in amazement at how great he was at anything he undertook.”

As a former teacher, Enberg was noted for his preparation and his knowledgeable yet eager approach to his craft.

“As a broadcaster, you have to be entertaining, you have to be well informed, you have to be excited about what you know and you have to have a sense of your audience — just like in a classroom,” he wrote in his book. “In fact, when I look into the camera, I’m looking into my classroom. When I’m calling a game, I can envision hands shooting up all over the country with questions. ‘Whoops,’ I’ll think, ‘perhaps we need to explain that concept or strategy a little better.’ ”

Even research and preparation weren’t always foolproof, though. Fans could be picky, and when Enberg began using one of his pet calls, “Touch ’em all!” for opposing teams’ home run hitters, Padres faithful rose up in protest and he quickly reserved that call for Padres’ home run hitters.

“Oh my!” was an Enberg family saying, his mother using it to express dismay, such as during the many hours young Dick spent broadcasting imaginary games. He used it to express wonder at athletic grace, but it could just as well have applied to his life.

Richard Alan Enberg was born Jan. 9, 1935, in Mount Clemens, Mich. The family moved to Southern California for several years, then back to Michigan, to a farm near the village of Armada. “We had a one-room schoolhouse and a two-hole toilet,” Enberg recalled for The Times years ago.

He quarterbacked his high school football team, then after graduation, enrolled at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, where he played college baseball. And, fortunately, took a course in debate. One of his debate classmates was the public-address announcer for the Chippewas’ football and basketball teams, and when he graduated the job was passed down to Enberg. He also applied for a job sweeping floors, at $1 an hour, at the local radio station. A station employee liked Enberg’s voice, and instead of a broom he was handed a microphone and went to work as a weekend disc jockey, still at $1 an hour. When the station’s sports director left, Enberg moved into that slot, producing a 15-minute nightly wrap-up.

All of that was fun, but Enberg had more serious things on his mind. After graduation, he enrolled in graduate health science studies at Indiana University, eventually earning both master’s and doctoral degrees. Just as he was arriving in Bloomington, though, a Hoosier radio network was being put together and Enberg was hired, at $35 a game, to broadcast football and basketball.

Four years later, doctorate in hand, he applied for a teaching job at Indiana University. He didn’t get it, but a flier on the health sciences bulletin board, offering a teaching position at San Fernando Valley State College — now Cal State Northridge — caught his eye. Recalling his early boyhood days in Canoga Park, he applied for and got the job, teaching health science and assisting the baseball coach.

The pay was small, and the now-married Enberg went looking for extra income in the other area he knew, broadcasting. He tried more than a dozen stations in the spring of 1962, getting no call-

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backs. Changing tactics, he began identifying himself as Dr. Enberg, finally got put through to program directors and was able to pick up part-time work.

He got his big break in 1965. KTLA, Channel 5, was looking for a sportscaster and Enberg was hired, at $18,000 a year. “I felt guilty because that was triple what I made as a teacher,” he recalled for The Times in 1987. “Then I found out I was being paid 10% under the union minimum.”

In quick succession, Enberg was calling the weekly televised boxing cards at Olympic Auditorium, became the radio announcer for the Los Angeles Rams, and began working UCLA telecasts during the Bruins’ John Wooden-Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) glory years.

Then it was on to a decade-long association with the Angels, until NBC called. There, he, McGuire and Packer formed an unforgettable NCAA tournament trio, Enberg serving as buffer between the “What will he say next?” McGuire and the almost dour, statistics-driven Packer. So taken was Enberg with the irrepressible McGuire — “My most unforgettable character, and there’s nobody in second place!” — that he later wrote a one-act play about him, “Coach: The Untold Story of College Basketball Legend Al McGuire.”

Basketball also gave Enberg, and his fans, an especially memorable experience. In a UCLA-Oregon game in 1970, Oregon went into a stall, leaving Enberg with little to talk about and air time to be filled. He began humming “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” from the big movie of the previous year, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

At the next game, UCLA’s pep band played the song and the student section called for him to sing it. He demurred, saying he didn’t know the words, but they insisted and he promised he’d learn them. Then, after the last home game of the regular season, he walked to mid-court and sang.

A few days later, he heard from a music professor, who wrote, “I’ve spent 30 years studying music and you hit two notes I’ve never heard before.”

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TV sports great Dick Enberg shined when ceding spotlight to others Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune

It was second-and-20 in the first series of the second half with the Bears already up 23-3 when Otis Wilson, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent blew past the Patriots offensive line.

“Here they come, a jail break,” NBC’s Dick Enberg said as Wilson and Hampton closed in on quarterback Steve Grogan, Wilson credited with the sack for a loss of 13, dropping Grogan on his 10. “If this were a fight, they’d have to stop it.”

With that, Enberg neatly summarized a Super Bowl XX rout in which the Bears would open a 41-point lead in the third quarter. The 46-10 shuffling of the Pats almost 32 years ago earned what remains the only Lombardi Trophy at Halas Hall.

While associated with the catchphrase “Oh, my!” — emblematic of the enthusiasm he seemed to bring to every assignment — as well the essays he crafted to close the annual tennis championships at Wimbledon and other major sports events, Enberg, who died Thursday in California of an apparent heart attack at 82, was truly at his best reacting in the moment.

Enberg wasn’t flashy. He never overwhelmed the events he covered and rarely left fingerprints on a broadcast. He was an excellent reporter with a keen eye, a sense of humor and whimsy and a rarely equaled ability to distill what unfolded before him in an unadorned manner.

Peak Enberg was when he was simply calling the action, often ceding the spotlight to colleagues such as Merlin Olsen on football and Al McGuire and Billy Packer on college basketball or to the events and athletes they described.

These included the 1979 Final Four in which Mark Aguirre and DePaul lost to Indiana State, setting up a title matchup of Larry Bird versus Magic Johnson and Michigan State (which Enberg also called for NBC) in what remains the highest-rated college basketball game ever.

Ditto on CBS when Illinois earned a 2005 Final Four berth with an overtime upset of top-seeded Arizona in Rosemont.

The ease with which Enberg seemed to do all of this belied the onetime professor’s dedication to preparation and the skills accumulated in a broadcasting career that spanned parts of seven decades and, it seemed, almost every sport.

His network work included calling eight Super Bowls while pregame host for another, as well as announcing six NCAA men’s basketball title games, nine Rose Bowls, 28 Wimbledon tournaments, part of one World Series, some NBA basketball and three Olympics, plus hosting seven Breeders’ Cup horse racing broadcasts.

Enberg also called play-by-play for the syndicated TVS ad hoc network when Notre Dame upended visiting UCLA in 1974 to end the Bruins’ 88-game winning streak and in 1968 when an earlier Bruins winning streak ended at 47 with a loss to unbeaten Houston in a prime-time spectacle at the Astrodome.

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The latter, featuring Houston’s Elvin Hayes and the John Wooden-coached Bruins led by Kareem-Abdul Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), was put together by future White Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn. It established there was a national TV audience interested in college basketball.

“That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere,” Enberg told USA Today last year. “The ’79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to credit that as the greatest game of all time. That was just the booster rocket that sent it even higher.”

In Southern California, where greats such as the Dodgers’ Vin Scully, the Lakers’ Chick Hearn and the Kings’ Bob Miller were setting a very high bar, Enberg held his own over the years as the local voice of UCLA basketball (a nine-year run that included eight national championship teams), the Rams, Angels and most recently Padres, the job from which he retired last year.

Enberg got his start in broadcasting humbly. After applying for a job sweeping up at a local radio station, he was hired as a weekend disc jockey for $1 an hour while an undergraduate at Central Michigan.

Working toward his master’s degree and doctorate in health science studies at Indiana in 1957 at age 22, he began announcing football and basketball on radio for $35 a game. That’s the equivalent of $305 today.

Enberg accepted a teaching position at what’s now Cal State Northridge — and served as assistant baseball coach — in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley but soon realized he needed to supplement his pay with sportscasting work.

Eventually he left the classroom behind but would take a teacher’s interest in promising young people. To media newcomers, he was generous with time, advice and encouragement.

As with his broadcasts, he was almost always smiling. Even unseen, one sensed it in his voice.

Enberg, however, was stoic on the day in 1988 when he learned while at Wimbledon that NBC had lost the rights to the Rose Bowl to ABC. The New Year’s Day game was still annually a matchup of the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions then. He was philosophical about his bosses being outbid, but there was no smile.

To someone who grew up in Michigan and California, as Enberg did, the Rose Bowl meant a great deal. Yet he understood and accepted the situation.

He likely had the same reaction a few years earlier, when, after sharing 1982 World Series announcing duties with Joe Garagiola for NBC, the network hired Scully as its lead baseball announcer and World Series play-by-play man.

The move made sense. Scully arguably was the best baseball announcer of all time, though Enberg also is a winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting. But Enberg’s favorite sport was always baseball.

Being in LA, Enberg scored cameos in films such as “Heaven Can Wait” and “The Naked Gun.” He also hosted a few game shows, the syndicated “Sports Challenge” being the best of them.

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What no one would ever mistake him for, however, is a singer. Despite his preparation, he once famously ran out of things to talk about during a Wooden-era UCLA basketball blowout.

With the Bruins going into an early stall against Oregon on a rainy night in 1970 at Pauley Pavilion, Enberg was struggling to burn off the clock himself and wound up humming the tune “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from the film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” He didn’t know the words.

This struck a chord with Bruins fans, and Enberg was coaxed to agree to perform the song at center court if UCLA clinched the conference title. Every time Wooden’s squad opened a big lead after that, the UCLA band would play “Raindrops.”

When the Bruins sewed up the championship, Enberg had to follow through. He missed a lot of notes but connected with fans, many of whom opened umbrellas as he sang.

“… Crying’s not for me, ’cause/I’m never gonna stop the rain by complaining/Because I’m free/Nothing’s worrying me.”

It was one of the few times he allowed himself to be the main attraction, and, though uncomfortable, he still managed a smile.

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Longtime sports broadcaster Dick Enberg dies at 82 A.J. Perez and Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY

Published 1:22 a.m. ET Dec. 22, 2017 | Updated 9:15 a.m. ET Dec. 22, 2017

Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Wimbledon

tournaments that Enberg worked. He called 28 Wimbledon tournaments.

Legendary sports broadcaster Dick Enberg, whose career spanned parts of seven decades, died on

Thursday. He was 82.

Enberg’s wife, Barbara, confirmed her husband’s death to USA TODAY Sports on Thursday night.

She told The San Diego Union-Tribune it appeared Enberg suffered a heart attack at their La Jolla,

Calif., home as he prepared to fly from San Diego to Boston on Thursday morning.

After high-profile roles with NBC and CBS, Enberg called San Diego Padres games as the team’s

main television voice for seven years before he retired at the conclusion of the 2016 season.

"What’s important to my future is that I can continue on my terms," Enberg told USA TODAY Sports

in 2011. "At my age, the foot gets bigger that can kick you in the ass and you’re out the door. I’d

rather close it gently myself."

Enberg was a fixture in the Southern California sports landscape through the 1960s and 1970s. He

broke onto the national scene as a game show host and joined NBC, where became the network's

lead NFL and MLB play-by-play voice.

Enberg called a total eight Super Bowls with NBC, half of those coming alongside Merlin Olsen. He

recalled in an interview with USA TODAY Sports last year about calling Super Bowl XVII in January

1983 with Olsen as they experienced technical issues in the booth.

"The wires were crossed or something," Enberg said. "We would start a sentence, and then there

was a delay where we heard what we just said as we attempted to speak again. It was maddening.

It was so awful I thought maybe we had been sabotaged by another network."

Beyond the NFL and MLB, Enberg called 28 Wimbledon tournaments, the last coming in 2011 with

ESPN. He also called the biggest events in golf and boxing.

Enberg appeared in Naked Gun, seated alongside another broadcast legend, Mel Allen, and made

other appearances on both the big and small screen.

Enberg grew up near Detroit and earned his bachelor's degree from Central Michigan in 1957. He

later earned degrees from Indiana University before moving to Southern California to take a job as

an assistant basketball coach at Cal State Northridge State before he embarked on his broadcast

career.

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Dick Enberg, legendary sportscaster, dies By Joe Sterling, CNN Updated 1:15 PM ET, Fri December 22, 2017

• Enberg called the Padres before retiring • He was famous for his catchphrase, "Oh My"

(CNN)Sportscaster Dick Enberg, the celebrated and beloved announcer who for decades delivered play-by-play of major American sports, often with his "Oh My" catchphrase, has died, his family said. He was 82.

"TV sportscaster Richard Alan 'Dick' Enberg a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend passed away yesterday," Enberg's attorney, Dennis Coleman, told CNN in a statement Friday on behalf of Enberg's family.

"The family is grateful for the kind thoughts and prayers of all of Dick's countless fans and dear friends," he said. "At this time we are all still processing the significant loss, and we ask for prayers and respectful privacy in the immediate aftermath of such untimely news." Enberg called 42 NFL seasons, 28 Wimbledon tennis tournaments, 15 NCAA basketball title games, 10 Super Bowls, nine Rose Bowls and the 1982 World Series, according to MLB.com. He won 14 Emmy awards and nine Sportscaster of the Year awards, and worked for NBC, CBS and ESPN. "There will never be another Dick Enberg," said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. "As the voice of generations of fans, Dick was a masterful storyteller, a consummate professional and a true gentleman. He was one of the true legends of our business." Enberg died Thursday morning at his home in San Diego's La Jolla neighborhood, his wife Barbara said, according to The San Diego Union Tribune. She is quoted as saying he didn't get off a flight in Boston, where they were to meet. She said Enberg appeared to have been awaiting a car to take him to the San Diego airport when he died. "He was dressed with his bags packed at the door," she is quoted as saying. "We think it was a heart attack." 'We are immensely saddened' Two years ago, Enberg won the Ford C. Frick Award, the baseball Hall of Fame honor for excellence in broadcasting. He also earned honors from the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and last worked for baseball's San Diego Padres, retiring in 2016.

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"We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg," Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler and Managing Partner Peter Seidler said in a statement. "Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade," they said. "On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family."

'Our hearts are heavy' Born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, in 1935, Enberg played college baseball at Central Michigan University, according to the Walk of Fame organization, and a student-athlete academic center at the school bears his name. "Nobody carried their love for Central Michigan as far and wide and as Dick Enberg," associate vice president and athletics director Michael Alford said, according to a CMU Athletics tweet. Enberg earned master's and doctorate degrees from Indiana University and voiced the first radio broadcast of the Little 500, the bicycle race featured in the film "Breaking Away," according to the Walk of Fame organization. For a time, he called Indiana Hoosiers basketball and football games. "Our hearts are heavy today," Indiana University said in a tweet. Enberg also did play-by-play for baseball's California Angels and the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. He called UCLA Bruins basketball games during their string of NCAA titles in the '60s and '70s, led by Coach John Wooden. He called the 1979 Final Four championship game between Michigan State and Indiana State. The game, won by Michigan State, is famous for the rivalry between top players, Michigan State's Magic Johnson and Indiana State's Larry Bird. Enberg handled the January 1968 Houston-UCLA basketball game at the Astrodome, famously known as the "The Game of the Century." Houston ended UCLA's winning streak in what was the first regular season national broadcast in prime time. "That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere," Enberg said, according to ESPN and other sources. "The '79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to credit that as the greatest game of all time That was just the booster rocket that sent it even higher. ... UCLA, unbeaten; Houston, unbeaten. And then the thing that had to happen, and Coach Wooden hated when I said this, but UCLA had to lose. That became a monumental event."

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‘He’s a Mount Rushmore guy’: Dick Enberg remembered as sports broadcasting’s versatile gentleman By Matt Bonesteel December 22 at 7:48 AM

It’s hard to pin down what, exactly, constituted Dick Enberg’s area of sports-broadcasting expertise. Pro football fans will remember him as the lead play-by-play man for NBC’s NFL coverage from the 1970s to the 1990s, a job he continued at CBS. He did decades of work in tennis, anchoring Wimbledon coverage for NBC and then ESPN. The play-by-play voice of UCLA men’s basketball during its era of dominance, he later anchored the NBC’s coverage of the NCAA tournament, forming a power trio with Al McGuire and Billy Packer just as the college game was finding a mass audience.

Golf. The Olympics. Boxing. The NBA. Baseball, both locally in Los Angeles and San Diego and nationally at NBC. And, just in case the whole sports thing didn’t work out, Enberg hosted a few short-lived game shows in the 1970s.

Enberg, who died Thursday at age 82 at his home in Southern California, did all that and did it well, mastering the art of preparation for whatever event he was called to work.

Though horse racing wasn’t Enberg’s claim to fame, he did that, too, and in 1989 he was tasked with calling the Breeders’ Cup for NBC. Enberg spent the week leading up to the event preparing meticulous notes on all the horses, jockeys and owners. But when he returned to his hotel room the night before the races, his prep work was nowhere to be found.

“That was the most anxious I’d ever seen him in his life. He was hyperventilating,” his wife, Barbara, told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2016. “We ended up calling the night maid staff to see if they threw them out. We went down and went through the trash. I was worried he was going to have a heart attack, he was worrying so much. But we came back to the room and pulled the blinds back and there was a little bay window. The maid must have moved them there while cleaning.” Said Dick Enberg, “I was ready-to-cry kind of panicked.”

Known on a superficial level for his “Oh my!” and “Touch ’em all!” catchphrases, Enberg was hailed for his kindness by other broadcasters upon news of his death. The word “gentleman” made its way into many of the tributes.

John McEnroe, Enberg’s partner in the tennis broadcast booth for years and his behavioral polar opposite, continued this line of thinking.

“I’ve been around a fair amount of people, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone who’s as nice a person, as professional a person,” he told the Union-Tribune in 2016. “Even though he disagreed with the way I acted while I was playing sometimes, he made an effort to figure me out as a person and work better together [as broadcasters] and have fun. …

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“If people ask me the top tennis players, when I throw out [Rod] Laver, [Pete] Sampras, Rafa [Nadal], Roger [Federer], I would put him in the same category,” McEnroe said. “He’s a Mount Rushmore guy.”

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Remembering Dick Enberg's One-In-A-Million Sports Broadcasting

Career, Life By RICHARD DEITSCH

December 22, 2017

After calling NFL games for 42 years, as well as 26 Wimbledons (he would add two more), 23

French Opens, 14 NCAA men's basketball championships, 10 Super Bowls, nine Rose Bowls,

four Olympic Games and plenty of other events for CBS, ESPN and NBC in a one -in-a-million

sports broadcasting career, Dick Enberg jumped at the chance in late 2009 to take a job as the

lead television voice of his hometown San Diego Padres. "To be the announcer where you live is

a very special opportunity," Enberg told SI.com at the time.

Enberg passed away at age 82 on Thursday night at his home in his beloved La Jolla and the overwhelming number of tributes for him from the sports media world will be justified.

“With all due respect to other great announcers in the ‘70s and ‘80s if you were to have a

decathlon of play-by-play, he would have won that decathlon of play-by-play because he did so

many things exquisitely well,” said Bob Costas, on Friday morning. “He did seven or eight things

really, really well, and was at or near the top of all those things. And he did with the combination

of extraordinary craftsmanship, meticulous preparation, facility with words and a genuine—not a

manufactured, but a genuine—boyish enthusiasm. He was a sentimental man but there was

nothing inauthentic about that enthusiasm.”

It was a pleasure to marinate in his intellect as a viewer in multiple sports. Costas said one of the

things likely overlooked regarding Enberg’s sports broadcasting genius will be how he seamlessly

worked with an endless stream of analysts from multiple sports. A short sampling: Al McGuire

and Billy Packer (college basketball); Bob Trumpy, Dan Dierdorf and Merlin Olsen (NFL); Bud

Collins, Mary Carillo and Jon McEnroe (tennis); Don Drysdale (baseball), Johnny Miller (golf).

“He sat between Billy Packer and Al McGuire—they could not have been more different, yet with

Dick orchestrating it, they could not have complemented each other any better,” Costas said.

Last year Enberg told SI’s Jon Wertheim in a long podcast that he always enjoyed the

challenge of the “raised hand,” a product of his love for higher education and working as an

assistant professor and baseball coach at Cal State Northridge in the early 1960s.

“The preparation [for a broadcast] always was never work,” Enberg said. “I wanted to take the

time to try to find some nugget or some piece of information or turn some phrase that might make

the broadcast more interesting. The interest in a variety of sports comes back to when I was a kid.

I memorized the sports page. The guys at the fraternity house would say if you want to read the

sports page, you better get up earlier than Enberg.”

With a master’s and doctorate degree in health sciences from Indiana, Enberg was a scholarly

man, which included a stint as a playwright. Enberg first got the idea for a one-man play about

McGuire while composing a tribute for McGuire's funeral in 2001. "I started thinking about all

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the wonderful things I learned from him," said Enberg. "He was a street genius. The more I wrote,

the more I realized there was so much material, it could be a play—Al McGuire sharing his

wisdom with a college audience.” The play begins with McGuire leading Marquette to the 1977

NCAA title and ends with his battle with the blood disorder that took his life at age 72. "I put the

words on the paper, but Al wrote every word of it. If it isn't good," Enberg said, "I'll just blame

Al.”

(For a worth-reading-today profile of Enberg, click here.)

Costas and Enberg worked multiple Olympic opening ceremonies together and the two coined the

phrase “tidbit ping pong” regarding items on each nation in the Parade of Nations. “He was

always better than I was on the pageantry part because he had that genuine boyish enthusiasm for

everything,” Costas said.

Enberg’s versatility was such that his career includes working both as an essayist on Olympic

coverage and hosting a game show (Sports Challenge, from 1971 to 1979). But baseball was

always his love above all.

“It was no slight toward any other sport but he always said baseball was his favorite sport,”

Costas said. “He played baseball, he coached baseball. [Enberg’s signature call] ‘Touch em’ all’

is a pretty good call and he told me once that someone he either played with or coached with

would say it on the bench. Lost in the shuffle, especially for younger people, was how good he

was in the prime of his career doing [California] Angels games. He had a great phrase at the end

of the game in which the Angels had won. He’d sign off and the last thing he would say if the a

Angels had won was, ‘And the Halo Shines Tonight.’ Baseball was his favorite but he was just so

good at so many things.”

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Dick Enberg, legendary sportscaster, dies at 82 By Adam Maya NFL.com

Published: Dec. 22, 2017 at 02:50 a.m.

Updated: Dec. 22, 2017 at 11:58 a.m.

Legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg, who called multiple Super Bowls, Olympics and Final Fours, as well as

play by play for the NFL, MLB and NBA, died Thursday. He was 82.

Enberg's daughter, Nicole, confirmed his death to The Associated Press, noting that he is believed to have

suffered a heart attack. He was scheduled to fly to Boston on Thursday but was found dead at his home in La

Jolla, California, just north of San Diego.

Enberg's 60-year career included 20 years of NFL play by play for NBC and 11 at CBS. Among his more

notable games was Super Bowl XXXII between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers. Enberg called

10 Super Bowls and is a recipient of the Pete Rozelle Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He won a slew of sportscaster of the year awards and 13 Sports Emmy Awards, and he is the only

sportscaster to win Emmys in three categories (broadcasting, writing and producing). Enberg has also been

recognized by the Basketball Hall of Fame and National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into the

Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.

He was known for catchphrases, such as "Oh, my!" and "Touch 'em all!" He was also the voice behind the

"Game of the Century," in which the University of Houston snapped UCLA's 47-game win streak in 1968 in

basketball, and the 1979 NCAA title game featuring Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The latter was one of eight

men's basketball championship games he covered. He also called 28 Wimbledons.

Enberg was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, and attended Central Michigan University. His broadcasting

career began in earnest while completing graduate work at Indiana University, where he did play by play for

Hoosiers football and basketball. After a brief stint as a professor and coaching college baseball, he began

calling the Los Angeles Rams, California Angels and UCLA basketball.

Enberg retired from TV just last year, following seven seasons with the San Diego Padres. He most recently

hosted the Sound of Success podcast, which featured a new episode Thursday.

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Dick Enberg (1935-2017): An appreciation By TOM HOFFARTH | thoffarth@scng.com | Daily News

December 22, 2017 at 9:18 am No surprise, Dick Enberg left us with so much material — books, essays, plays, speeches, lectures and, of course, play-by-play calls preserved on audio and video.

With all that, it’s a bit humbling to come across a simple email he sent me in September, now a keepsake that serves as another example of how his pure joy and restless enthusiasm for his professional life always shined through, even as he was a year into his retirement from working for the San Diego Padres:

From: Dick Enberg (deohmy@gmail.com) Date: September 20, 2017 at 12:55:04 PM PDT Subject: Catching up … Tom, Couple things happening in my “graduation.” (I abhor the very thought of “retiring.”). I’m busier than EVER… I’m writing a book on my relationship with my baseball idol, Ted Williams. I’m working on a new venture, a weekly podcast (can’t give specifics, yet), but my early lineup of guests is eye popping.) And, I’m being inducted into the West Coast Boxing HOF at a LA event on Oct. 15. We also welcomed our second grandson, Tagg Packer, into this crazy world last Friday. Our daughter, Emily, came back from their home in Rwanda for the delivery. And we’re trying to finish a family retreat in McCall Idaho before the next snow hits. Retirement? They gotta be kidding. Anyway, hope all is well. Onward and Upward! DE. The “new venture” was a podcast called “Sound of Success,” where he got to reunite with people in his life, to talk about life and their successes. Just a couple of days ago, he was explaining how it came about and what he wanted to achieve with it to the San Diego Union Tribune.

He was able to bank about a dozen of those episodes, his voice still so rich and inquisitive and his mind trying to dig for more memories to hold up and embrace.

The book project about Williams is scheduled to land in May, prior to the 100th anniversary of Williams’ birth. The resume of professional broadcasting stops, and the den at his La Jolla home with plaques marking inductions and lifetime achievements only tells one side of his accomplishments. Eight Super Bowl calls from 1981-’98, and eight more as a reporter – including the first one while working for KTLA-Channel 5. More than two dozen calls at Wimbledon. World Series, Rose Bowls, college basketball championships, the first Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park … Yet there was that glint in his eyes always as he told you when he was about to get energized by another project, another adventure. another performance of the play he wrote about the life of

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former broadcast partner Al McGuire, another teachable moment adding to a legacy that went far beyond all that.

When we drove to San Diego just to spend 20 minutes catching up in September 2016, just before his final call with the Padres, he talked about how so much of what was ahead – and finally, a chance to drive up to Angel Stadium, just to watch Mike Trout. When we saw him being honored at UCLA last February, sitting in with Bill Walton on the broadcast just to have some fun, we heard flashbacks to his old KTLA-Channel 5 tape-delayed calls that he’d make during the John Wooden years.

When we heard him tell stories about how shows like “Sports Challenge” and “The Way We Were” came into being, the challenge wasn’t how sports connected so many dots in his life, but how much he could curb his own enthusiasm, thankful for being in that moment, and how he could translate those stories to the viewers.

In 2013, when we attempted to list the Top 10 most influential play-by-play men in Southern California sports history, it still surprised us how Enberg was an easy choice, even as many by that time knew him only for his network calls at NBC, CBS and eventually ESPN. His time with UCLA basketball, the Angels and Rams was where the groundwork started and his talents noticed across the country.

His enthusiasm was infectious and pure, and you trusted that when he used the “Oh, my!” reference. It wasn’t a crutch, but it captured an otherwise indescribable moment, and at the same time, made you smile because Enberg was revealing his own wonderment.

When we put together a piece in the summer of 2015, focused on how Enberg was schooled in baseball from his days at San Fernando Valley State (now Cal State Northridge) as the launching point to where he was named winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, which included a plaque in Cooperstown, we learned two new words that fit him perfectly.

Stan Charnofsky, the still-going CSUN professor who had Enberg as his assistant coach on the baseball team from 1962-64, remarked that “Dick remains a sweet man, someone who’s got a great voice, very intelligent, someone who’s very elan, which I’ve always loved about him.”

Elan is a French term that means to have style and verve.

Enberg recalled how Charnofsky never excused mental errors on the diamond: “You could be an average player, but if you played with sagacity – one of Stan’s words – then you could win games up here (pointing to his head),” Enberg said.

Sagacity was about having keen perception and judgment. Enberg remembered that forever.

There was also that time we finally got to ask him about a brief but important role in one of our favorite movies, “Heaven Can Wait.” It was 40 years ago now as he was playing himself, in the Rams locker room, interviewing a bewildered winning quarterback (Warren Beatty) who just told that his time on Earth was over. Enberg recalled how his sportcoat became soaked with

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champagne as they did about 10 takes inside the actual Coliseum locker room, but he then had to drive to Anaheim to call that night’s Angels game. Broadcast partner Don Drysdale couldn’t believe how bad Enberg smelled.

Enberg had the perfect post-script to that story: “As fate would have it, the Rams and Steelers did play in a Super Bowl just a year after the film’s release, in Southern California, at the Rose Bowl. Was that Hollywood foreshadowing? Maybe they should have entitled it, ‘Heaven Couldn’t Wait.’”

Heaven waited long enough for Enberg.

Over the past 10 years, I’d always feel so intrusive calling him to ask him for a few remarks about someone who had just died — Merlin Olsen, John Wooden, Dave Niehaus, Bud Collins, Jerry Coleman — but I knew he, as a poet, could always capture that person perfectly and gracefully.

It’s a lost feeling now not be able to contact him to summarize his own tribute. No matter what humility he might show about all that happened to him in the past, he would have always been looking forward, wanting to get back in the classroom and be challenged by young minds and ideas.

And, to be sure, he would punctuate it with a sincere and believable “Oh, my.”

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Legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg, voice of Super Bowls and Wimbledon, dies at 82 Enberg retired in October 2016 after a 60-year broadcasting career

• by CBS Sports Staff • 12h ago • 1 min read

Dick Enberg, whose broadcasting career included calling 10 Super Bowls and UCLA basketball during the John Wooden dynasty, died Thursday at his home in California, his family announced. He was 82 years old. Enberg was scheduled to fly to Boston on Thursday but did not arrive. He was found dead at his home in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego with his bags packed, his wife Barbara told the San Diego Union-Tribune. A Michigan native whose first radio job was as a radio station custodian in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, Enberg got his big break calling UCLA basketball games. The Bruins would win eight national titles in his nine years announcing their games. Enberg, with his signature "Oh my!" call, also announced Major League Baseball games, calling nine no-hitters -- including two by the Giants' Tim Lincecum against the Padres. Enberg worked for ESPN, CBS and NBC, as that network's No. 1 NFL voice with analyst Merlin Olsen during the 1980s while also serving as host for tennis coverage from Wimbledon. He also called some of the most famous college basketball games ever, including the "Game of the Century" between Houston and UCLA in 1968 and the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird NCAA title game in 1979. Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, reflected on Enberg's legendary career in a statement. "All of us at CBS Sports are saddened to hear of the passing of our friend and colleague Dick Enberg. There will never be another Dick Enberg," McManus said. "As the voice of generations of fans, Dick was a masterful storyteller, a consummate professional and a true gentleman. He was one of the true legends of our business. His passion, energy and love for the game will surely be missed. Our deepest sympathies go out to Barbara and his entire family." Enberg received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, won 13 Sports Emmy awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Broadcasting Legend Dick Enberg Dies at Age 82 SCOTT POLACEKDECEMBER 21, 2017

Sports broadcasting legend Dick Enberg died Thursday at the age of 82.

According to Bryce Miller of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Enberg's wife, Barbara, said he died Thursday morning in La Jolla, California, from what she thought was a heart attack.

The sportscaster was a familiar voice in the field for decades, providing play-by-play for the likes of NBC, ESPN and CBS while covering a number of sports.

Fox Sports San Diego provided a video tribute on its YouTube page at the time of Enberg's retirement in 2016 that helped capture his impact in the sports world:

According to Miller, Barbara Enberg said her family learned of the death when Dick Enberg did not get off a flight in Boston when they were supposed to meet.

"He was dressed with his bags packed at the door," she said. "We think it was a heart attack."

Enberg worked as a play-by-play television voice for the San Diego Padres for seven seasons until his retirement but was nationally known thanks to his "Oh my" catchphrase and presence on broadcasts for events such as the Super Bowl and Wimbledon.

A report from ESPN noted Enberg received a number of honors for his work, including the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Gowdy Award, the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Rozelle Award.

Los Angeles Lakers radio voice John Ireland reflected on Enberg's broadcasting career—which started at KTLA in Los Angeles—and put him on the "Mount Rushmore of LA Sports Announcers"

AJ Cassavell of MLB.com summarized Enberg's career at the time of his retirement and said he called 42 NFL seasons, 28 Wimbledons, 15 NCAA basketball championship games, 10 Super Bowls, nine Rose Bowls and a World Series to go along with 14 Emmy awards and nine Sportscaster of the Year awards.

Some of the most famous games in sports history—including the NCAA championship game between Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans and Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores and Joe Montana's comeback in Super Bowl XXIII—featured Enberg on the microphone describing the action to sports fans gathered in their living rooms across the country.

He will forever be remembered as a titan in the industry, a professional who could seamlessly switch between different sports and capture the magnitude of the most memorable moments in broadcasting history.

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Longtime Sportscaster Dick Enberg Found Dead at Home at 82 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDEC. 22, 2017, 10:39 A.M. E.S.T.

SAN DIEGO — Dick Enberg, a Hall of Fame broadcaster known as much for his excited calls of "Oh my!" as the big events he covered during a 60-year career, has died. He was 82.

Enberg's daughter, Nicole Enberg Vaz, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. She said the family became concerned when her father didn't arrive Thursday on his flight to Boston, and he was found dead at his home in La Jolla, a San Diego neighborhood, with his bags packed.

His daughter said the family believes Enberg died of a heart attack but was awaiting official word.

"It's very, very, very shocking," said Vaz, who lives in Boston. "He'd been busy with two podcasts and was full of energy."

Enberg's wife, Barbara, already was in Boston and was expecting his arrival.

The family "is grateful for the kind thoughts and prayers of all of Dick's countless fans and dear friends," according to a statement released by Enberg's attorney, Dennis Coleman. "At this time we are all still processing the significant loss, and we ask for prayers and respectful privacy in the immediate aftermath of such untimely news."

Enberg got his big break with UCLA basketball and went on to call Super Bowls, Olympics, Final Fours and Angels and Padres baseball games as well as Rams football games.

He retired from his TV job with the Padres in October 2016, capping a six-decade career punctuated with countless calls of "Oh my!" in describing big plays. He also was well known for his baseball catchphrase of "Touch 'em all!" for home runs.

"Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade," Padres owners Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler said in a statement.

Raised in Armada, Michigan, Enberg's first radio job was actually as a radio station custodian in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, when he was a junior at Central Michigan. He made $1 an hour. The owner also gave him weekend sports and disc jockey gigs, also at $1 an hour. From there he began doing high school and college football games.

During his nine years broadcasting UCLA basketball, the Bruins won eight NCAA titles under coach John Wooden. Enberg broadcast nine no-hitters, including two by San Francisco's Tim Lincecum against the Padres in 2013 and 2014.

He said the most historically important event he covered was "The Game of the Century," Houston's victory over UCLA in 1968 that snapped the Bruins' 47-game winning streak.

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"That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere," Enberg said just before retiring from the Padres. "The '79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to credit that as the greatest game of all time. That was just the booster rocket that sent it even higher. ... UCLA, unbeaten; Houston, unbeaten. And then the thing that had to happen, and Coach Wooden hated when I said this, but UCLA had to lose. That became a monumental event."

Enberg's many former broadcast partners included Merlin Olsen, Al McGuire, Billy Packer, Don Drysdale and Tony Gwynn. He even worked a few games with Wooden, whom he called "The greatest man I've ever known other than my own father."

Enberg called Padres games for seven seasons and went into the broadcasters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015 as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award.

"There will never be another Dick Enberg," CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said. "As the voice of generations of fans, Dick was a masterful storyteller, a consummate professional and a true gentleman. He was one of the true legends of our business."

John Ireland, the radio voice of the Los Angeles Lakers, tweeted : "If there was a Mount Rushmore of LA Sports Announcers, Dick Enberg is on it with Chick Hearn, Vin Scully and Bob Miller. Rams, Angels, UCLA, NBC, and so much more. Was the first famous announcer I ever met, and he couldn't have been nicer. Definition of a gentleman."

Enberg won 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and UCLA named its Media Center in Pauley Pavilion after Enberg this year.

At halftime of a UCLA game in February, former Bruins stars Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes presented Enberg with a No. 8 jersey, signifying the number of championships he called.

"That's not going to happen again," Enberg said before the game. "Who was looking over me? To be able to come in and ride the Wooden Wave."

"Kindest, most proactive possible treatment of newcomers in this business, for the length of his career," broadcaster Keith Olbermann said of Enberg on Twitter . "What a terrible loss."

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce said flowers will be placed Friday on Enberg's star on the Walk of Fame.

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Sportscaster Dick Enberg, Whose Career Spanned 60 Years, Dies At 82

December 22, 20176:12 AM ET DOREEN MCCALLISTER

Legendary announcer Dick Enberg, whose amazing sportscasting career spanned six decades, died Thursday at the age of 82. He did play-by-play for college basketball, college and professional football and Major League Baseball. He also called other sporting events such as boxing, tennis, golf, horse racing and the Olympics.

Enberg retired from his TV job with the San Diego Padres in October 2016.

The team released a statement on Enberg's death: "We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg. Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family."

Endberg was known for exclaiming "Oh my!" So much so, that his 2004 autobiography is titled: Dick Enberg, Oh My!

He also had a baseball catchphrase: "touch 'em all" for home run hitters.

Enberg's big break came when he was chosen to call UCLA basketball games. During that nine-year stint, the Bruins won eight NCAA titles.

When asked what was the most historically important event he covered, Enberg replied, "The Game of the Century." In that 1968 game, the University of Houston Cougars beat UCLA to snap the Bruin's 47-game winning streak.

During his time behind the microphone Enberg had many broadcast partners, including Al McGuire, Merlin Olsen and Don Drysdale.

Enberg's wife Barbara told the San Diego Union-Tribune that her husband died Thursday morning at his home in La Jolla, Calif. "Barbara Enberg said the family found out later in the day when Dick Enberg failed to get off a flight in Boston, where they were scheduled to meet. She said her husband had appeared to be waiting for a car that was set to shuttle him to the San Diego airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

" 'He was dressed with his bags packed at the door,' she said. 'We think it was a heart attack.' "

An official cause of death has not been determined yet.

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Dick Enberg, 82, found dead at his Southern California home, family says

Fox News

Dick Enberg, a legendary sports broadcaster who worked on hundreds of sporting

events from the Super Bowl to the Olympics, was found dead Thursday at his

Southern California home.

Enberg’s daughter, Nicole, told the Associated Press that her family became

concerned when he didn’t arrive on his flight to Boston earlier Thursday. He was

found dead at his home in La Jolla, a San Diego neighborhood, with his bags packed.

The family said it believes he may have died of a heart attack, but were still awaiting

official word.

Enberg’s career spanned 60 years in which he got to call games for UCLA basketball,

Super Bowls, Olympics, Final Fours and several Major League Baseball games. He

retired in 2016 after calling games for the San Diego Padres for seven years.

He was known for his countless calls of “Oh my!” for amazing plays and “touch ‘em

all” for home runs.

Enberg got his foot in the door as a radio station custodian in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

When he was a junior at Central Michigan. He made $1 hour. The owner of the

station also gave him weekend sports and disc jockey gigs, also at $1 an hour. From

there he began doing high school and college football games.

During his nine years broadcasting UCLA basketball, the Bruins won eight NCAA

titles. Enberg broadcast nine no-hitters, including two by San Francisco's Tim

Lincecum against the Padres in 2013 and 2014.

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He said the most historically important event he covered was "The Game of the

Century," Houston's victory over UCLA in 1968 that snapped the Bruins' 47-game

winning streak.

"That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the

stratosphere," Enberg said. "The `79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to

credit that as the greatest game of all time That was just the booster rocket that sent

it even higher. ... UCLA, unbeaten; Houston, unbeaten. And then the thing that had to

happen, and Coach Wooden hated when I said this, but UCLA had to lose. That

became a monumental event."

Enberg's many former broadcast partners included Merlin Olsen, Al McGuire, Billy

Packer, Don Drysdale and Tony Gwynn. He even worked a few games with Wooden,

whom he called "The greatest man I've ever known other than my own father."

Enberg called Padres games for seven seasons and went into the broadcasters' wing

of the Hall of Fame in 2015.

John Ireland, the radio voice of the Los Angeles Lakers, tweeted that "If there was a

Mount Rushmore of LA Sports Announcers, Dick Enberg is on it with Chick Hearn,

Vin Scully and Bob Miller. Rams, Angels, UCLA, NBC, and so much more. Was the

first famous announcer I ever met, and he couldn't have been nicer. Definition of a

gentleman."

Enberg won 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and UCLA named its Media Center in Pauley Pavilion after Enberg this year.

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US sports broadcasting legend Dick Enberg, 82, dies in San Diego: Media Published 8 Hours Ago Updated 7 Hours Ago Reuters

Broadcaster Dick Enberg, who charmed sports fans with his "Oh My!" declaration as he called some of the most memorable sporting events during the last five decades, died on Thursday, ESPN reported. He was 82.

Enberg was found dead at his home in San Diego. His wife Barbara told the San Diego Union-Tribune that her husband failed to catch a Thursday flight to Boston, where they were supposed to meet.

"He was dressed with his bags packed at the door," she said. "We think it was a heart attack."

Enberg worked for NBC, CBS and ESPN, calling some of the world's biggest sporting events, including 10 Super Bowls, 28 Wimbledons and eight NCAA men's basketball title games, according to ESPN.

Enberg was born and raised in Michigan and graduated from Central Michigan University, where he began his broadcasting career, ESPN reported. He moved to California and covered the UCLA Bruins basketball team, which won eight NCAA titles during his tenure.

In 1968, Enberg called what was dubbed the "The Game of the Century" between UCLA and the Houston Cougars, the first prime time NCAA regular-season game broadcast nationwide, according to ESPN. The Bruins' 47-game winning streak came to an end that night.

"That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere," Enberg said about the game, ESPN reported. "That became a monumental event."

His last job was calling San Diego Padres games, which he retired from in 2016.

"We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg," the Padres said in a statement released late on Thursday to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Enberg was honored with awards from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He also won 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy.

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Dick Enberg, Hall of Fame sportscaster, died at the age

of 82 NICK ROMANO December 22, 2017 AT 08:00 AM EST

Dick Enberg, the Hall of Fame sportscaster with signature catchphrases “Oh my!” (for big plays) and “Touch ’em all” (for home runs), was found dead on Thursday at his home in La Jolla, California. He was 82.

Enberg’s daughter, Nicole Enberg Vaz, confirmed the news to the Associated Press. The family grew concerned when Enberg did not arrive in Boston for the holidays as planned. Vaz lives in Boston and Enberg’s wife, Barbara, was already in the city awaiting his arrival. He was later found dead at his home with his bags packed.

“It’s very, very, very shocking,” Vaz told AP. “He’d been busy with two podcasts and was full of energy.”

According to a statement from Enberg’s attorney, Dennis Coleman, the family “is grateful for the kind thoughts and prayers of all of Dick’s countless fans and dear friends. At this time we are all still processing the significant loss, and we ask for prayers and respectful privacy in the immediate aftermath of such untimely news.”

Enberg’s 60-year career included calls for Super Bowls, the Olympics, Final Fours, Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres baseball games, and UCLA basketball. He retired from his TV job with the Padres in October 2016.

“We are immensely saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg,” read a statement from the Padres. “Dick was an institution in the industry for 60 years and we were lucky enough to have his iconic voice behind the microphone for Padres games for nearly a decade. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Barbara, and the entire Enberg family.”

“Professor, I’ll miss you coming in the booth to say hello, tell some stories and have some laughs. RIP my friend. Love ya, mean it. Mud,” Enberg’s former colleague Mark Grant tweeted on Friday.