Roundup: R.I.P. Dick Enberg

With the passing of Dick Enberg, we lost the greatest deliverer of instant-gravitas, whose career spanned an almost unimaginable breadth of sports. Still such a remarkable broadcaster at 82-years-old after having just retired from calling Padres games, Enberg is best remembered for his associations with UCLA basketball, southern California baseball teams and of course, a national broadcasting career that included everything from Super Bowls to Wimbledon to the U.S. Open's of golf and tennis.

Enberg emerged nationally as a broadcaster when he called the 1968 "Game of the Century" in Houston's Astrodome, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. And while he'll be known best for his Hall of Fame baseball announcing work and ability to deliver instant comfort to viewers that we were about to watch something important, golfers certainly cherished his years announcing the U.S. Open and Ryder Cup.

Here is a GolfChannel.com roundup of Tweets from colleagues remembering the announcing great.

Richard Sandomir's New York Times obituary is a gem.

Mike Kupper's take on Enberg for the LA Times.

Bill Dwyre's LA Times "appreciation" hits home just how versatile an announcer Enberg was.

Tom Hoffarth interviewed Enberg countless times and covers some of his recent interactions as well as Enberg's excitement at starting a new podcast. You can check out the eight episodes that were recorded here.

Here was Jim Nantz's lovely tribute to one of his heroes and a great friend of CBS Sports:

Never before has a broadcaster commanded legendary status over so many sports. Dick Enberg did just that, and created a lifetime of memories for us in the process. Jim Nantz looks back at this broadcasting legend and his legacy pic.twitter.com/O5jQmmThWy

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 24, 2017

As John Strege noted here in recapping Enberg's career for GolfDigest.com, he also worked Masters and PGA Championships.

Mike Trostel remembers Enberg's US Open role, which amounted to five broadcasts, including his call of Payne Stewart's 1999 U.S. Open win at Pinehurst:

Enberg was Callaway Live's first guest and he discussed the difficulty of announcing golf.


Full episode here:

Here is UCLA's tribute to Enberg from last season.

Here's a recent 9-minute chat between Vin Scully and Enberg about retirement.

Comments

[RRR]

Took DE to SD Open a few yrs ago. Where did we spend the most time? The hospitality area reserved for the military. It's where he wanted to be most. BTW, a well placed source said Dick was more scare of the Scully interview than any other. The irony? Vince said the most scared at being interviewed by Dick Enberg. He was low key, but a giant of our time. RIP DE

[Lynn S.]

So many things I could say or write. On a long bus ride one time at UCLA he went up and down the aisle asking for personal stories from players. He asked me why I shot jumpers so high and I told him that I had wires in the backyard near the basket and learned to shoot over them. He used that several times and to this day, 50 years on, people ask me if that was true about the wires in my backyard. When I told him that a few years ago, he said people don't ask him about Super Bowls or Wimbledons, but often that they remember him singing "Raindrops Keep Following On Your Head" on a UCLA telecast. Memorable because a singer he was not.

[Pat(another one)]

Thanks for the Scully-Enberg video. That was awesome to see.

[KLG]

Great tribute! Thank you.

[Streaky Putter]

Loved your story Lynn S. Former OSU womens and WNBA star and Olympian Katie Smith learned to shoot in her families barn, and had to develop a really high release to due to oddly placed barn rafters. As a former hoopster I know how the backyard molded many a shot.

[Original AG]

Class, pure class. Fortunate to have witnessed it.

[BDF]

The Scully interview is fantastic. I could listen to an hour of those two rehashing 60 years of broacasting...

[PABoy]

Dick Enberg’s interview of Vin Scully is great because he is actually listening with genuine interest rather than thinking what should I ask next. That is always what I felt was his strong point, Dick wanted to be the broadcaster most interested in relating what was happening rather than being the smartest guy on the broadcast.

Skip Bayless are listening (oh the irony of this question)?

[OWGR Fan]

He was a pros pro. RIP Mr. Enberg.

[Ben Hagen]

That interview with Enberg and Scully was pure gold. It struck me how Scully could recite the circumstances of games half a century ago like pro golfers can remember their rounds. He was totally right about TV killing the need for draw-the-picture announcing, too. It would be great if TV broadcasts quit trying to 'fill airtime' like radio and STFU.