Dick Enberg

In his two-hour interview, Dick Enberg (1935-2017) talks about his early years, discovering his love of baseball, and various sports announcers he enjoyed in his youth. He describes working in radio, first as a disc jockey, and later in the sports department at Los Angeles stations KGIL and KNX, which led to him calling boxing matches and horse races for local television station KTLA. He chronicles his rise in Los Angeles as the announcer for UCLA's football team, where he developed a fierce following with his catchphrase, "Oh my." Enberg recounts doing play-by-play for baseball games with his broadcasting partner of many years Don Drysdale, and recalls acting as host for a few game shows including Perfect Match and Baffle. He outlines his time at NBC sports, which included calling NCAA basketball, the Super Bowl, several Olympics, the World Series, golf, and perhaps most famously Wimbledon. He speaks of his long association with tennis on NBC, and details leaving the network for CBS in 2000. He concludes by discussing how technology has changed sports broadcasting, and by giving advice to aspiring sportscasters. Stephen J. Abramson conducted the interview on August 17, 2011 in La Jolla, CA.