Greg Gumbel, Longtime CBS Sports Studio Host and Play-by-Play Man, Dies at 78

Greg Gumbel, the sure-handed CBS sportscaster whose 50-year-plus career included hosting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and The NFL Today and handling play-by-play for a pair of Super Bowls, has died. He was 78.

Gumbel’s death after a “courageous battle with cancer” was announced Friday in a statement from his wife, Marcy, and his daughter, Michelle.

“Greg approached his illness like one would expect he would, with stoicism, grace and positivity,” they said. “He leaves behind a legacy of love, inspiration and dedication to over 50 extraordinary years in the sports broadcast industry, and his iconic voice will never be forgotten.”

Survivors include his younger brother, Bryant Gumbel, former host of NBC’s Today show and HBO’s Real Sports.

Gumbel presided over CBS and/or Turner’s coverage of March Madness for 26 straight years, from 1998-2023, before missing the 2024 tournament because of what was described as “family health issues.”

Teaming with Terry Bradshaw and Lesley Visser, Gumbel replaced the popular Brent Musburger to host CBS’ The NFL Today from 1990-93. He returned to lead the program in 2004-05, taking over for Jim Nantz and working alongside Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and Shannon Sharpe.

The Chicago native called his first NFL game in 1988 and his last one in 2022. In between, he was paired with Phil Simms as CBS’ No. 1 NFL announcing team from 1998-2004 and became the first African American to call play-by-play of a major U.S. sports championship when he worked the 2001 Super Bowl. (He and Simms did the 2004 title game as well.)

For all he accomplished, Gumbel said his impact on the games he covered was minimal at best.

“I’ve never felt in my entire life there is an announcer who can bring someone to the TV set to watch a game that that viewer wasn’t already going to watch,” he said in a 2022 interview with Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina. “And I believe the only thing a broadcaster can do is chase people away.

“I wanted to pattern myself after [fellow CBS play-by-play man] Pat Summerall. He didn’t overtalk. He was understated. He was specific about the things that he said. And he was terrific. But how can you not be terrific when you’re doing Giants-Cowboys, Bears-Packers, Rams-49ers, Eagles-Giants?”

The oldest of four kids, Gregory Gumbel was born in New Orleans on May 3, 1946, and raised in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. His father, Richard, was a probate judge and a former minor-league baseball player; his mother, Rhea, worked as a city clerk.

His dad was “very hard to impress,” Gumbel told S.I.’s Rick Reilly in 1988. “A ‘C’ should have been a ‘B,’ and a ‘B’ should have been an ‘A,’ and if it was an ‘A,’ why wasn’t it an ‘A’ before this?”

Gumbel graduated from De La Salle Institute in 1963 and Iowa’s Loras College, where he played on the baseball team and got over his shyness, in 1967. He was selling hospital supplies in Detroit when he heard from his brother, then a sportscaster at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, that WMAQ-TV in Chicago was looking for a weekend sports guy in 1973.

“My first reaction was, ‘Hmm, baseball [or] bedpans, baseball or bedpans. Yeah, I could go for that,’” he said. Gumbel got the job — he replaced future ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson — and stuck around for 7 1/2 years.

Next, Gumbel worked for ESPN, where he anchored SportsCenter during his 5 1/2 years there; did play-by-play on Knicks and Yankees games and hosted studio shows for the MSG Network; and, as the first voice heard on WFAN Radio, had a 6-10 a.m. show for about a year before being replaced by Don Imus.

Gumbel joined CBS in 1988 as a free-lance NFL play-by-play man working alongside analyst Ken Stabler and became full-time the next year when he hosted the network’s college football studio show.

He took over The NFL Today after Musburger was fired from CBS in a contract dispute. He also did NBA and baseball play-by-play and was the host of the 1992 Winter Olympics from Albertville, France, and 1994 Winter Games from Lillehammer, Norway, where figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan made headlines.

“About 15 seconds before signing on [on the night Harding and Kerrigan would compete for the gold medal], Rick Gentile, my producer, says in my ear, ‘Hey, don’t worry, there are only about 180 million people watching,’” he recalled.

After CBS lost the rights to NFL games in a bidding war with Fox, Gumbel jumped to NBC in 1994 and did baseball and NBA play-by-play (alongside Quinn Buckner) and hosted The NFL on NBC and daytime coverage of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Gumbel returned to CBS with a five-year contract in 1998 after the network regained the NFL rights (this time, it was NBC that had lost them). For the 2004 NFL season, he traded positions with Nantz, who took over as lead announcer alongside Simms while Gumbel returned to The NFL Today.

“We have the unusual good fortune to have two men who are equally adept at play-by-play and studio hosting,” CBS Sports president Sean McManus said at the time. “You could make an argument both jobs are equal.”

Following the 2005 season, Gumbel was replaced on Sundays in the studio by James Brown, who had hosted Fox NFL Sunday. He returned to calling NFL games in 2006 and worked with such analysts as Dan Dierdorf, Trent Green, Bruce Arians, Rich Gannon and Adam Archuleta over the years.

He also did play-by-play opposite Cris Collinsworth for a slate of NFL Network games in 2006-07.

Gumbel appeared as himself on episodes of Evening Shade, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Cosby and Yes, Dear, and a 2000 installment of Family Guy revolved around a fictional TV show, Gumbel 2 Gumbel: Beach Justice, where he and Bryant starred as cops on seaside patrol.

He was a huge Rolling Stones fan, and of all the sports, he said baseball was his favorite.

In addition to his brother, wife (whom he married in 1973) and daughter, survivors include his sisters, Renee and Rhonda.

In a statement, CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson said “there has never been a finer gentleman in all of television [than Gumbel]. He was beloved and respected by those of us who had the honor to call him a friend and colleague.

“A tremendous broadcaster and gifted storyteller, Greg led one of the most remarkable and groundbreaking sports broadcasting careers of all time. He was a familiar and welcoming voice for fans across many sports, including the NFL and March Madness, highlighted by the Super Bowl and Final Four.

“Greg broke barriers and set the standard for others to follow. It is an extremely sad day for all of us at CBS Sports and the entire sports community.”