Greg Gumbel, sports broadcasting legend with Chicago ties, dies at 78

Greg Gumbel, a longtime CBS sportscaster with Chicago ties who broke barriers during his career, has died from cancer, according to a statement from family released by the network on Friday.

“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,” his wife Marcy Gumbel and daughter Michelle Gumbel said in a statement.

In March, Gumbel missed his first NCAA Tournament since 1997 due to what he said at the time were family health issues.

Gumbel was the studio host for CBS since returning to the network from NBC in 1998. Gumbel signed an extension with CBS last year that allowed him to continue hosting college basketball while stepping back from NFL announcing duties.

In 2001, he announced Super Bowl 35 for CBS, becoming the first Black announcer in the U.S. to call play-by-play of a major sports championship. It was football and basketball where he was best known and made his biggest impact. Gumbel hosted CBS’ NFL studio show, “The NFL Today” from 1990 to 1993 and again in 2004-05.

Gumbel was the older brother of Bryant Gumbel, the host of NBC’s “Today” show and “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” on HBO. Bryant Gumbel received a lifetime achievement award at the Sports Emmys in 2003.

Greg Gumbel grew up in Chicago and graduated from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1967 with a degree in English. He had plans to become an English teacher, but after his brother got into sportscasting, he auditioned at WMAQ-TV, an NBC affiliate in Chicago in 1973, according to the book “You Are Looking Live!: How The NFL Today Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting.” He was soon offered a position as weekend sports anchor.

“I’m kind of surprised I got the job. I certainly wasn’t anyone who was polished,” he said in the book. “By my own reckoning, it took me a good year to start to feel comfortable in front of a camera.”

Gumbel also worked for ESPN and the Madison Square Garden network.

Veteran NBC 5 anchor and reporter Art Norman first met Gumbel decades ago – and the two remained great friends.

“This was a guy that when I was going through my cancer battle, he was a big supporter of me, and I’m still a big supporter of him,” Norman said.

Gumbel won local Emmy Awards during his long career and was the recipient of the 2007 Pat Summerall Award for excellence in sports broadcasting.

Outside of his career as a sportscaster, he was affiliated with the March of Dimes for three decades, including as a member of its board of trustees. He also was a member of the Sports Council for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital for 16 years.

Veteran NBC 5 anchor and political reporter Carol Marin said Gumbel called it like it is – but he did it with dignity and without animosity.

“He was a sports guy who could talk about anything else,” she said. “The mark of a really great sports guy is he’s literate on a lot of subjects and knows how to weed through them.”

Marin said when Gumbel was a friend of yours – he was a friend of yours forever.

“When you’re talking about somebody like Greg Gumbel, he had a big heart, and he shared it,” she said.