Sports broadcaster extraordinaire Dick Enberg died during the Christmas holidays – December 21 to be exact – at the age of 82. He brought so much joy to my life, his passing shouldn’t go without comment.
So, of course, my first comment: “Dick Enberg, is gone. Oh my!”
“Oh my!” was Enberg’s trademark signature call when no other words were necessary – or as effective.
Magic Johnson makes a magical pass to help Michigan State defeat Larry Bird Indiana State in one of the most famous NCAA Championship games of all-time?
“Oh my!” responds Enberg...
John Elway scrambles out of the pocket and then dives for a Super Bowl-clinching touchdown.
“Oh my!” Enberg intones.
We could go on and on. He was the voice of Super Bowls, NCAA tournament championships, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and so many other not-so-memorable sporting events made more tolerable by the fact Enberg brought them to us.
Enberg had the knack all superb sports play-by-play announcers have, that is, he never got in the way of the game. He never made it about him. In a golden voice, he told you what you needed to know and shut up when no other words were necessary.
He was part of some of the greatest announcing teams of all-time, as well.
He did NCAA basketball with Al McGuire and Billy Packer. He did NFL football with Merlin Olsen (in what probably was the greatest football announcing tandem of all-time).
Enberg understood that less is sometimes more – and almost always better. Forget the clutter, tell the viewers what they need to know. That seemed his broadcasting motto, just as it worked for Vin Scully. Just as it worked, for that matter, for Jack Cristil.
Much of what I know about Enberg’s background comes from reading the various obituaries that followed his unexpected death from an apparent heart attack. That background makes his brilliance as an announcer far more understandable.
First and foremost, he had great knowledge of – and passion for – the games. As a kid, he “broadcast” imaginary games that involved himself. He played quarterback on his high school football team. He played college baseball at Central Michigan. To earn extra money in college, he went to work at a radio station as a custodian. That’s right: He swept the floors. Higher-ups noticed his voice and made him a disc jockey at $1 an hour. When the station’s sports director left, he got a promotion.
He went to college intending to become a teacher. After graduating at Central Michigan, he went to graduate school at Indiana, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees. It was also at Indiana he took his first play-by-play job, doing Hoosiers football and basketball for $35 a game.
But he still had teaching in mind. Indeed, he had teaching in mind when he did his broadcasts.
“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,” Enberg once wrote. “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.’”
It worked. For Enberg, it always worked.
And aren’t we fortunate, he chose broadcasting over teaching?
In a way, we were all his students. And he taught us well.
Here in Mississippi, we should also know that when Enberg started doing those Indiana football and basketball games, he was taking the place of another guy who wanted to become an educator.
That guy was Donald Zacharias, who eventually would become the president at Mississippi State.
Rick Cleveland (rcleveland@mississippitoday.org) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist.
