Profile of Pat Summerall on Famous Like Me

George Allen "Pat" Summerall (born May 10, 1930 in Lake City, Florida) is a former American football player and television sportscaster.

Football career

Summerall played college football from 1949 to 1951 at the University of Arkansas, where he played the defensive end, end, and placekicker positions. He graduated from UA in 1953.

Summerall spent 10 years as a professional football player in the National Football League, primarily as a placekicker. The Detroit Lions drafted Summerall as a fourth-round draft choice in 1952. He went on to play for the Chicago Cardinals from 1953 to 1957 and the New York Giants from 1958 to 1961. His best professional year statistically was 1959, when Summerall scored 90 points on 30-for-30 (100%) extra-point kicking and 20-for-29 (69%) field goal kicking.

Broadcasting career

After retiring from football, Summerall became a broadcaster for the CBS network. He started in 1962 working part-time on New York Giants' broadcasts. In 1964, CBS hired Summerall full-time to work its NFL telecasts, initially as a color commentator and then (from 1975) as a play-by-play announcer. Summerall also did sportscasts for the network's flagship radio station, WCBS-AM.

During the 1970s, Summerall usually worked with Tom Brookshier as his broadcasting partner for NFL (mostly NFC) games. In 1981, Summerall was paired with former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden, a pairing that would last for 22 seasons on two networks and become one of the most popular pairings in football broadcasting history. Summerall also broadcast golf and tennis during his tenure at CBS.

In 1994, the Fox network surprised NFL fans by outbidding CBS for the NFC broadcast package. One of the network's first moves was to hire Summerall and Madden as its lead announcing team. The two men thus continued their on-air partnership through the 2001 season.

Summerall and Madden's last game together was Super Bowl XXXVI. After that game, Summerall announced his retirement and Madden was signed by ABC for that network's Monday Night Football telecasts. Summerall was lured out of retirement and re-signed with Fox for the 2002 NFL season, working with Brian Baldinger on regional telecasts before retiring again after one year.

Summerall called several 2004 preseason and early regular-season NFL games for the ESPN network, substituting for regular announcer Mike Patrick while the latter recovered from heart surgery.

Summerall has broadcast all or part of 26 Super Bowls, more than any other announcer. 16 of these were on network television with either CBS or Fox, with an additional 10 on CBS Radio.

Health issues

In the spring of 2004, Summerall, a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for many years, underwent a liver transplant. Following the successful surgery, Summerall (a resident of Dallas, Texas) said that he might be interested in broadcasting a partial schedule of Dallas Cowboys games for one of the networks; however, as of the 2005 NFL season he remained off the air.

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