KEITH JACKSON - 10/08/1928 - 01/12/2018
A farmer's son, Jackson was born in Roopville, Georgia and grew up on a farm outside Carrollton, near the Alabama state line. He was the only surviving child in a poor family and grew up listening to sports on the radio. After enlisting and serving as a mechanic in the United States Marine Corps, he attended Washington State University in Pullman under the G.I. Bill. Jackson began as a political science major, but he became interested in broadcasting. He graduated in 1954 with a degree in speech communications. Though best known for his college football broadcasts, Jackson announced numerous other sports for ABC throughout his career, including Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, boxing, auto racing, PGA Tour golf, the USFL, and the Olympic Games. Jackson began his career as a broadcaster in 1952, when he called a game between Stanford and Washington State on the Tidewater Associated Oil Co. radio network. He then worked for KOMO radio in Seattle, and later for KOMO-TV from 1954 to 1964 as co-anchor for their first news team (first co-anchor news team
on the West Coast) covering Seafair hydroplane races, minor league Seattle Rainiers baseball games, and University of Washington football games. In 1958, Jackson became the first American sports announcer to broadcast an event from the Soviet Union, a crew race between the Washington Huskies and a Soviet team. Despite heavy suspicion and numerous hurdles by the Soviet authorities, Jackson and his cohorts were able to cover the race: the first ever American sports victory on Russian soil. Jackson became a radio news correspondent for ABC News Radio and sports director of ABC Radio West in 1964 before joining ABC Sports in 1966. In the early 1960s, Jackson covered American Football League games. In 1970, he was chosen to be the first play-by-play announcer on Monday Night Football covering the NFL, but he remained in that capacity only for the program's first season. Frank Gifford was ABC's initial target, but could not get out of his CBS contract until after the 1970 season. Jackson was involved in the ABC coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympics and continued to contribute even when an attack by Palestinian terrorists transformed the coverage from that of a typical sporting event to a greater international and historical news event. In all, he covered a total of 10 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. He was ABC's lead basketball play-by-play announcer (succeeding Chris Schenkel in the role) with legendary NBA player Bill Russell for two years (1971-1973). Jackson was a regular part of ABC's popular Wide World of Sports (WWOS), covering both popular sports and obscure events like wrist wrestling. For WWOS he covered Evel Knievel's successful jump at Exhibition Stadium, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 20, 1974. He teamed with Jackie Stewart and Chris Economaki in (WWOS) coverage of auto racing; among the notable events covered by Jackson was the 1974 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the 1975 Indianapolis 500. In baseball, Keith Jackson (alongside Tim McCarver) called the famous 16-inning sixth game of the 1986 National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and Houston Astros. That turned out to be the final Major League Baseball game that Jackson would broadcast. Jackson's role on ABC's college football coverage occasionally interfered with his postseason baseball commitments. For instance, he was unavailable to call Game 1 of the 1976 ALCS because he had just finished calling an Oklahoma-Texas college football game for ABC. Thus, Bob Uecker filled-in for Jackson for Game 1. For all his success, he received the most acclaim for his coverage of college football. He genuinely enjoyed the sport and the purity of it. Jackson began announcing college football when television play-by-play announcers did not always have regular analysts. He would only once miss working a college season in his over 50 years. Jackson was joined in the booth by Joe Paterno for the 1974 Michigan-Ohio State game in Columbus, while Woody Hayes accompanied him for the 1974 Notre Dame-USC game. For many years, he was assigned by ABC to the primary national game of the week. His quirky expressions such as "Whoa, Nellie!", "Fum-BLE!" and "Hold the phonnnnne!" (following a penalty flag) are often the subject of comedic imitation. Though he greatly popularized it, Jackson notes that he learned the term "Whoa, Nellie" from earlier television announcer Dick Lane. He has often referred to offensive and defensive line players as the Big Uglies, or to an individual by saying "That guy...is a hoss" (horse). Jackson is also credited with coining the nickname for Michigan Stadium, The Big House. In the season before his first retirement, during what was thought to be his final game at The Big House, the Michigan Marching Band's halftime show concluded by spelling out "Thanks Keith" across the field. Approaching his 70th birthday, Jackson announced his first retirement from college football at the end of the 1998 season and his intention to live full-time at his home in California. Choosing the first BCS National Championship Game as his last broadcast, Jackson called the 1999 National Championship at the Fiesta Bowl between Tennessee and Florida State. He concluded the program by stating "Tennessee 23, Florida State 16. And so it is done. I say goodbye to all of you. God bless and good night." Jackson rescinded his decision the following fall and began to do a more limited schedule of games, teamed with Dan Fouts, Tim Brant, and later Fouts again, almost exclusively sticking to venues on the West Coast, closer to his home in California. He officially announced his retirement on April 27, 2006, noting he did not want to "die in a stadium parking lot." His last game call was the 2006 Rose Bowl featuring Texas vs. Southern California in the BCS National Championship Game. The game was the last college football game shown on ABC under the "ABC Sports" brand, as ABC Sports was integrated with ESPN the following summer. Jackson died on January 12, 2018, at the age of 89