Andrew J. Musser Jr. (December 28, 1937 – January 22, 2012) was an American sportscaster. He is best known for his time as a

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer for

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

baseball from 1976 to 2001.

Early life and education

Born in

Lemoyne, Pennsylvania Lemoyne is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, which lies across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area. Lemoyne was incorpor ...

he grew up in nearby

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in communications from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1959.

Career

Musser,

Richie Ashburn Don Richard Ashburn (March 19, 1927 – September 9, 1997), also known by the nicknames, "Putt-Putt", "The Tilden Flash", and "Whitey" (due to his light-blond hair), was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball. (Some sources give his ...

, and

Harry Kalas Harold Norbert Kalas (March 26, 1936 – April 13, 2009) was an American sportscaster, best known for his Ford C. Frick Award-winning role as lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, a position he held f ...

were a team which broadcast Phillies games on both radio and television for 21 consecutive seasons from 1976 to 1997. He retired after the 2001 season. Musser worked for WCAU radio and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

in Philadelphia from 1965 to 1971. During this time he served as a radio play-by-play announcer for

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

football as well as

76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

and

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (Football Championship Sub ...

basketball. One of the youngest lead broadcasters in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

at the time, he covered the Eagles' games with Charlie Gauer for four years until the station lost the broadcast rights to WIP in 1969. Musser also called various events nationally for

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

, including

Super Bowl VI Super Bowl VI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the ...

Super Bowl VIII Super Bowl VIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

and the 1976 MLB All-Star Game. Musser was the lead voice for

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

telecasts on

WSNS WSNS-TV (channel 44) is a television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Spanish-language Telemundo network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station ...

from 1973 through 1976, pairing with Dick Gonski in the first two seasons and

Lorn Brown Lorn Brown (September 18, 1938 – June 24, 2010) was a sports broadcaster who worked for baseball's AAA Iowa Oaks 1973–1974 (St. Louis Cardinals September 1974 fill-in), Chicago White Sox (1976–1979, 1983–1988), Milwaukee Brewers (1980� ...

in the third. Musser called

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

away games with

Cal Ramsey Calvin Ramsey (July 13, 1937 – March 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player and broadcaster. A standout college player for NYU, he played 13 NBA games over two seasons. After his playing career ended, he began a 28-year affili ...

WOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW (ch ...

and

Manhattan Cable Television Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

home games for the next four seasons from 1976 to 1980. He handled all the games in the first three years, but only home games in the fourth year. The

Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is a state-chartered, federally recognized, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, devoted to collecting information about and promoting cultural work related to broadcasting and communications in Philadelphia, Pe ...

inducted Musser into their Hall of Fame in November 2011.

Personal life

Musser was married for 50 years to Eun Joo. They had two children, Allan and Luanne, and four grandchildren. Musser died on January 22, 2012.

Memorable calls

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musser, Andy 1937 births 2012 deaths American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Chicago Bulls announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers New York Knicks announcers NFL Films people People from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Philadelphia 76ers announcers Philadelphia Eagles announcers Philadelphia Phillies announcers S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators