Larry Nuber (November 29, 1948 – June 8, 2000) was an American

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...

, best known for his work on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

broadcasts of

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

and

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

races in the 1980s.

Before ESPN

Nuber graduated from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and was a lieutenant in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

from 1971 to 1974. In the late 1970s, he was an advertising account executive for WTHR Channel 13 in

Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. During his tenure at WTHR, Nuber met sportscaster

Paul Page Paul Page (born November 25, 1945) is an American motorsports broadcaster who is best known for serving as the play-by-play commentator for the Indianapolis 500 for a total of 27 years across radio and television. Page was the radio ''Voice of th ...

, which led to a career in broadcasting.

Announcing career

Nuber joined the new ESPN network in 1979 for their first motor sports telecast. Nuber and

Bob Jenkins Robert F. Jenkins (September 4, 1947 – August 9, 2021) was an American television and radio sports announcer, primarily calling Indy car and NASCAR telecasts for ESPN/ABC and later Versus/NBCSN. Jenkins was the radio "Voice of the Indianapoli ...

called the race, a USAC event in Salem, IN. In 1984, Nuber helped start '' SpeedWeek'' on ESPN, a weekly auto racing news program. He co-hosted the show until 1989. During his years with the network, he also announced

and Thursday night "Thunder" USAC events. At the 1985

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...

Darlington Raceway Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located in Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is ...

, Nuber made one of his most memorable calls when

Bill Elliott William Clyde Elliott (born October 8, 1955), also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Million Dollar Bill, or Wild Bill is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing ...

won the race and became the first winner of the

Winston Million Winston may refer to: Places Antarctica * Winston Glacier Australia * Winston, Queensland, a suburb of the City of Mount Isa United Kingdom * Winston, County Durham, England, a village * Winston, Suffolk, England, a village and civil pari ...

. In addition to his work with ESPN, Nuber also worked on TNN and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

race broadcasts. During a 1989 "Thunder" broadcast on ESPN, an on-air dispute between Nuber and fellow announcer/former racer

Steve Chassey Steve Chassey (born February 27, 1945 in Brockton, Massachusetts), is a former driver in the CART Championship Car series. He raced in 9 seasons (1981, 1983–1989, and 1992), with 44 career starts, including the Indianapolis 500 in 1983, 1987, a ...

led to their dismissal from the network.

Wynn's

Nuber was instrumental in bringing

Wynn's Illinois Tool Works Inc. or ITW is an American Fortune 500, Fortune 200 company that produces engineered Fastener, fasteners and components, equipment and consumable systems, and specialty products. It was founded in 1912 by Byron L. Smith and h ...

sponsorship into the ASA AC Delco Series during the early 1990s while working with TNN. Before his death, he managed every aspect of the Wynn's Racing Program.

Death

On June 8, 2000, Nuber was found dead at the age of 51 in his Indianapolis home by local police who received a call from family members that had not heard from him in several days. He died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

while working on his computer. Instead of flowers at his funeral, it was asked that donations be made to the Rich Vogler Scholarship Fund.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuber, Larry Motorsport announcers 1948 births 2000 deaths American sports announcers NASCAR people Ohio State University alumni People from Maumee, Ohio