Marc Zumoff (born November 18, 1955) is an American sportscaster who is the former

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 the

Philadelphia 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 Eas ...

. In 2016, he worked for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

doing play-by-play for the United States women's national basketball team alongside Ann Meyers-Drysdale. Zumoff worked on behalf of

Turner Sports Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...

doing play-by-play for the 2017 NBA playoffs. He also fills in for MLS's

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...

doing play-by-play. Zumoff announced his retirement after 27 years on June 29, 2021. Zumoff also has his own company, Zumoff Productions, a coaching company for news and sports broadcasters, and is the co-author of ''Total Sportscasting: Performance, Production and Career Development'', a college textbook published by

Focal Press Focal Press is a publisher of creative and applied media books and it is an imprint of Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Company history The firm was founded in London in 1938 by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a Hungarian photographer who migrated to England ...

Career

Early career

Zumoff attended

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, announcing

Temple Owls football The Temple Owls football team represents Temple University in the sport of college football. The Temple Owls compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). They play thei ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

games. He left Temple without graduating, and would get his undergraduate degree 15 years later. His first broadcasting work, in 1977, was as a radio newsman at WBUD 1260 in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

. While at WHWH, he also became the voice of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

football and basketball. At the same time, Zumoff was doing freelance work at KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia. While working at KYW, his friend Rob Grossman left the station to become the public relations director of the Philadelphia Fever of the Major Indoor Soccer League. Through Grossman, Zumoff had a one-game audition to become the team's play-by-play announcer, at which he was successful. In 1982, the Fever's final season, several games were broadcast on the

PRISM Prism usually refers to: * Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light * Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron Prism may also refer to: Science and mathematics * Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...

Sports Network. After the team folded, PRISM hired Marc to do movie announcements and in January 1983, hired him to replace Jim Gray as the 76ers pre-game/halftime/post-game host. While in that position, Zumoff occasionally filled in with various play-by-play assignments, including the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

(for Gene Hart and Mike Emrick) and the

Philadelphia Big 5 The Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the city’s collegiate championship. The Big 5 c ...

. Other work during that time included

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

Basketball, the

Dad Vail Regatta The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest regular intercollegiate rowing event in the United States, drawing over a hundred colleges and universities from North America. The regatta has been held annually on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsyl ...

, Philadelphia Wings Lacrosse,

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...

football and basketball, the CoreStates Bike Race, and the Devon Horse Show. Zumoff has retained his connection in news, including work as a fill-in host for the news and public affairs show Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane on the local

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

affiliate

WHYY-FM WHYY-FM (90.9 MHz, "91 FM") is a public radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its broadcast tower is located in the city's Roxborough neighborhood at () while its studios and offices are located on Independence Mall in Cen ...

Philadelphia 76ers

Zumoff worked for 27 seasons as the Sixers television play-by-play announcer and 36 years as a part of the 76ers broadcast team. Zumoff, a Philadelphia native, was officially named play-by-play announcer on August 17, 1994, following an 11-year stint as the team's pre-game/halftime/post-game host. Zumoff has won the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award for best sports play-by-play broadcaster 18 times. As the Sixers play-by-play announcer, Zumoff has worked with six different partners:

Steve Mix ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

Bob Salmi Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals * Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...

Ed Pinckney Edward Lewis Pinckney (born March 27, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player. College career He attended Villanova University and was a part of the Villanova Wildcats' 1981 heralded recruiting class that included Gary McLa ...

Eric Snow Eric Snow (born April 5, 1973) is an American basketball coach and former professional player. He played the point guard position in the National Basketball Association from 1995 to 2008 and appeared in three NBA Finals. Known for his defense, ...

Malik Rose Malik Jabari Rose (born November 23, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. Rose played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning championships with the San Antonio Spurs in 1999 and 2003. High school ...

, and

Alaa Abdelnaby Alaa Abdelnaby ( ar, علاء عبد النبي), (born June 24, 1968) is an Egyptian-American former professional basketball player. He played for the Duke Blue Devils and then played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Continental ...

. Zumoff retired after the 2021 76ers season and was replaced by Kate Scott.

Other work

Besides working for NBC at the

Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

, and

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

Sports' coverage of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

, Zumoff has done play-by-play for

NBC Sports Philadelphia NBC Sports Philadelphia is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally based cable television provider Comcast (and owns a controlling 75% interest), and the Philadelph ...

and The Comcast Network's coverage of

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

and

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

. He also fills in for

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

doing play by play. In addition to regular appearances at community functions on behalf of the 76ers and NBC Sports Philadelphia, Zumoff also chairs an annual golf outing benefiting Maccabi USA. In the past, Zumoff has hosted the

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

outing "Tee Off with Zumoff" benefiting the Pathway School for learning disabled students as well as the Points for Peace 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the

Palestra The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball, is a historic arena and the home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball. Located at 235 South ...

Sportscasting coaching

Zumoff runs his own company, Zumoff Productions, a coaching company for current and aspiring news and sports broadcasters. He has also co-authored, with Max Negin, the college textbook ''Total Sportscasting: Performance, Production and Career Development'', published by

. The book covers skills required for a successful career in sportscasting, including performance and production techniques, broadcast writing techniques, career development, and personnel management.

Personal life

Zumoff lives with his wife Debbie. They have two sons. He is a fan of

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

References

External links

Zumoff ProductionsMarc Zumoff's Blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zumoff, Marc 1955 births Living people American sports announcers Association football commentators College basketball announcers in the United States National Basketball Association broadcasters High school football announcers in the United States Lacrosse announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Philadelphia Flyers announcers Philadelphia 76ers announcers Princeton Tigers football announcers Television personalities from Philadelphia Temple Owls football announcers Jewish American sports announcers