Ray Eugene Scott (June 17, 1919 – March 23, 1998) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
sportscaster, best known for his broadcasts for the
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...
of 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 ...
. His brother
Hal Scott
Harold Dwight Scott (July 8, 1923 – September 21, 2010) was an American sportscaster. He worked primarily at Minneapolis's television station WCCO-TV in 1960s and 1970s. He also worked for CBS. He was the television voice for the Minnesota Vi ...
was also a sportscaster.
Early life and career
A native of
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropol ...
, Scott began his broadcasting career on local radio in the late 1930s. (Fellow announcer
Bill McColgan
William J. McColgan (died April 30, 1973) was an American sportscaster.
A native of Boston, McColgan graduated from St. Margaret's School and South Boston High School. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he attended Curry College. ...
, in his introduction of Scott for the radio broadcast of the
1957 NFL Championship Game
The 1957 NFL Championship Game was the 25th annual championship game, held on December 29 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Michigan.
The Detroit Lions (8–4), winners of the Western Conference, hosted the Cleveland Browns (9–2–1), champion ...
, stated that Scott started broadcasting when he was only 17 years old.) Following a stint in the U.S. Army during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he did play-by-play for
Carnegie Tech
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
and
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
football and
Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsbu ...
basketball.
Green Bay Packers and CBS Sports
Scott's first NFL broadcasts came in
1953 over the
DuMont network; three years later he began doing
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 ...
on Packers broadcasts for
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 Entertainm ...
,
["Ray Scott, 78, Voice of Packers During Glory Seasons in the 60's," ''The New York Times'', Sunday, March 29, 1998.](_blank)
/ref>
Scott was paired primarily with Tony Canadeo on Packers telecasts. As the team's play-by-play announcer, Scott broadcast Super Bowl I
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...
and II for CBS, along with the brutally cold " Ice Bowl" NFL championship game of 1967. It was during this period that his terse, minimalist style (e.g. : "Starr
Starr may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Starr (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Starr (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
Places
United States
* Starr, Ohio, an unincorporated comm ...
. . . Dowler . . . Touchdown, Green Bay!") developed its greatest following. It also earned him a reputation as the "King of Understatement". Scott was also known for only occasionally using team names while broadcasting, more often identifying them by their city.
In 1968, CBS ended its practice of assigning dedicated announcing crews to particular teams. Scott became the play-by-play announcer on CBS' lead NFL broadcast team. He was partnered with Paul Christman
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
in 1968 and 1969 and Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announ ...
from 1970 to 1973. During his tenure with CBS he called four Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
s, seven NFL (later NFC
NFC may refer to:
Psychology
* Need for cognition, in psychology
* Need for closure, social psychological term
Sports
* NFC Championship Game, the National Football Conference Championship Game
* NCAA Football Championship (Philippines)
* Nati ...
) championship games, and the 1961 Orange Bowl
The 1961 Orange Bowl was the 27th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Monday, January 2. Part of the 1960–61 bowl game season, the fifth-ranked Missouri Tigers of the Big Eight Conf ...
; he also called major college bowl games for ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
during this period.
Baseball broadcasting
Scott was the lead television and radio announcer for Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
's Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
from to , calling the 1965 World Series
The 1965 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1965 season. The 62nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the Amer ...
on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
television alongside Vin Scully
Vincent Edward Scully (November 29, 1927 – August 2, 2022) was an American sportscaster. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located ...
, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
. Scott's famous minimalist style was evident in his call of Lou Johnson
Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960â ...
's home run that broke a scoreless tie and proved to be the game winner ("Kaat's pitch, uh-oh, it's a long fly down the left field line. Home run"). After Sandy Koufax
Sanford Koufax (; born Sanford Braun; December 30, 1935) is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. He has been hailed as one of t ...
struck out his tenth hitter for the final out of the series, Scott stated "every pitcher likes to end a game with a strikeout. But this was not just any game. It was the 7th game of the World Series." After leaving Minnesota he called games for the Washington Senators in 1970–71 before returning to the Twins as a part-time announcer in 1973–75. Scott also called Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...
telecasts in 1976–77.
Later life and career
CBS dismissed Scott in 1974, replacing him with his color commentator, Summerall. He was subsequently employed as a local radio announcer by the Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The tea ...
(1974–75), Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...
(1976–77), and Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...
(1978–82). Scott also served as a narrator for the ''NFL Films Game of the Week
The ''NFL Films Game of the Week'', formerly known as the ''NFL Game of the Week'', is a television program that aired from 1965 to 2007. The show presented one or two NFL games from the previous week compressed into a one-hour program.
Format
'' ...
'' in the 1970s and called play-by-play of Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...
basketball in 1974–75, syndicated broadcasts of Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
football from 1975–81, the USFL
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
's Arizona Wranglers in 1983 and 1984, and the Portland Breakers
The Portland Breakers were an American football team that played in the United States Football League (USFL) in the mid-1980s. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, the franchise was previously in Boston, Massachusetts as the Boston Breakers and ...
in the 1985 season. In 1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
, Scott was one of several veteran announcers to call some September NFL telecasts for NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, while many of the network's regular broadcasters were working at that year's Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
in Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
.
Scott also called UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, AlÄ á¹£onak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, Arizona State
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
, Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, and Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
football in the '80s; broadcast college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
and 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 ...
at various points in his career; and teamed with Patrick Ryan while doing high school and college football in and around Billings, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...
. From 1986 to 1988, he called the annual Peach Bowl
The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially ...
game for the Mizlou Television Network
Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...
; at the same time, he was a sportscaster at KTVK
KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KTVK and KPHO-TV share ...
in Phoenix, having wintered in Arizona since 1968. In the later years of his life he hosted a syndicated talk show on the short-lived SportsAmerica Radio Network. In addition to sportscasting, Scott also read newscasts at WCCO-FM
KMNB (102.9 MHz, "The Wolf") is an American commercial FM radio station in Minneapolis-St. Paul that carries a country radio format. KMNB is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its main transmitter is located on the KMSP Tower in Shoreview, Minnesota, with ba ...
in Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
in the late 1970s and early '80s. He also broadcast Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota in the late 1980s and thru the 1990s.
Scott died in 1998 at age 78 in Minneapolis following a long illness. He was survived by his second wife, Bonnie, and his first wife, Eda and their five children.
Awards and honors
Scott was twice named National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association
The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Pr ...
, was given regional awards by that organization 12 times in four different states, and was inducted into its Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
in 1982. Posthumous honors include induction into the American Sportscasters Association
The American Sportscasters Association (ASA) was founded in 1979 by broadcaster Dick London (Hanna) and associate attorney Harold Foner as a non-profit association to represent sportscasters by promoting and supporting the needs and interests of ...
Hall of Fame in 1998, receipt of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award
The Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, created in 1989 and named for the late longtime NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, is bestowed annually by the Pro Football Hall of Fame "for longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in profes ...
from the Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
in 2000, and induction into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...
as a contributor in July 2001.
Scott was ranked 28th in the American Sportscasters Association's list of the Top 50 Sportscasters of All Time in 2009. His bare-bones style has inspired many sportscasters.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Ray
1919 births
1998 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War II
American Basketball Association announcers
American radio sports announcers
American television sports announcers
College basketball announcers in the United States
College football announcers
Golf writers and broadcasters
Green Bay Packers announcers
High school basketball announcers in the United States
High school football announcers in the United States
Kansas City Chiefs announcers
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Milwaukee Brewers announcers
Minnesota Twins announcers
Minnesota Vikings announcers
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Football League announcers
National Hockey League broadcasters
People from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recipients
Phoenix Suns announcers
Pittsburgh Panthers football announcers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcers
United States Football League announcers
Washington Senators (1961–1971) announcers