Irwin Elliot Shalek (May 7, 1915 – September 17, 1998), better known as Win Elliot, was an American

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 ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

sportscaster and

game show host A game show host is an individual who manages a game show, introduces contestants, and asks quiz questions to test the knowledge of said contestants. They may also have other duties pertinent to production. History In 1938, Freddie Grisewood wa ...

. He was best known for his long tenures 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 ...

broadcaster of

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

games and host of ''Sports Central USA'' on the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

. Elliot was the brother of

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and TV actor

Biff Elliot Biff Elliot (born Leon Shalek; July 26, 1923 – August 15, 2012) was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as popular detective Mike Hammer in the 1953 version of ''I, the Jury'' and for his guest appearance as Schmitter i ...

Early life and broadcasting career

Elliot was born Irwin Elliot Shalek in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 s ...

, and a graduate of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he played goalie for the Wolverines hockey club. In 1946, Elliot began a long run as Rangers radio and television broadcaster, an association that would last 24 years through the 1968-69 season. Later he called

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

matches on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

radio network during the 1950s decade. Elliot was also a game show host in his early career. From 1947 to 1949, he emceed ''

Quick as a Flash ''Quick as a Flash'' was a 30-minute radio quiz program which featured drama segments with guest actors from radio detective shows. Created by director Richard Lewis and emcee Ken Roberts, the program debuted over the Mutual Network on Sunday, J ...

'', a radio quiz program which featured drama segments with guest actors from radio detective shows. He went on to become a

guest host {{Unreferenced, date=January 2009 A guest host (or guest presenter in the United Kingdom) is a host, usually of a talk show, that hosts the program in lieu of the regular host if they fall ill, have another project or commitment, or are unable to h ...

with ''

Beat the Clock ''Beat the Clock'' is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The show began on radio as ' ...

'' and ''Win with a Winner'' on television. In September, 1958, Elliot replaced Jay Jackson as host of the TV version of the formerly popular quiz show ''

Tic-Tac-Dough ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, ''X'' or ''O'', on the board. Three versions were produc ...

'' for the last 13 weeks of its nighttime run. The program was taken off the air amid fallout from the

quiz show scandals The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American Game show, television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearr ...

that had rocked the industry earlier in the year.

Career heyday

The final broadcast of ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' on December 29, 1958, also marked the last for Elliot on game shows. Soon he embarked on a full-time sports broadcasting career. In the mid-1960s, Elliot was the lead voice on "

Schaefer Schaefer is an alternative spelling and cognate for the German word ''schäfer'', meaning 'shepherd', which itself descends from the Old High German '' scāphare''. Variants "Shaefer", "Schäfer" (a standardized spelling in many German-speaking ...

Circle of Sports" broadcasts of Rangers and Knicks games, track and field and other events related to

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...

TV and later WOR TV. He also called the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals for NBC, the first televised by an American network. All the while, Elliot broadcast horse racing events and conducted one of the early

call-in In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio ( ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

talk shows on

WCBS-AM WCBS (880 AM, "WCBS Newsradio 880") is a radio station licensed to New York, New York and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. WCBS's studios are located in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan an ...

in New York. Elliot then started anchoring ''Sports Central USA'' for CBS Radio, which he continued to do into the early 1980s. He also took part in several of the network's

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

broadcasts in the 1970s and 1980s.

Later years

Elliot died at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut on September 17, 1998 at the age of 83.

Notes

References

External links

Former Michigan goaltender, sportscaster leaves lasting legacy
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Win 1915 births 1998 deaths American game show hosts American horse racing announcers American radio sports announcers Bowling broadcasters Boxing commentators Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters New York Giants announcers New York Knicks announcers New York Rangers announcers People from Chelsea, Massachusetts University of Michigan alumni