Eli Gold
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Elias Leo Gold (born December 15, 1953) is 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. Gold is best known as the radio voice for the
Alabama Crimson Tide football The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama (variously Alabama, UA, or Bama) in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Ass ...
team, along with Tom Roberts, as part of the Crimson Tide Sports Network since 1988. He was the host 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 ...
Live'' on the
Motor Racing Network Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of ...
from 1982 to 2016. He formerly called play-by-play for
Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
's coverage on TNN and
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and currently calls college football and NFL games for
Sports USA Radio Network Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more th ...
.


Biography

Gold was born on December 15, 1953 in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. He began his broadcasting career in 1972 as a weekend sports reporter for the
Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
.


Early years

He called New York home until he was twenty-three years young. He lost his father when he was very young and he says, "Regretfully, I didn’t know him that well". Gold says that growing up in New York impacted his broadcasting career because there were over two hundred radio stations in the area. He worked at WOR and WNEW, where he learned the business. His high school was not the usual high school that the normal kids go to, instead he went from 7 am until 10:41 AM then he would go to work. In the eighth grade he knew he wanted to be a sportscaster. He began his career in 1972 working as a weekend sports reporter with the Mutual Broadcasting System.


Ice hockey announcing

His first specialty was announcing
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
for the
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,
North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...
, Southern,
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 ...
, Central, and the
National Hockey League 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 ...
s. In the NHL, Gold announced games for the 1979–80
St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
over
KDNL-TV KDNL-TV (channel 30) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West section of St. Louis, and its transm ...
and was the radio play-by-play announcer for
Nashville Predators The Nashville Predators (commonly referred to as the Preds) are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and ha ...
during the 2006–07 NHL season. Gold made a return to pro hockey during the 2017–18 season, broadcasting games for the expansion Birmingham Bulls in the Southern Professional Hockey League.


NASCAR announcing

In 1976, Gold became a member of the NASCAR’s Motor Racing Network, which gives over 600 stations the broadcast of the NASCAR races. Eli had many different jobs in the station, including co-anchor, turn announcer and pit reporter. His first job with MRN was working turns 1 & 2 for the 1976
World 600 The Coca-Cola 600, originally the World 600, is an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, on a Sunday during Memorial Day weekend. The first race, held in 1960, was also the first on ...
at
Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing includin ...
in what he described as "basically an on the air audition." After the race, he asked
Barney Hall Barnet Hall (June 24, 1932January 26, 2016) was an American sports commentator for Motor Racing Network, formerly calling NASCAR races. Hall broadcast races for over 50 years. Hall is considered one of the best NASCAR commentators of all-time. MR ...
if he thought "they are going to bring me back." His reply was that he thought "so u did OK and I'm sure you'll be back again." While he no longer works the booth or turns, he returned to working each MRN Sprint Cup Series broadcast in the 2015 season hosting the pre-race show and post-race show. From 1984-2016, Gold was host of "NASCAR Live," a weekly show that is heard all over the United States on terrestrial radio, MRN.com and
Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...
. From 1996 to 2000, Gold was the lead announcer for TNN's coverage of the Winston Cup Series, sharing the booth with analysts such as Buddy Baker,
Dick Berggren Richard Berggren (born May 27, 1942) is a motorsports announcer and magazine editor from Manchester, Connecticut in the United States. He is commonly seen wearing a trademark flat cap. Academia Berggren described himself as "the worst student" ...
, Chad Little and
Phil Parsons Phillip Parsons (born June 21, 1957) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and current analyst for FOX NASCAR. He is the younger brother of the 1973 Winston Cup champion and former NBC/ TNT commentator Benny Par ...
. He also worked with
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%). Th ...
,
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
, NBC Sports and SETN in all of their coverage of NASCAR racing. According to NASCAR driver
Kenny Wallace Kenneth Lee Wallace (born August 23, 1963) is an American race car driver and former reporter for Fox NASCAR. He retired from NASCAR in 2015 after driving in the national series since 1988. In a career spanning twenty-five years in NASCAR, Wallace ...
who also broadcasts NASCAR themed shows on
Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (ma ...
Channel and St. Louis radio station
KMOX-AM KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Boulevar ...
, Gold "is one of the most recognizable voices in NASCAR and in all of sports broadcasting." In 2016, Gold resigned from MRN and all NASCAR duties. Published reports cited an incident in April of that year that was not disclosed.


Alabama sportscasting career

Beginning at the 1988 football season, Gold became the radio broadcaster for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football and also basketball teams. He led the shows that are called "The Tide" and "Hey Coach" which had the coaches from both the basketball and football teams called in and talked to Gold. Eli Gold is known as the voice of the Alabama Crimson Tide and that is how many people recognize his accomplishments. Along with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Gold was called by the CBS Sports to broadcast the play by play-on college basketball regional show, which included the Universities of Georgia and South Carolina. Eli was the first play-by-play announcer for the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Blazers basketball team and he was there for six years. Eli Gold would serve at times as the play by play announcer for the UAB Blazers Mens Basketball team in the absence of Gary Sanders. Eli also spent four years as the broadcaster for the Birmingham Barons baseball team. While he was working with the baseball team he was named the Southern League’s Broadcaster of the Year in 1983. He was also voted "Alabama Sportscaster of the Year" four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriter Association. Gold moved to
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
to broadcast the Birmingham Bulls hockey team of the
World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...
. He created Birmingham's first local sports call-in show, ''Calling All Sports'' on WERC which became a staple of Birmingham sports radio for 20 years. He eventually rose to the position of Sports Director for what was then that market's
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 ...
affiliate,
WBRC WBRC (channel 6) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WTBM-CD (channel 24). The two stations studios ...
where he anchored evening news sports segments and hosted "Sports Talk with Eli", a weekly call-in show. From 2002 to 2004 he hosted a daily sports talk show also called ''Calling All Sports'' on WJOX-AM in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
. Gold has also performed announcing duties for the Birmingham Barons AA
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
team and the
UAB Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of th ...
men's basketball team. He has been voted "Alabama Sportscaster of the Year" four times 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 P ...
. He has also won the same honor from the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
and
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
. On August 30, 2011, Gold returned to the daily radio airwaves as co-host of a morning drive time (6am-9am CT) sports call-in show with former Auburn quarterback Stan White on WZNN in Birmingham.


AFL broadcasting

At the beginning of the 2000 season, Gold became TNN’s "voice" of the Arena Football league by being the voice of the play by play for the AFL. He did the play-by-play announcing for the 3 years that the AFL was on the TNN network. When AFL moved to NBC Sports in 2003, Gold was hired to become the play-by-play announcer for the AFL. Gold also did AFL announcing for FOX Sports Net and Comcast Sports.


NFL broadcasting

Beginning in the Fall of 2003, Gold became a member of the SportsUSA Radio’s Network coverage of the NFL. Gold handles the play by play of one NFL game a week. He also broadcasts the all-star games and post-season college football bowl games for SportsUSA Radio.


Leave of absence and health

On August 3, 2022, Gold confirmed he would be missing the start of the 2022 season to focus on his health. During his leave of absence, the play-by-play commentator for the Alabama Crimson Tide is Chris Stewart, who is the current play-by-play announcer for Alabama's men's basketball. Gold initially stated that he was not facing a serious illness and that he was merely addressing his declining ability to move around, which he attributed to orthopedic complications. Gold also reported having lost over 100 pounds. In January 2023, Gold announced he had been diagnosed with
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, although he said that it was a "treatable" form of the disease and that he was making progress in his recovery.


Personal life

Gold currently resides in Birmingham, as well as Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina with his wife Claudette and daughter Elise. Gold is also a part owner of Nino's Italian Restaurant, which is located in Pelham, Alabama. He also has a wing sauce named after him at Baumhowers Wings restaurant, which is owned by former Alabama Defensive Lineman, Bob Baumhower. Gold is Jewish; he once told an interviewer that he was thrilled that a "Jewish kid from Brooklyn with zero athletic talent would make it into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame."


Awards

Gold has won the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year 4 times. He won these titles by being voted by the National Sportscaster and Sportswriter Association. He has also been named the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year by the Associated Press twice and also was voted the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year by the United Press International. Gold was named the Chris Schenkel Award winner by the
National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...
for 2019. The award recognizes broadcasters with long careers on the air with direct ties to a specific school. Gold is entering his 31st season calling
Alabama Crimson Tide football The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama (variously Alabama, UA, or Bama) in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Ass ...
games on its radio network.Eli Gold named national award winner
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Books

Gold's second book was released in August 2007 and is called Bear's Boys. The book focuses on thirty-six of coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's Alabama football players and explores where they are today and how Coach Bryant's lessons impacted them in their post-University Of Alabama days. Gold's third book, "From Peanuts To The Press Box" tells his life's story. The story of the boy from Brooklyn, New York who went from selling peanuts at Madison Square Garden and now works in the press boxes and radio booths of America. *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Eli 1953 births Living people Alabama Crimson Tide football announcers American Hockey League broadcasters American radio sports announcers Arena football announcers Minor League Baseball broadcasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Jewish American sportspeople Motorsport announcers Nashville Predators announcers National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters St. Louis Blues announcers Sports in Alabama Sportspeople from Brooklyn University of Alabama at Birmingham people World Hockey Association broadcasters 21st-century American Jews