Gary Nedrow Bender (born September 1, 1940) is a retired American sportscaster and 2008 inductee into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He officially retired, April 13, 2011, from

Fox Sports Arizona Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts p ...

after 18 years calling the NBA's Phoenix Suns games.

Biography

Early career

Bender, who was born in

Norton, Kansas Norton is a city in, and the county seat of, Norton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,747. History Norton was founded in 1872. Like the county, it was named for Capt. Orloff Norton. The f ...

, and raised in

Ulysses, Kansas Ulysses (pronounced ) is a city in and the county seat of Grant County, Kansas, United States. It is named after Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,788. History ...

, graduated from Ulysses High School in 1958. He then attended

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

(then known as the University of Wichita), graduating with a journalism degree in 1962 and a master's degree from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

in 1964. Bender then began his broadcasting career calling games at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, and then went on to do the same at the University of Kansas' football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

programs in the 1960s. He also spent years as a broadcaster in Wisconsin and called all of the Wisconsin Athletic Association championship games, as well as Green Bay Packers radio and Milwaukee Brewers television in the early 1970s.

CBS Sports (1975-1987)

He did play-by-play for the ''

NFL on CBS The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts sin ...

'' from 1975 to

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, and again in 1986 (among his partners were Johnny Unitas, Sonny Jurgensen,

Hank Stram Henry Louis Stram (; January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NF ...

, and John Madden, all members of 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, coa ...

) and the

1981 NBA Finals The 1981 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1980–81 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It pitted the 62–20 Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics a ...

along with color commentators

Rick Barry Richard Francis Dennis Barry III (born March 28, 1944) is an American retired professional basketball player who starred at the NCAA, American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) levels. Barry ranks among the ...

and

Bill Russell William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Va ...

, both members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was CBS' first play-by-play announcer for the network's coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, calling the Final Four alongside

Billy Packer Anthony William Packer (born Anthony William Paczkowski,
Retr ...

in 1982,

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

and

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. In 1982 and

, he was CBS' lead college football play-by-play man.

ABC Sports (1987-1992)

On October 26,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, Bender (along with Lynn Swann) called the ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...

'' game between the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

and the

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 expansi ...

. That game had been scheduled for October 25, but when the Minnesota Twins (who at the time, shared the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome with the Vikings) played Game 7 of the

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 ...

that day, the football game was moved to Monday and shown to a regional audience. 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 Bicenten ...

, Bender did play-by-play for the American League Championship Series alongside Baseball Hall of Famers

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, ...

and Reggie Jackson. He also announced college football games for

ABC Sports 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 Televisi ...

, where he formerly worked alongside Dick Vermeil.

''Major League Baseball on ABC''

As previously mentioned, Bender did play-by-play for the

1988 American League Championship Series The 1988 American League Championship Series was a best-of-seven series that pitted the East Division champion Boston Red Sox against the West Division champion Oakland Athletics. It was the second meeting between the two in ALCS play. The Athlet ...

between the Oakland Athletics and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

. Bender spent two years (

) as the #2 baseball play-by-play man for ABC behind

Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on n ...

. Bender worked the backup ''

Monday Night Baseball ''Monday Night Baseball'' was a live game telecast of Major League Baseball that aired on Monday nights during the regular season. These games formerly aired weekly on ESPN. The game started at 7 p.m. ET, following ''SportsCenter'', and usually l ...

'' broadcasts (with

Tim McCarver James Timothy McCarver (born October 16, 1941) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from to , most prominently as a member of the St. Louis Cardina ...

in 1987 and

in 1988) as well as serving as a field reporter/post-game interviewer for ABC's

1987 World Series The 1987 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1987 season. The 84th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins and the Natio ...

coverage. Gary Bender would ultimately be taken off ABC's baseball team in favor of Gary Thorne in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

TNT Sports

Bender also called NFL games for

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

from 1992 to 1994, teaming with

Pat Haden Patrick Capper Haden (born January 23, 1953) is the former athletic director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from August 2010 to June 2016. He played quarterback for the USC Trojans before playing professionally in ...

. On December 17, 2009, Bender filled in for

Marv Albert Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American retired sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he wa ...

, who was battling throat problems, to call the Phoenix Suns at

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

game on TNT and called the game with

Reggie Miller Reginald Wayne Miller (born August 24, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, played his entire 18-year National Basketball Association (NBA) ca ...

FSN-Arizona and Versus

As previously mentioned, for 18 years, Bender was the television play-by-play announcer on

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

(FSN-Arizona) for the

National Basketball Association 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 ...

's Phoenix Suns; he worked alongside former Suns players Eddie Johnson and Scott Williams. In 2006, he was named as the play-by-play announcer for the Versus network's coverage of

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

football, where he would be partnered with former NFL player Glenn Parker.

Personal

Bender is also co-author with Michael Johnson of the

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

''Call of the Game'', in which he shares his life story, tips on how to become a better broadcaster, and his Christian

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. ...

. Bender did a series of Kendall Motor Oil commercials in mid-1980s. In the first five months of 2001, Bender presided as host of the nationally syndicated '' Focus on the Family'' radio show after the resignation of previous host Mike Trout (1985–2000) because of an extramarital affair. Bender was replaced on a full-time basis by Focus vice president of broadcasting John Fuller. Gary Bender is an alumnus of the Kansas Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Wichita State where he received his bachelor's degree. He received his master's degree in radio and TV from the University of Kansas. His son, Trey, is also a sportscaster and played

Pop Warner Little Scholars Pop Warner Little Scholars, commonly known simply as Pop Warner, is a nonprofit organization that provides activities such as American football, for over 425,000 youths aged 5 to 16 years old, in several nations. It is the largest youth footbal ...

Career timeline

*1969–1975:

WKOW-TV WKOW (channel 27) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side, and its transmitter is located ...

Madison, Sports Director *1970–1974: Green Bay Packers Play-by-play (radio) *1975: Milwaukee Brewers Play-by-play (TV) *1975–1981, 1986: ''

'' Play-by-play *

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

— 1986: '' NBA on CBS'' Play-by-Play (Lead Play-by-Play from 1980—1981) *1981–1987: ''

College Basketball on CBS ''College Basketball on CBS Sports'' (usually referred to on-air as the ''Road to the Final Four'') is the branding used for broadcasts of men's NCAA Division I basketball games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS, CBSSN, and Facebook. ...

'' Play-by-Play (Lead Play-by-Play from 1981–1984) *1982–1986: ''

College Football on CBS ''College Football on CBS Sports'' is the blanket title used for broadcasts of college football games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS and CBS Sports Network. CBS has been a television partner with the Southeastern Conference (SEC) si ...

'' Play-by-Play (Lead Play-by-play in 1982 and 1983) *1987–1988: ''

MLB on ABC ''Major League Baseball on ABC'', sometimes ''ESPN Major League Baseball on ABC'' is the de facto branding of Major League Baseball (MLB) games on ABC produced by ESPN. ABC has aired MLB games in various formats: c. 1953-1965 ('' ABC Game of the ...

'' #2 Play-by-Play *1987:

Reporter *1987–1992: ''

College Football on ABC ''ESPN College Football on ABC'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football games that are produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC in the Uni ...

'' Play-by-Play *1988–1991:

Phoenix Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

Play-by-Play *1992–1994: '' NFL on TNT'' Play-by-Play *1992–2011: Phoenix Suns Play-by-Play on FSN Arizona *1995–1998:

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

Play-by-play (radio) *1999–2000: Chicago Bears Play-by-play (radio) *2003–2005: ''

College Football on ESPN ''ESPN College Football'' is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football across ESPN properties, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN+, ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNews and ESPN Radio. ''ESPN Colle ...

'' Play-by-Play *2006: ''

College Football on Versus ''College Football on NBC Sports'' is the ''de facto'' title used for broadcasts of NCAA college football games produced by NBC Sports. Via its experimental station W2XBS, NBC presented the first television broadcast of American football at any ...

'' Play-by-Play

References

External links

*
Hall-of-Fame sportscaster calls life as he sees it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Gary 1940 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Arizona Cardinals announcers Chicago Bears announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Golf writers and broadcasters Green Bay Packers announcers Kansas Jayhawks basketball Kansas Jayhawks football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Milwaukee Brewers announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers People from Norton, Kansas People from Ulysses, Kansas Phoenix Suns announcers St. Louis Rams announcers Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcers United States Football League announcers Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball Wisconsin Badgers football announcers Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators