Background and career
George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professional football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announced 16 Super Bowls on network television (more than anyone else), 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens. He contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst. Summerall played football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and then in the National Football League (NFL) from 1952 through 1961. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions and played with Bobby Layne. His best playing years were as a kicker with the New York Giants. In 1962 he joined CBS as a color commentator. He worked with Tom Brookshier and then John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox. Retiring after the 2002 NFL season, he occasionally announced games, especially those near his Texas home. Summerall was named the National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1977, and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994. That year, he also received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. The Pat Summerall Award has been presented since 2006 during Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents."
Summerall acquired the nickname "Pat" after his parents divorced when he was a child. He was taken in by an aunt and uncle who had a son named Mike. "My aunt and uncle just started calling me Pat to go with their Mike", Summerall would say, referencing frequently named characters in Irish jokes told during that time.
At Columbia High School, Lake City, Florida, Summerall played football, tennis, baseball, and basketball. Basketball was his favorite sport; he was recognized as an All-State selection in basketball and football. He was inducted into the FHSAA Hall of Fame and was later named to the FHSAA's All-Century Team.
Summerall played college football from 1949 to 1951 at the University of Arkansas before leaving early for the NFL. He played defensive end, tight end, and placekicker for the Arkansas Razorbacks. An education major, he graduated in 1953 and later earned a master's degree in Russian history, according to ESPN.
Summerall spent 10 years as a professional football player in the National Football League, primarily as a placekicker. The Detroit Lions drafted Summerall as a fourth-round draft choice in the 1952 NFL draft. Summerall played the pre-season with the Lions before breaking his arm, which ended his season after playing just two games for the Lions. After that season, he was traded to the Chicago Cardinals where he played from 1953 to 1957 and the New York Giants from 1958 to 1961, during which he was a part of The Greatest Game Ever Played. His best professional year statistically was 1959, when Summerall scored 90 points on 30-for-30 (100%) extra-point kicking and 20-for-29 (69%) field goal kicking. Summerall's most memorable professional moment may well have been at the very end of the December 14, 1958, regular-season finale between the Giants and the Cleveland Browns at Yankee Stadium. Going into the game, the Browns were in first place in the Eastern Conference, holding a one-game lead over the second-place Giants. And the great Jim Brown was on the Cleveland roster. In that era, there was no overtime during regular-season games, standings ties were broken by a playoff, and there were no wild-card teams. This meant that only the Eastern Conference champion would qualify for the NFL Championship Game to be held two weeks later, and it meant that the Giants had to win just to force a tiebreaker playoff game. The Browns, on the other hand, needed only a tie to clinch the Eastern championship. As time was running out, the Giants and Browns were tied, 10–10. The Giants got barely into Cleveland territory, and with two minutes left sent out Summerall to try for a tiebreaking 49-yard field goal. In spite of swirling winds and snow, Summerall, a straight-ahead kicker, kept the Giants alive for another week - who went on to beat Cleveland a week later, 10–0, in the Eastern Conference tiebreaker playoff before losing the sudden-death league championship final to Baltimore the following week. Summerall had missed a mere 31-yard attempt a few minutes earlier. The Giants' offensive coach, Vince Lombardi, was against sending Summerall in, but gleefully greeted Summerall as he came off the field, "You son of a bitch, you can’t kick it that far!" Sports Illustrated ran the story as one of its primary articles the next week, with a leading photograph showing the football heading between the uprights through the snow. Summerall's last professional game was the 1961 NFL Championship Game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Lombardi's Green Bay Packers defeated the Giants, 37–0, holding New York to just six first downs.
In the early 1960s, Summerall was the morning host on WCBS (AM) radio in New York City. He left the job when WINS went all-news in 1965. He also co-hosted the syndicated NFL Films series This Week in Pro Football in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Summerall was also associated with a production company in Dallas from about 1998 through 2005 which was called Pat Summerall Productions. He was featured in and hosted various production shows, such as Summerall Success Stories and Champions of Industry. These qualified production segments would air on the Fox News Channel and later, CNN Headline News. During the mid-1990s, Summerall hosted the "Summerall-Aikman" Cowboys report with quarterback Troy Aikman. Summerall served as the host of Sports Stars of Tomorrow and Future Phenoms, two nationally syndicated high school sports shows based out of Fort Worth, Texas.
