Dick Stockton (born November 22, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American sportscaster. He is currently employed by Fox Sports and Turner Sports as a football, baseball, and basketball play-by-play announcer.
Biography[]
Early life and career[]
Stockton attended Syracuse University, where he received his degree in political science in 1964. In 1965, he began his sportscasting career at local radio and television stations in Philadelphia. He became sports director at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh in 1967, and moved to WBZ-TV and WBZ radio in Boston in 1971. Three years later, he began calling Boston Celtics telecasts for WBZ, and the following year he became the lead announcer for Boston Red Sox games on WSBK-TV. Stockton was part of the broadcast crew for NBC Sports' coverage of the 1975 World Series, and called, on TV, Carlton Fisk's famous, game-winning home run in Game 6 of that series. In 2001, he was inducted as a broadcaster into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Stockton has been named as one of the top 50 network sportscasters of all time.
Broadcasting career[]
CBS Sports[]
Stockton started freelancing for CBS Sports in the late 1960s, while still doing local television in Pittsburgh. In 1978 (following a two-year stint calling NFL games for NBC), he joined CBS full-time, and from then until 1994 covered a variety of sports for that network, including the NFL, the NBA (for which Stockton was the lead play-by-play man from 1981-1990), Major League Baseball (with Jim Kaat from 1990-1992. Stockton was the number #2 play-by-play man behind Jack Buck and Sean McDonough in 1992.), college basketball including ten years as a play-by-play broadcaster of the NCAA Regional Finals. Stockton also was the host at the famous upset of Villanova over Georgetown in 1985.
In addition, he was the host of the Pan American Games in San Juan in 1979, and covered swimming and diving at the Pan American Games in Edmonton and Caracas. Stockton also broadcast the World Swimming and Diving Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the World Basketball Championships in Cali, Colombia, and the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki in the first year that CBS acquired the rights. When CBS began covering the Winter Olympics, Stockton was assigned to cover men's alpine skiing in France in 1992 and two years later, called the speed skating events in the 1994 Norway Games including Dan Jansen's record-breaking triumph of the 1000 meter gold medal as well as the gold medal victories of Bonnie Blair.
Fox Sports[]
Stockton left CBS in 1994 for Fox Sports, which continues to employ him on NFL and Major League Baseball telecasts. From the time he was hired until 2006, he was the Fox's second-team announcer for NFL games (behind Pat Summerall and later, Joe Buck), working alongside Matt Millen then Troy Aikman, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa. For Fox's MLB coverage, he has worked with Eric Karros, Joe Girardi, Mark Grace and Tim McCarver.
Turner Sports[]
Since 1995, Stockton has called NBA telecasts for Turner's TNT channel. Since 2007, Stockton has called postseason Major League Baseball games on TBS. That year, he partnered with Ron Darling to call the National League Division Series for the network. In 2008, he called the AL Central tiebreaker game with Darling and Harold Reynolds, followed by the NLDS with Darling and Tony Gwynn. In 2009, he teamed with Bob Brenly to call the NLDS for TBS, as well as the 2010 National League Division Series. Stockton split play-by-play duties during the 2010 regular season on TBS with NBA on TNT studio host Ernie Johnson, Jr. and Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson. In 2011, he partnered with Ron Darling and John Smoltz to call the National League Division Series for TBS.
Other[]
From 1993 to 1995, Stockton also called local TV broadcasts of the Oakland Athletics. In 2004, he began doing part-time local television work for the San Antonio Spurs. Stockton commentated on Super Bowl XXXVIII alongside Daryl Johnston and Super Bowl XLII alongside Sterling Sharpe on the international feed, provided by the NFL Network. This is the feed used by the BBC and certain other English-language broadcasters outside North America. Starting in 2010, Dick assumed play-by-play duties for Miami Dolphins preseason games on WFOR; he substituted for Jimmy Cefalo as play-by-play on the Dolphins' radio call of the team's Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots on October 4, 2010.
Stockton provides the play-by-play commentary for Madden NFL Fever 2000 alongside Matt Millen.
Personal[]
Stockton was married to sportscaster Lesley Visser from 1983 to 2010. Visser and Stockton met at the sixth game of the 1975 World Series, where Stockton (as previously mentioned) called Carlton Fisk's iconic home run for NBC and Visser was covering for The Boston Globe. Stockton and Visser were divorced.
Career timeline[]
- 1974–1976: Boston Celtics TV play-by-play (WBZ-TV)
- 1975–1978: Boston Red Sox TV play-by-play (WSBK-TV)[1]
- 1976–1977: NFL on NBC play-by-play
- 1978–1993: NFL on CBS play-by-play[1]
- 1981–1990: NBA on CBS lead play-by-play[2]
- 1990–1992: Major League Baseball on CBS #2 play-by-play[2]
- 1992–1994: Olympics on CBS announcer[1]
- 1993–1995: Oakland Athletics TV play-by-play (KRON-TV)[1]
- 1994–present: NFL on Fox play-by-play[1]
- 1995–present: NBA on TNT play-by-play[1]
- 1995: NHL on Fox play-by-play[1]
- 2003–present: Major League Baseball on Fox play-by-play (#2 since 2010)[3]
- 2004–present: San Antonio Spurs TV play-by-play (part-time)
- 2007–present: Major League Baseball on TBS Division Series play-by-play, lead play-by-play
- 2010–present: Miami Dolphins Preseason TV play-by-play
- (2010) BCS on Fox Orange Bowl play-by-play
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Dick Stockton". CNN/SI Turner Sports. November 4, 1999. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/turnersports/nba/announcers/stockton/. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "NBA On TNT-Dick Stockton". TNT.tv. http://www.tnt.tv/title/?oid=344619-1836. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ↑ Griffith, Bill (August 29, 2003). "Stockton will pinch hit". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2003/08/29/stockton_will_pinch_hit?mode=PF.
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