Jim Simpson (sportscaster)

For other people named Jim Simpson, see Jim Simpson (disambiguation).

Jim Simpson
Simpson in 1969
Born	(1927-12-20)December 20, 1927 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Occupation	sportscaster
Years active	1960s–1990s?
Awards	Sports Lifetime Achievement Award (1997) NSSA Hall of Fame (2000)

Jim Simpson (December 20, 1927 – January 13, 2016) was an American sportscaster, known for his smooth delivery as a play-by-play man and his versatility in covering many different sports. In 1997, he won the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

Career

A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Simpson broadcast Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games in the early 1960s and worked as a sports reporter at WRC-TV. Eventually he would broadcast many sports at NBC, including football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf. For much of the 1960s and 1970s he was generally considered the network's number two play-by-play announcer, behind only Curt Gowdy. He was in New Haven, Connecticut on November 22, 1963 to do the annual Harvard-Yale football game with Lindsey Nelson when word came of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Simpson was quoted as saying to Nelson as they walked through the tunnel of the Yale Bowl, "We will remember this walk and this moment for a long, long, time." His work on American Football League (and later American Football Conference) telecasts for NBC is perhaps what he is best remembered for. On January 15, 1967, Simpson (along with former quarterback George Ratterman) called Super Bowl I for NBC Radio. He also called several World Series for NBC Radio, as well as numerous Orange Bowl games and the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final (via tape delay) for NBC television.

In 1979, the fledgling ESPN cable sports network brought Simpson on board to provide some needed credibility with sports fans. Simpson broadcast the first NCAA basketball game the network televised, with flamboyant Dick Vitale as the color man. Vitale credits Simpson with helping him develop as a sportscaster. Simpson also called USFL and College World Series games for ESPN, and in 1988 called the Baltimore Orioles' local telecasts on WMAR-TV.

After his sportscasting days Simpson retired to St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Among other firsts he was the initial U.S. sportscaster to appear live via satellite from Asia, and he was involved in the first American sportscast using instant replay technology. In 2005, ESPN brought Simpson back from retirement to do play-by-play for a series of college basketball games in a "turn back the clock" format on the ESPN Classic network.

ESPN

After week 2 of the 1979 NFL season, Simpson moved from NBC Sports to ESPN where he called games for college football, college basketball, college baseball, the USFL, and the NBA.

See also

• List of NFL on NBC commentator pairings

References

• Voices of the Game by Curt Smith (Diamond Communications, Inc. 1987) ISBN 0-912083-21-2
• Bud Wilkinson: An Intimate Portrait of an American Legend by Jay Wilkinson and Gretchen Hirsch (Sagamore Publishing 1994) ISBN 1-57167-001-7
• Living a Dream by Dick Vitale (Sports Publishing 2003) ISBN 1-58261-738-4

External links

• NSSA Hall of Fame photograph and brief biography
• News story on Simpson's NSSA Hall of Fame induction
• Simpson saw start of Super Bowl, ESPN