This weekend college football said its final goodbye to a legend. CBS’s Verne Lundquist ended his career with the coveted Army-Navy football game this Saturday. Since he started in 1974, Lundquist has become an iconic figure in the sports broadcasting world.
He is considered by many as the “Voice of the SEC” for his work with CBS calling the weekly SEC game on CBS. His excitement and passion for the game will forever be remembered by anyone who tuned into CBS to watch the best SEC game of the week. He has some of the most historic calls in college football history. He was in the booth for Auburn’s historic “kick 6” against Alabama in the 2013 Iron Bowl and Tim Tebow’s iconic jump pass against LSU in 2006. He will forever be remembered by SEC football fans as one of the greatest broadcasters of all time.
But SEC football is not Lundquist’s only assignment. As mentioned earlier, he is assigned the Army-Navy game, which is one of the most intriguing football games of each season. CBS also has Verne call some of their NCAA March Madness games which inherently comes with some drama. He was on the call for Christian Laettner’s famous—or infamous if you’re part of the 95% of America that hates Duke—buzzer beater in the 1992 Final Four to send the Blue Devils to the championship game. For me, nothing beats hearing Verne on hole 16 during the Masters Tournament each spring. Very few of his calls top his narration of Tiger Woods’s clutch chip-in on hole 16 to lift him to the Green Jacket in 2005.
But I think even Verne would tell you that nothing can top his day calling the tournament in "Happy Gilmore".
Many have criticized Lundquist for his occasion lapse in attention during a game or for pointing out what seems to be obvious to the viewer. However, these minor miscues in the booth do not take anything away from the game. Many times his miscues are actually comical and only add to the experience of watching the game because no one is tuning into these games expecting the broadcasters to flood them with information all game. His occasional vast over-exaggerations to some of the most routine plays were always enough to bring a smile to my face each Saturday.
Verne Lundquist will go as one of the greatest broadcasters in sports history and SEC Football on CBS won’t be the same without him.