The longtime "Voice of the Red Sox," Curt Gowdy earned an opportunity with the New York Yankees and Mel Allen in 1949. Two years later Gowdy became head man on the Boston Red Sox broadcast team. He left the Red Sox in 1966 for a ten-year stint as Game of the Week announcer for NBC.

Gowdy's numerous network assignments ran the gamut of sports: from the World Series to the Super Bowl to the Montreal Olympics to the "American Sportsman" series. Among other "blue-chip" sporting events, Gowdy broadcast 13 World Series and 16 All-Star Games.

As Gowdy recalled: "I tried to pretend that I was sitting in the stands with a buddy watching the game—poking him in the ribs when something exciting happened. I never took myself too seriously. An announcer is only as good as yesterday's performance."

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