Houston Sports - Jim Nantz

Jim Nantz

Born: May 17, 1959

Sport: Broadcasting (2-time Emmy Award winner, 5-time National Sportscaster of the Year winner, Hall of Fame)

Before anything else, I want to acknowledge the passing of Phil Garner, former MLB player and beloved manager of the Houston Astros, as well as the Brewers and Tigers.  He ended a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer on Saturday night, and you can read more about his story on my post about him here.  My heart and prayers go out to his loved ones. 

Turning our attention to the current sports calendar, we just closed the book on the 2026 NCAA Tournament earlier in the week when the University of Michigan outlasted the University of Connecticut to take home the title and today is the final round of the Masters.  Many sports fans have long equated both events with one particular voice that has lent his skills to announcing basketball, golf, and football.  As one of only two men to broadcast a Super Bowl, Masters, and NCAA Championship game, Jim Nantz has been a fan favorite as a regular on both TV and radio.  An athlete himself from an early age, his broadcasting career got kicked off at the University of Houston where he was a roommate of future golfers Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister, and he is still a regular fan of the Cougars to this day.  Let's get to know the man behind the voice and his signature "Hello, friends" catchphrase.

The University of Houston campus in 1978, shortly after Jim Nantz' arrival

Born in North Carolina, James Nantz III was the son of James, Jr., and his wife Doris.  Young Jim moved often with his family as his father, with whom he had a very close relationship, was frequently transferred during his career in management in the furniture business.  Each of the men carrying the name of James Nantz, the young man as well as his father and grandfather, were all athletic and played sports at high levels.  Before his career as a postmaster, Jim Nantz, Sr. was a major basketball star at the College of Charleston.  Jim Nantz, Jr. chose football as his sport, and his time playing in the leather helmet era was something his family believed contributed to partial deafness and, later in life, significant cognitive decline.  After a few stops in North Carolina, the Nantz family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, when little Jim was just six and remained during much of their son's elementary years.  After yet another stop in California's Bay Area, they finally settled in New Jersey.  Nantz attended Marlboro High School in Monmouth Township, where he was the co-captain of both the basketball and golf teams.  Although good at both sports, it was through the latter that provided him his best benefit at college but not in an obvious path.  Nantz had been a member of the Bamm Hollow Golf Club and a golf pro there named Ron Weber called up the University of Houston's head golf coach, Dave Williams.  Weber said that Nantz had a good golf game but had a desire to learn broadcasting.  Williams took a chance on the young man and offered him a scholarship.  After he graduated in 1977, Nantz was on his way to the Lone Star State.

Once on campus, Jim Nantz found himself rooming with two other golfers who would someday become professionals.  As the worst player on a team fresh off a national championship, he was aware of his shortcomings but happy to be around a group of winners.  His degree was communications and he dreamed of being a storyteller during the greatest sports events, and when Coach Williams introduced him to head basketball coach Guy Lewis, Nantz got the opportunity to be the stadium public address announcer while also doing a weekly interview show with Lewis.  During the early years of Phi Slama Jama, Nantz was credited with being the first to give Clyde Drexler his "Glide" nickname.  While still a student and having earned his first taste of the sports business, Nantz attended the Houston Open golf tournament and made his way over to the NBC broadcast area, then convinced a security guard to let him meet the head of NBC Sports, Don Ohlmeyer.  When the young man excitedly shared his dream of announcing, Ohlmeyer decided to give him a job as a runner and promised him something better if he could make it back to the next tournament.  Nantz paid his own way to get to Dallas, as promised, and in between doing his job spotting golfers coming up the 15th hole he offered to provide free updates to several stations back in Houston.  The CBS radio affiliate there took notice of the young man's determination and polish, offering him an internship for six months.  Before he had even graduated from UH, Nantz made it all the way to TV broadcasts, working as an anchor for weekend broadcasts.  Soon after graduation he was on the move again, this time getting a job offer in 1982 from the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City who had him announce BYU football and Utah Jazz games.  One year later, Nantz married Ann-Lorraine Carlsen with whom he would have one daughter, Caroline.

By 1985, Jim Nantz had established himself well enough to merit being hired by the CBS national network, and he has remained there for more than 40 years.  Starting off as a studio host for college football and basketball, he soon got the chance to be a course reporter for PGA events while also announcing NFL games on CBS Radio.  His play-by-play talent was quickly recognized when he shifted from the studio to the booth for a few televised NFL games during the 1988 season, and in 1989 he became the announcer for a full season of NCAA football games.  That also marked the first year that Nantz anchored the CBS broadcast for the Masters Tournament, a position he has held every year since and which includes the 1992 victory by his friend and former roommate, Fred Couples, as well as the iconic "win for the ages" that Nantz called for the 1997 Tiger Woods victory.  As if none of these responsibilities were enough, 1990 brought yet another marquis assignment as Brent Musburger was surprisingly fired on April Fool's Day and Nantz was handed the reigns of the CBS broadcasts of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  He became the voice of the Final Four from then until he stepped down in late 2022.  Nantz continued to call NFL games for CBS until they lost their contract in 1992, at which point he returned to announcing college games.  The Winter Olympics changed from being held during the same years as their summer counterparts after the 1992 games, so there were only two years between the '92 Albertville and '94 Lillehammer events, and Nantz participated in the CBS broadcasts for both as well as the '98 Nagano Olympics.  After the 1997 season CBS once again came to terms with the NFL to televise games and Nantz was selected as the studio host for the network's NFL Today show, only to swap places with Greg Gumbel after the 2003 season as he returned to the announcer's booth.  

In 2002, as his dad began to show increasing signs of Alzheimer's disease, Jim Nantz came to his bedside and said that he should listen to an upcoming golf tournament because he would hear his name and the phrase "Hello, friends."  In introducing himself this way, Nantz was communicating with his dad who had nothing but friends, and even 18 years after his father's passing it's still a way for a son to remember and honor the man who loved and raised him.  Although his first marriage ultimate ended in divorce, Nantz was remarried in 2012 to Courtney Richards, and the couple has had two children together.  During a 2019 broadcast of the US Open on Fox, Nantz was invited to be a guest commentator and when he called several holes on the final day he became the first man to announce all four major golf tournaments on TV.  His career has given him friendships at every level of society, including former presidents George Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and he has been recognized with numerous awards including back-to-back Emmy wins for Outstanding Sports Personality, Play-by-Play in 2009 and 2010.  He has received awards from the Basketball Hall of Fame (2002) and NFL Hall of Fame (2011), and been inducted into the UH Athletics Hall of Honor (2002), Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame (2018), National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame (2021), Houston Sports Hall of Fame (2021), and the PGA Hall of Fame (2023).  Because of his father's fight with the disease, Nantz teamed up with Houston's Methodist Hospital in 2011 to create the Nantz National Alzheimer Center with the goal to "eradicate the suffering and devastation of Alzheimer's disease and associated dementia-based illnesses".  Other causes he supports include the Triumph Over Kid Cancer Foundation and the Nantz Leadership Society at UH.  As he looks to what is left for his legendary career, Nantz has stated that he hopes to make it to the 100th playing of the Masters Tournament in 2036, so hopefully we have several more years left of enjoying him tell the stories of the great sporting events of our time.

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