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RIP Jack Whitaker WWII vet; CBS Broadcaster (incl NYG)

Defenderdawg : 8/18/2019 6:14 pm
Whitaker was a CBS Sports announcer for 22 years, starting in the late 1950s. He covered everything from football and horse racing to golf. Whitaker called Super Bowl I for CBS Sports as well as the 1973 Triple Crown Race with Secretariat emerging victorious. After his time at CBS Sports, Whitaker worked at ABC Sports.

In addition to his celebrated broadcast career, Whitaker was a United States Army veteran who landed on Omaha Beach three days after the D-Day Invasion of June 6, 1944. According to a 2014 article by The Desert Sun, Whitaker was wounded by a blast from an artillery shell or mortar, which sent shrapnel tearing into his arm. After his recovery, Whitaker was wounded once more and was honorably discharged from the Army in 1945.
"Some angels were looking over me," Whitaker told The Desert Sun in 2014.

From NYT: “Whitaker became the play-by-play broadcaster for Giants football games in 1965, and he was part of the CBS broadcast crew at the first Super Bowl two years later.”


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I grew up listening to Jack Whitaker  
Gman11 : 8/18/2019 6:38 pm : link
on every Giants game on CBS. RIP.
WWII  
AcidTest : 8/18/2019 6:38 pm : link
veteran, and a great broadcaster. Fantastic voice. RIP. God bless. Prayers to his family and friends.
I could still here him  
Marty866b : 8/18/2019 6:47 pm : link
Calling the Giant games with Tarkenton at quarterback. May he rest in peace.
Wow, another voice from my youth gone. RIP  
Giants61 : 8/18/2019 7:29 pm : link
I recall him mainly from CBS Sports Spectacular
NFL Today  
yalebowl : 8/18/2019 9:18 pm : link
Jack was also the top commentator on the CBS NFL Today Sunday pre-game show. It was era where the commentators talked in reverend tones and Jack excelled at it. While Marty Glickman did many of the Giant radio-casts, my favorite announcers were Chris Schenkel who did Giant games and Ray Scott who did Packer games. Here in Wisconsin we had two great Wisconsin announcers who also did radio for the Packers - Jim Irwin and former Packer end, Max McGee.
By the time..  
FatMan in Charlotte : 8/18/2019 9:37 pm : link
I was listening, he was more doing the horse racing calls and golf.

Iconic broadcaster
I can't think of a better sports essayist -- on air, prepared  
CT Charlie : 8/18/2019 10:12 pm : link
or impromptu -- than Whitaker. He had a poet's gift for language.
Didn't think he was still with us  
HomerJones45 : 8/19/2019 11:30 am : link
Excellent broadcaster. Back in the day, the pregame consisted of Whitaker going through highlights of each of the teams from the week before. Minimalist by today's overproduced, over talking heads standards but excellent.
RE: Didn't think he was still with us  
Big Blue '56 : 8/19/2019 11:34 am : link
In comment 14535760 HomerJones45 said:
Quote:
Excellent broadcaster. Back in the day, the pregame consisted of Whitaker going through highlights of each of the teams from the week before. Minimalist by today's overproduced, over talking heads standards but excellent.


Agreed and I too thought he had passed awhile ago
I remember Jack from my CBS days,  
Section331 : 8/19/2019 11:42 am : link
A complete professional and gentleman. One of the best in the business. RIP.
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