SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas ’74 will return to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on Wednesday, Apr. 16, to speak with students about his illustrious career in sports broadcasting and commentary.
Costas has hosted 12 Olympic Games, the Kentucky Derby, the U.S. Open Golf Championship, and HBO shows. He’s called games for the MLB, NFL, NBA, and college basketball and football.
The Newhouse Sports Media Center will host the event in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Room 140 of Newhouse 3.
Costas attended Newhouse and gained radio experience at WAER as a freshman. He also called minor league hockey games for the Syracuse Blazers of the Eastern Hockey League.
Costas began his professional career with KMOX radio in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1974. While at KMOX, Costas covered games for the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and called Missouri Tigers basketball. He also co-hosted KMOX’s Open Line call-in program. From 1976 to 1979, he broadcast NFL games on CBS. During the 1979-1980 NBA season, Costas provided play-by-play for Chicago Bulls broadcasts on WGN-TV.
NBC hired Costas in 1980. He did play-by-play for NBA, NFL, and MLB games on NBC. He also anchored NBC’s pre- and post-game shows for NFL broadcasts, MLB All-Star Games, and numerous World Series.
Costas spent four decades with NBC. He was the Summer Olympics primetime host from 1992 to 2016 and the Winter Olympics primetime host from 2002 to 2014. Costas also hosted the NHL Winter Classic, the U.S. Open, Thursday Night Football, the NFL on NBC, and Thoroughbred Racing for NBC.
Costas has won many awards throughout his career. He is a 29-time Emmy Award winner. Costas is the only person in television history to win Emmys for sports, news, and entertainment. He is an eight-time National Sports Media Association National Sportscaster of the Year and a four-time American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year. Costas also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
In 1999, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame presented Costas with the Curt Gowdy Media Award. In 2017, the National Baseball Hall of Fame honored Costas with the Ford C. Frick Award. He was named a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee in 2018.
Syracuse University has recognized Costas with three awards. In 2001, Costas won the George Arents Award for excellence in sports broadcasting. He received the Marty Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media in 2013 and was inducted into the WAER Hall of Fame in 2015.
Costas has been behind the mic for numerous unforgettable games in sports history. One of Costas’ most memorable broadcasts was in 1984 when he called the Saturday baseball Game of the Week for NBC. The game became known as “The Sandberg Game.” Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg hit home runs in the 9th and 10th innings against St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bruce Sutter to tie the game.
Costas contributed to the Ken Burns PBS miniseries Baseball in 1994 and called game six of the 1995 World Series when the Atlanta Braves won their first championship since moving to Atlanta in 1966. He also called Derek Jeter’s final game at Yankee Stadium for MLB Network in 2014.
Costas called Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson’s final game with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Jordan hit the game-winner to give the Bulls an 87-86 lead with 5.2 seconds remaining in game six of the NBA Finals. Costas was also the pregame and postgame host for NBC for the 1994 NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks, which included the O.J. Simpson car chase in Los Angeles that interrupted game five. Costas broadcast game seven of the 2000 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trailblazers. Fans remember Kobe Bryant throwing an alley-oop pass to Shaquille O’Neal to give the Lakers a six-point lead with under a minute to play in regulation.
In the mid-1980s, he established the Robert Costas Scholarship at the Newhouse School, and sports broadcaster Mike Tirico was the first recipient in 1987.