Who are the announcers (play-by-play or color) that to you just SOUND like a certain sport? As in, their voices are indelibly linked in your mind with a sport, whether or not you like the guy. Past or present. For me, it's :
Summerall/Madden (then) and Al Michaels (now) - NFL
Marv Albert - NBA
Keith Jackson - CFB
**** Vitale - CBB
Rosen/Davidson (then) and Doc Emrick (now) - NHL
There are others, but those are the ones that stand out. Like, in the old days when you'd turn on your TV and the picture would take a few seconds to light up, but the sound would come on - if I heard roughly .02 seconds of any of these voices, I'd know instantly what was on just based on a tiny snippet of sound. I'm sure a lot of you have others, local guys or what have you - these are just the ones that are timeless for me.
Great topic.
First one the comes to mind for me is Jack Buck. To me, he's the voice of baseball. I grew up listening to Buck call Cardinals games on the radio. Whenever I hear radio static on a warm afternoon or late at night, I expect it to clear up and hear Buck calling the action at Busch Stadium for KMOX. And speaking to your point about a voice sounding like a certain sport... When Buck occasionally called NFL games it never sounded right to me. Jack Buck announcing the down and distance was as weird and Buck announcing the balls and strikes on a hitter was normal.
For NBA, it's regional. To me, Marv Albert sounds like NBA games played in the northeast big cities and along the eastern seaboard. A nationally televised game in Madison Square Garden just doesn't seem quite right if Marv isn't calling the action.
In the other three time zones, I expect Kevin Harlan on the mic. Some of that is from Harlan being the radio and local TV guy for the Timberwolves when they started up, and also from all those west coast games Harlan called for TNT when that network was rising to power as the best channel to watch NBA games. Harlan has had a lot of success calling NFL games, but for me Harlan is the voice of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs on TNT.
Like many others have said, Keith Jackson is college football. Just professional enough to make you tune in, just homespun enough to fit a broadcast of "amateurs" playing football.
I turned on Vitale late in his career, but oh man is that voice college basketball. At his peak it was like scientists took the irrational energy and passion for college basketball, isolated it, turned it into human form, and **** Vitale was created. His voice was so much the embodiment of the energy jolt of a major conference college basketball arena on game night, hearing his voice in a studio setting without a crowd and pep band in the background felt off.
And I know this isn't a good fit because it's not isolated to a single sport... but Michael Buffer purring "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!!" is the voice of Some Serious #### Is About To Go Down.
