Talent/Production

Photo Name
Talent Name
Verne Lundquist

Verne Lundquist joined the CBS Sports Masters® announce team in 1983 and has called the action at Augusta National every year except 1997-98, in addition to several PGA TOUR and PGA Championships events.

During his tenure, Lundquist has broadcast more than 20 different sports for the Network. He served CBS Sports as an NFL and college play-by-play announcer in 1998 after having previously worked for the Network from 1982-96. Lundquist served as the lead play-by-play announcer for CBS Sports’ coverage of college football from 2000-16. He served as play-by-play announcer for CBS Sports' coverage of NCAA basketball, including the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship for 33 years (1982-95, 1999-2017).

Lundquist was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 2007. He was honored in May 2016 with the Sports Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Sports Emmy Awards ceremony. Well known in Texas as the long-time radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys (1972-84), he was sports director at WFAA-TV in Dallas for 16 years. Lundquist was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. He won seven consecutive Texas Sportscaster of the Year Awards (1977-83). Lundquist was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. It was the first time in the 55-year history of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame that members of the media were inducted. Lundquist was part of the inaugural class along with seven other legendary sportscasters and sports writers. He also was named the 2005 Legend of the Sun Bowl by the Sun Bowl Association. In May 2014 Lundquist received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting from Fordham University’s WFUV Radio. In 2015 he and Gary Danielson were honored with the Maxwell Football Club’s Excellence in Broadcasting. Other notable accolades include the 2015 Charles Ringler Founders’ Award by the Davey O’Brien Football Foundation; the 2015 Jake Wade Memorial Award by the College Sports Information Directors Association; 2014 Distinguished American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation in New Haven, Connecticut, recognized as the oldest organization in the U.S. devoted to college football and the 2011 co-winner of the award for Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

Lundquist was the lead play-by-play announcer for figure skating at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Olympic Winter Games and also had extensive involvement in CBS Sports' previous coverage of the NBA. Among the 20 different sports he has broadcast for CBS include track and field, swimming and diving, boxing, volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, weightlifting, free style skiing, archery, horse racing and horse jumping, and was a regular member of the Network's golf team (1983-95).

Lundquist worked with Terry Bradshaw, who he presented at induction ceremonies in Canton, Ohio for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as well as Dan Fouts, and occasionally with lead analyst John Madden, on the Network’s NFL broadcasts. He worked at ABC Sports from 1974-81 and three years as play-by-play announcer for TNT’s NFL, NBA, golf and figure skating coverage (1995-97).

Lundquist began his career at KTBC-TV in Austin, a station owned by President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. Lundquist has played himself in three movies, including Happy Gilmore. He was born July 17, 1940, in Duluth, Minn., and grew up in Everett, Wash. and Austin, Texas.

Lundquist earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Texas Lutheran University in 1962 and received the school's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He also is a member of Texas Lutheran’s Board of Regents. He lives in Steamboat Springs, Colo., with his wife, Nancy, where they serve on the Board of Directors of the summer chamber music festival, “Strings Music Festival.” Most recently, the Lundquists were named the Yampa Valley Community Foundation’s “Philanthropist of the Year” in Steamboat Springs. He launched The Verne Lundquist Institute for Sports Media in Austin, Texas in March 2019. The institute is designed to provide training, online learning, grants, and scholarships to high school and college sports journalism students.

 

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