From Colby to the Hall of Fame
Curt Gowdy Jr. ’75 joins the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame
Curt Gowdy Jr. traveled the world many times over during his 46-year career in sports broadcasting. He got to know hundreds of athletes and helped tell their stories of victory and defeat, and the efforts and sacrifices they made to compete on world stages.
As he prepared for his induction into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in New York on Dec. 16, Gowdy, who graduated from Colby in 1975, cited his time on Mayflower Hill as foundational to his long and impactful life and career.
“Colby had an immense influence on my personal life and professional life, and it has played an enormous part in my success. Colby was a challenge for me, but it taught me how to be a better student, a better athlete, and it taught me about accountability.”
Gowdy, who majored in American studies and played on the varsity hockey team, counts among his closest friends those he met during his Colby days.
“Fifty years later, they are the ones I talk to and see regularly,” he said.
Gowdy has remained active at Colby since his graduation. He was the recipient of the Carl E. Nelson Sports Achievement Award in 1991, served on the Board of Visitors from 1992 to 1995, and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2010.
Like father, like son
When he becomes a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Gowdy will join his late father as one of the few father-and-son combinations enshrined in the hall. His dad, who died in 2006, called Boston Red Sox baseball games on radio and TV for 15 years before becoming a beloved national broadcaster.
“I feel grateful and honored that I was able to induct my father into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2008, and I feel blessed that we will be in there together as a father-son combo,” he said. “My dad, obviously, was a major influence. I grew up in a sports family environment where I could attend sporting events and play sports. He never pushed me into the business, but he would take me, as a young man growing up, on his work trips, whether it was a football game up in Buffalo or a baseball game at Fenway Park. I would observe, listen, and let my curiosity wander.”
That practice continued into his college years at Colby, when on weekends Gowdy would sometimes travel to Boston or other nearby cities to help out the broadcast team as a production assistant for ABC Sports.
‘Colby had an immense influence on my personal life and professional life, and it has played an enormous part in my success. Colby was a challenge for me, but it taught me how to be a better student, a better athlete, and it taught me about accountability.’
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Curt Gowdy Jr.
Whereas his father described the game on the air for fans, the younger Gowdy did his work behind the scenes. As a producer, he was responsible for the creation and execution of programming and live broadcasts. Gowdy spent his early career in a variety of roles at ABC Sports, and in 2005, he helped launch the regional sports network SNY, the broadcast home of baseball’s New York Mets, football’s New York Jets, as well as the University of Connecticut. At SNY, he served as senior vice president of production and executive producer for 17 years.
Illustrious career
SNY went on the air in 2006 and became a powerhouse regional sports network. There, he oversaw all aspects of production, hired the on-air talent, including the acclaimed baseball broadcast team of Gary Cohen and former major leaguers Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, and helped create the network’s original programming.
He said the experience of establishing a regional sports network with a national standard in quality was among his most enduring and satisfying accomplishments. “When you start a regional network, or any network, you are starting from an absolute blank canvas. It was extremely challenging and deeply gratifying, and I did it overcoming the loss of my father, who passed away three weeks before we launched the network,” he said.
One of the joys, he added, was supporting the UConn women’s basketball team and its coach, Geno Auriemma. The team won 12 national titles from 2008 to 2022.
His accomplishments include winning 16 national and 27 regional Emmy Awards. During his 29-year tenure at ABC Sports, he was senior coordinating producer for ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the longest-running anthology show in sports broadcasting history. Gowdy produced and oversaw three World Series, including the Bay Area earthquake series in 1989, was involved in several Super Bowls, and filled key roles in the production of four Summer and Winter Olympics.
He produced multiple Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown horse races, and is known for introducing live wireless microphones and helmet cameras on jockeys.
He also produced 11 World Figure Skating Championships and 18 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and helped direct the coverage of skater Nancy Kerrigan’s backstage assault in Detroit and the ensuing saga surrounding Tonya Harding. Other experiences include producing 16 Little League World Series, the halftime show for Monday Night Football, college football, auto racing, bowling, and the 1991 Pan American Games, broadcast live from Havana, Cuba.
Life after Colby
Gowdy jumped into his career out of college, landing with ABC Sports soon after graduating. One of his first assignments was working as the booth coordinator for the broadcast of a football game between Penn State and Ohio State. His duties involved handing promo cards to play-by-play man Keith Jackson, a titan of sports broadcasting considered by many fans to be the voice of college football. Jackson was supposed to read the cards between plays, but on this day, he was having none of it.
“I gave Keith the promo for next Saturday’s game, and he looked at me like I was from a different planet and threw the card out the window,” said Gowdy, who was left to explain to his producer on headset why the promo went unread.
It was an auspicious start to a Hall of Fame career that has left Gowdy with no regrets.
“I traveled the world, saw places I never dreamed of going to, from Asia to Russia to all over Europe. It was an incredible education, not only for what I was doing in my profession, but for seeing different cultures, communities, and people,” he said.
Now on the cusp of being welcomed into the National Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame alongside his father, Gowdy is more certain than ever about the vital role of sports in people’s lives.
“Being around the Boston Red Sox growing up, I love the Red Sox to this day. It’s part of who I am,” he said. “Sports provides a connection among family and friends, and it also provides an outlet for you to get away from your day-to-day life, and that’s important. When you tune into a game on TV, you see the entertainment factor that sports offers. And you’re hooked.”
