Wolff, iconic N.Y. voice, dies
LEGENDARY sports broadcaster Bob Wolff died on Saturday in South Nyack, N.Y., at the age of 96.
Wolff spent eight decades as a sports broadcaster, calling memorable moments such as Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series and the 1958 NFL championship game between the Giants and Colts.
He was a broadcaster at Madison Square Garden for more than 50 years, calling Rangers and Knicks games.
Wolff was inducted into the broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995 and is enshrined in the National Sportscasters-Sportswriters Hall of Fame and the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame.
He was the recipient of the Curt Gowdy media award from the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, joining Gowdy as the only two sportscasters to be in both the basketball and the baseball halls.
In 2012, Wolff was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest career of any sports broadcaster.
Wolff recently served as a sports commentator for News 12 Long Island, which he joined in 1986. He also hosted the Con Edison Scholastic Sports Award program on WHUD Radio in Westchester.
Wolff was born in New York City on Nov. 29, 1920, and began his broadcasting career in 1939 as a student at Duke University.
A year later, he started doing play-by-play for the Washington Senators.
In the early 1960s, he joined Joe Garagiola as NBC-TV’s voices for baseball’s Game of the Week.
“Bob Wolff’s iconic, Hall-ofFame broadcasting career was matched by his class and character,” the Yankees said in a statement. “Beyond his lifetime of professional accomplishments, he was a man of great grace and dignity, serving his country with honor, and proudly calling New York home.
“Bob was a dear friend of the Yankees organization and he will be deeply missed.”
He was play-by-play man for the championship Knick teams of the 70s, teaming with Cal Ramsey on TV broadcasts.
“Bob Wolff was not only one of the seminal figures in American sportscasting, but was part of the very fabric of Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks, and the New York Rangers, for more than six decades,” the Madison Square Garden Company and MSG Network said in a statement.
Wolff served in the Navy as a supply officer in the Pacific during World War II.
He is survived by his wife, Jane Hoy; his sons, Rick and Robert; daughter, Margy Clark; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.