‘Oh my!’ was broadcaster’s calling card
SAN DIEGO — Through six decades, whether it was broadcasting one of John Wooden’s basketball championships with UCLA, a no-hitter by Nolan Ryan or a dramatic point at Wimbledon, Dick Enberg excitedly summed up the big moments with two simple words: “Oh my!”
Enberg, a master at calling big events across the sports spectrum but who held a special love for baseball, died on Thursday at 82.
Enberg’s daughter, Nicole Enberg Vaz, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. She said the family became concerned when her father didn’t arrive Thursday on his flight to Boston, and he was found dead at his home in La Jolla, a San Diego neighborhood, with his bags packed.
His daughter said the family believes that Enberg died of a heart attack but was awaiting official word. Enberg’s wife, Barbara, already was in Boston and was expecting his arrival.
“It’s very, very, very shocking,” said Vaz, who lives in Boston. “He had been busy with two podcasts and was full of energy.”
Tributes poured in from around the sports world.
“To me, Dick Enberg was the greatest allaround sportscaster who ever lived and will never be emulated,” former Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said in a statement. “He had my respect, admiration and my friendship. He will be sorely missed.”
Scully was among the first to congratulate Enberg when it was announced three years ago that he had been chosen for induction into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2015 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award.
Scully read off some names of broadcasters Enberg would be joining in Cooperstown.
“Oh man, what a list. What’s this farm boy doing on that list?” Enberg replied.
That was Enberg ,who was born on Jan. 9, 1935, in Mount Clements, Michigan, moved to Los Angeles and got his big break with UCLA basketball before expanding his repertoire to calling Super Bowls, Olympics, Final Fours, Wimbledon and the Breeders’ Cup. Besides calling eight of Wooden’s 10 national championships with the Bruins, Enberg became known in southern California for broadcasting Angels and Rams games and, for the last seven years of his career, San Diego Padres games.
When the Padres hired him in December 2009, Enberg explained the genesis of using “Oh my!” to describe big plays.
“It’s not something that is part of my normal conversation,” Enberg said. “I grew up with a mother who said, ‘Oh my,’ a lot, usually in dismay, ‘Oh my, now what have you done?’ But it’s a Midwestern term of exclamation. People say: ‘Have you heard about so and so? Oh my!’ Or, ‘Oh my, that’s exciting!’ “
Enberg said he needed a signature call after behing hired to do playby-play at Indiana in 1957, and it stuck.
“It has been a good friend for, well, 50 years,” he said.