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JIM NANTZ Receives 2018 Humanitarian Award
Jim Nantz, the three-time Emmy Award winner and five-time National Sportscaster of the Year, joined the CBS Television Network in 1985. He currently serves as the lead play-by-play announcer for THE NFL ON CBS, including the Super Bowl; the lead anchor of CBS’s golf coverage, including the PGA Tour, Masters and the PGA Championship; and lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball, including the NCAA Men’s Final Four. In 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016, Nantz completed a rare broadcasting triple by becoming the first commentator in history to broadcast the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Final Four and the Masters, all in the same year. Nantz will repeat this trifecta in 2019.
On August 1, 2018, Nantz was awarded the 2018 Ambassador of Golf Award presented by the PGA Tour. This award honors a person who has fostered the ideals of the game on an international level and whose concern for others extends beyond the golf course. In August 2011, Nantz received the Pro Football Hall of Fame Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. He is the youngest recipient ever of this award. Nantz also was honored by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as its
youngest recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2002. Nantz joins Dick Enberg and Curt Gowdy as the only broadcasters to receive both Pro Football and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honors.
On January 19, 2011, Nantz returned to his adopted hometown of Houston to team with Houston Methodist Hospital at The Texas Medical Center to create the Nantz National Alzheimer Center (NNAC). The NNAC is dedicated to funding innovative diagnostic discoveries for early and accurate detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing illnesses in hopes of one day finding a cure (www.nantzfriends.org). The NNAC also focuses on the possible connection between concussions and other traumatic brain injuries in athletes and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Nantz’s father, Jim Nantz Jr., himself a former college football player and lifelong inspiration to his broadcaster son, suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease for 13 years and Nantz chronicled his father’s story in the instant New York Times bestseller, Always By My Side. Co-authored with Eli Spielman, the book climbed to No.3 on the New York Times list, making it the highest ranking achieved by a sports book in 2008 and the inspiration for Nantz to open the NNAC. The foreword to the book was written by one of his father figures and dear friend, former President George H.W. Bush.
Nantz, along with wine industry veteran Peter Deutsch, CEO of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, formed the Deutsch Nantz Alliance (DNA) to produce an artisanal Sonoma fine wine brand named The Calling (thecallingwine.com). Released in June 2012, The Calling wines are handcrafted from Sonoma’s finest varietals with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir cultivated in the Russian River Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon in Alexander Valley. The Calling wines are highly regarded by the press and have been awarded multiple scores of 90 and above. Wine Spectator named The Calling one of the “Top 100 Wines in the World” in 2017.
Nantz graduated in 1981 with a degree in radio/television from the University of Houston, where he was recruited as a member of the golf team. In May 2001, he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his alma mater, becoming its first former student-athlete to ever deliver the commencement address and be bestowed an honorary degree at the university.
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