In June 2020, play-by-Play Broadcaster Jack Benjamin, invited fellow sportscasters and sports fanatics to take part in determining the greatest radio and TV play-by-play calls of the last 50 years. Each of the radio and TV brackets below included 68 entries, including four play-in matchups, which were selected from more than 500 TV and radio calls.
Voting for the Radio & TV Championship Matchups closed on June 30, 2020. Congratulations to Rod Bramblett for his call of Auburn’s ‘Kick Six’ and Al Michaels for his call of the ‘Miracle on Ice’ for winning the radio and TV brackets respectively.
Read More About How the Brackets Were CreatedRead LessBracket entries and seedings were determined by using 24 sport and time-specific surveys which asked respondents to rate various calls. Survey respondents were also asked to suggest additional calls. 22 suggested radio and TV calls were included in a “Wild Card Survey.” Based on survey responses, every call received a numerical ranking. Seven “Wild Card” calls made it into the brackets.
FIELD SELECTION
The highest ranked radio and TV calls were included in their respective brackets with the following exceptions:
- Al Michaels, who had six of the top 50 TV calls, was given five entries; no other broadcaster earned more than four entries in a bracket.
- Some calls ranked lower than 68 were included in the field to ensure that a variety of sports were represented.
- A few extraordinary calls, particularly on the radio side, were uncovered after the surveys had closed. Some of these were included in the brackets.
BRACKET STRUCTURING
Selected calls were seeded and separated into four regions according to rank. With the exception of Al Michaels, no broadcaster had two of his own calls in the same region. Different sports were distributed as evenly as possible among regions.
SEEDINGS
Survey rankings were used to determine seedings and matchups. To maintain voting objectivity, seedings are not shown in the bracket and cannot be inferred from the order of the matchups.
TV BRACKET (Championship Voting Concluded on Monday, June 15)
TV BRACKET - Championship voting concluded on Monday, June 15
RADIO BRACKET (Championship Voting Concluded on Monday, June 15)
RADIO BRACKET - Championship voting concluded on Monday, June 15
Greatest Radio Play-by-Play Calls BracketDownload Radio Bracket PDF
Jim Nantz Interview
Greatest TV Play-by-Play Calls BracketDownload TV Bracket PDF