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Bill Stern
BILL STERN (July 1, 1907 - November 19, 1971) was a U.S. actor and sportscaster who announced the nation’s first remote sports broadcast and the first telecast of a baseball game. In 1984, Stern wa...view moreBILL STERN (July 1, 1907 - November 19, 1971) was a U.S. actor and sportscaster who announced the nation’s first remote sports broadcast and the first telecast of a baseball game. In 1984, Stern was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame’s inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Red Barber, Don Dunphy, Ted Husing and Graham McNamee. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame (1988) and has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Born in Rochester, New York, Stern began doing radio play-by-play commentary in 1925, when he was hired by a local station, WHAM, to cover football games. Shortly after that, he enrolled at Pennsylvania Military College, graduating in 1930.
He was hired by NBC in 1937 to host “The Colgate Sports Newsreel” as well as Friday night boxing on radio. Stern was also one of the first televised boxing commentators.
He broadcast the first televised sporting event, the second game of a baseball doubleheader between Princeton and Columbia at Columbia’s Baker Field on May 17, 1939. On September 30, he called the first televised football game.
Stern appeared as himself in the movies “The Pride of the Yankees” (1942) with Gary Cooper and “Here Come the Co-eds” (1945) with Abbott and Costello.
After many years with NBC he switched to ABC, where he remained until 1956. While at ABC, Stern was a regular panelist on the game show The Name’s the Same.
Following his retirement from television broadcasting, Stern did radio sports reports and commentaries for the Mutual Broadcasting System in the late 1950s and 1960s.
He died in 1971 at the age of 64.view less