Reds Bagnell Award Contributions to the Game

A native of Lake City, Fla., Summerall attended the University of Arkansas with intentions of becoming a school teacher. He never considered a career in football until the Lions made him their fourth round draft pick in 1952 and offered him $6,000 to sign. He asked his father what he should do.

"My father said, 'Let me get this straight. They're going to pay you $6,000 to play something? I thought you had to work,'" Summerall said. "He told me, 'I think you ought to take it.'"

In 1958, Summerall made one of the great clutch kicks in NFL history, booming a 49-yard field goal through a snowstorm to lift the Giants to a 13-10 victory over Cleveland, a win that propelled New York to the Eastern Conference title and the first of Summerall's three appearances in league championship games.

While in New York, Summerall was offered an audition for a part-time announcing job at CBS radio. He had no broadcast experience, but the knowledge he possessed as a player combined with his natural ease at the microphone to land him the job and it became a whole new career when he hung up his kicking shoe following the 1962 season.

As network TV coverage of the NFL expanded, Summerall became the lead play by play man at CBS, first teaming with ex-Eagle Tom Brookshier, then John Madden, the former Oakland coach. The Summerall-Madden pairing lasted 21 seasons, finally ending in 2002 when Madden joined ABC's Monday Night Football team.

"Pat saved me constantly," Madden said. "He had this way of taking all my babbling and making sense of it. Pat is just smooth. He's silk."

 "He is the epitome of  'less is more,'" said Brian Baldinger, the former Eagles lineman who was Summerall's Fox broadcast partner in the 2002 season. "He has a beautiful economy of words, a skill that's particularly notable in this era of information overload."

Summerall, who has broadcast 17 Super Bowls, explains his style with typical modesty. "I try not to spoil the fact that the game is the thing," he said.