As host of the syndicated Sports Challenge in the 70's, Dick Enberg was billed as also being the voice of the then-California Angels and the Los Angeles Rams. Enberg finished his broadcasting career in 2016 after 10 years as the play by play voice of the San Diego Padres, retiring with less fanfare than fellow icon Vin Scully, even though both moonlighted as game show hosts during their careers.
It saddens me, then, to report that Enberg has passed away at 82 from a heart attack.
In addition to Sports Challenge, Enberg's fame as a play by play announcer led to two other game show gigs, both for NBC, Baffle, which was a remake of an earlier Heatter-Quigley game, PDQ, and Three For The Money. Enberg was also heard as an announcer in the short-lived CBS cartoon, Where's Huddles?, in 1970.
In addition to baseball & football, Enberg also covered college basketball & football and tennis during the course of his broadcasting career at NBC, CBS, & ESPN. His catchphrase, "Oh, my!", has long been co-opted by actor George Takei in commercials.
We'll honor Enberg with this 1972 episode of Sports Challenge:
Rest in peace, Dick. Your old NFL partner, Merlin Olsen, is waiting at the Pearly Gates.
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