Dick Stockton

Dick Stockton (born Richard Edward Stokvis on November 22, 1942) is an American sportscaster. Stockton began his career in Philadelphia, then moved to Pittsburgh where he was the sports director for KDKA-TV. In Boston, he called Celtics games for WBZ and Red Sox games for WSBK-TV before transitioning to national broadcasting, which included calling the 1975 World Series for NBC and later, the NBA Finals for CBS. In a career that has spanned over five decades, Stockton has worked for several different networks, most prominently CBS Sports, Fox Sports, TNT and TBS. He is currently employed by Fox Sports as an NFL play-by-play announcer.

For the professional tennis player by this name, see Dick Stockton (tennis).
Dick Stockton
Born
Richard Edward Stokvis

November 22, 1942 (1942-11-22) (age 77)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationSyracuse University
OccupationTelevision and radio sportscaster
Years active1965-present
Sports commentary career
Genre(s)Play-by-play
Sports

Biography

Early life and career

Stockton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Joseph and Beatrice Stokvis. He has one older sister, Irene. He attended Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York, graduating in 1960. He went on to college at Syracuse University, where he received his degree in political science in 1964. At Syracuse, he was sports director at WAER. He was inducted into the WAER Hall of Fame on October 12, 2016. In 1965, he began his sportscasting career at local radio and television stations in Philadelphia. He became sports director at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh in 1967, and moved to WBZ-TV and WBZ radio in Boston in 1971.[1] Three years later, he began calling Boston Celtics telecasts for WBZ, and the following year he became the lead announcer for Boston Red Sox games on WSBK-TV. Stockton was part of the broadcast crew for NBC Sports' coverage of the 1975 World Series, and on television called Carlton Fisk's famous, game-winning home run in Game 6 of that series as follows:

There it goes! A long drive. . . . if it stays fair. . . . home run![2]

Stockton stayed silent as Fisk rounded the bases, waiting until he made his way into the Red Sox dugout before proclaiming: "We will have a seventh game in this 1975 World Series."

Broadcasting career

CBS Sports

Stockton started freelancing for CBS Sports in the late 1960s, while still doing local television at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. In 1978 (following a two-year stint calling NFL games for NBC), he joined CBS full-time, and from then until 1994 covered a variety of sports for that network, including the NFL, the NBA (for which Stockton was the lead play-by-play man from 1981 to 1990),[3] Major League Baseball (with Jim Kaat from 1990 to 1992; Stockton was the number #2 play-by-play man behind Jack Buck and Sean McDonough in 1992 and called the American League Championship Series during that time period) and NCAA Basketball, including ten years as a play-by-play broadcaster of the NCAA Regional Finals. Stockton also was the host at the famous upset of Villanova over Georgetown in 1985.[4]

While at CBS Sports, he called nine NBA Finals, including the 1984, 1985 and 1987 finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.[5] Stockton partnered with Bill Russell to call the finals from 1982 to 1983, Tom Heinsohn for the finals from 1984 to 1987, Billy Cunningham for the 1988 finals, and Hubie Brown for the 1989 and 1990 finals. In 2001, Stockton was inducted as a broadcaster into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.[6]

In addition, he was the host of the Pan American Games in San Juan in 1979, and covered swimming and diving at the Pan American Games in Edmonton and Caracas. Stockton also broadcast the World Swimming and Diving Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the World Basketball Championships in Cali, Colombia, and the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki in the first year that CBS acquired the rights. When CBS began covering the Winter Olympics, Stockton was assigned to cover skiing in France in 1992[7] and two years later, he called the speed skating events in the 1994 Norway Games including Dan Jansen's record-breaking triumph of the 1000 meter gold medal as well as the gold medal victories of Bonnie Blair.[8]

Fox Sports

Stockton left CBS in 1994 for the newly-formed Fox Sports, which continues to employ him on NFL broadcasts. Stockton called Major League Baseball telecasts for the Fox broadcast network/FX in some shape or form from 1997 through 2013.[9] From the time he was hired until 2006, he was Fox's second-team announcer for NFL games (behind Pat Summerall and later, Joe Buck), working alongside Matt Millen and then Troy Aikman, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa. For Fox's MLB coverage, he has partnered with Eric Karros, Joe Girardi, Mark Grace and Tim McCarver and others. He currently works with Mark Schlereth for football.

Turner Sports

From 1995 to 2015, Stockton called NBA telecasts for Turner's TNT channel.[10] From 2007 to 2013, Stockton called postseason Major League Baseball games on TBS. In 2007, he partnered with Ron Darling to call the National League Division Series for the network. In 2008, he called the AL Central tiebreaker game with Darling and Harold Reynolds, followed by the NLDS with Darling and Tony Gwynn. In 2009, he teamed with Bob Brenly to call the NLDS for TBS,[11] and the two worked the NLDS every year until 2014. Stockton split play-by-play duties during the 2010 regular season on TBS with NBA on TNT studio host Ernie Johnson, Jr. and Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson. In 2011, he partnered with Ron Darling and John Smoltz to call Game 5 of National League Division Series when his regular partner Brenly was away.

Other

From 1993 to 1995, Stockton also called local TV broadcasts of the Oakland Athletics. In 2004, he began doing part-time local television work for the San Antonio Spurs,[12] this role lasted three seasons until 2007. Stockton called Super Bowl XXXVIII alongside Daryl Johnston and Super Bowl XLII alongside Sterling Sharpe on the international feed, provided by the NFL Network.[13] This is the feed used by the BBC and certain other English-language broadcasters outside North America. Starting in 2010, Dick assumed play-by-play duties for Miami Dolphins preseason games on WFOR; he substituted for Jimmy Cefalo as play-by-play on the Dolphins' radio call of the team's Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots on October 4, 2010.

Stockton does the play-by-play commentary for NFL Fever 2000 alongside Matt Millen.[14]

Stockton currently provides play-by-play commentary of the Miami Dolphins preseason games for CBS affiliate WFOR-TV. Stockton has performed this role since 2010.

In 2017, Stockton launched his own podcast entitled Stockton! where he interviewed famous athletes.[15]

Personal life

Stockton is wed to Jamie Drinkwater. The couple were married on July 31, 2014 at her family's home in New York on the St. Lawrence River. They divide their time between homes in Boca Raton, Florida and Carefree, Arizona. Stockton's previous marriage to sportscaster Lesley Visser ended in divorce in 2010.

Career timeline
gollark: You could always make a TNT cannon.
gollark: You mean your giant containment spheres?
gollark: pjals: `_G.tps` is only in my TPS overlay code so my flight script can compensate for TPS issues without using more server resources by checking TPS itself.
gollark: Wait, are you explodinating stuff?
gollark: People will either pick somewhere with a city or something, the first unoccupied place /rtp came up with, or somewhere exotic like underwater.

References
  1. Smith, Curt. "Dick Stockton". SABR.org. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  2. Verducci, Tom (October 21, 2015). "Game Changer: How Carlton Fisk's home run altered baseball and TV". Sports Illustrated.
  3. Halberstam, David J. (December 10, 2018). "Dick Stockton: "Body of work counts more than a moment in a broadcast"". www.sportsbroadcastjournal.com. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  4. Czaban, Steve (March 30, 2005). ""Perfect Upset" flashes back to Villanova's 1985 shocking win". OnMilwaukee.com.
  5. Levy, Dan (November 7, 2013). "The 25 Greatest NBA Announcers of All Time". BleacherReport. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  6. "The Curt Gowdy Media Award". hoophall.com. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  7. Stewart, Larry (February 9, 1992). "CBS Jumps In With a Strong Opening Day". Los Angeles Times.
  8. Smith, Curt (1998). Of Mikes and Men: From Ray Scott to Curt Gowdy: Tales from the Pro Football Booth. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 1461712963.
  9. "Dick Stockton". FOXSports.com. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  10. Trecker, Jerry (November 2, 1995). "TNT'S BROWN READY TO START". The Hartford Courant.
  11. Marcucci, Carl (October 2, 2009). "TBS unveils MLB postseason broadcast teams". rbr.com. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  12. Bailey, W. Scott (October 1, 2003). "Spurs nab veteran TV sportscaster Dick Stockton". San Antonio Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  13. Rickman, Martin (February 6, 2019). "Dick Stockton Shares Five Decades Worth Of Broadcasting And Life Wisdom". uproxx.com. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  14. "NFL Fever 2000". IGN.com. September 23, 1999. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  15. "Hall of Fame Sportscaster Dick Stockton Launches New Podcast; Lands Alex Rodriguez As First Guest". crnradio.com. February 2, 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  16. "Dick Stockton". CNN/SI Turner Sports. November 4, 1999. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  17. "NBA On TNT-Dick Stockton". TNT.tv. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  18. Griffith, Bill (August 29, 2003). "Stockton will pinch hit". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
Media offices
Preceded by
Gary Bender		 Play-by-Play announcer, NBA Finals
1982–1990		 Succeeded by
Marv Albert
Preceded by
Brent Musburger		 Studio Host, College Basketball on CBS
1985		 Succeeded by
Jim Nantz
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