Early years Gregory Girard Gumbel was born in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1946, the first child of Rhea Alice (LeCesne) and Richard Dunbar Gumbel, a judge. His paternal great-great-grandfather was a
German-Jewish emigrant from the village of
Albisheim. As a young man, Gumbel grew up on Chicago's
South Side, where he was raised
Catholic, attending and graduating from
De La Salle Institute. In 1967, Gumbel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from
Loras College,
Career In 1973, Gumbel's brother, Bryant, then working as a television sportscaster at
KNBC in Los Angeles, informed him that another
NBC owned-and-operated station,
WMAQ-TV in Chicago, was auditioning for a sports announcer. At the time, Gumbel was selling hospital supplies in Detroit. He ultimately got the job, returned to Chicago and worked at WMAQ-TV for seven years. Prior to his rising to prominence at CBS, Gumbel worked for
MSG,
ESPN, and
WFAN radio in New York City. At
ESPN, he anchored the show
SportsCenter and did
play-by-play for early
NBA games. On MSG, Gumbel served as a backup announcer for
Marv Albert on
New York Knicks broadcasts as well as providing coverage for college basketball. In addition to his MSG duties, Gumbel was the host of the first radio morning show on radio station
WFAN. However, station management replaced him with
WNBC Radio personality
Don Imus once WFAN took over WNBC's AM 660 frequency.
First CBS stint Gumbel's
CBS career began with part-time work as an
NFL announcer in
1988. In 1989, he began announcing
college basketball as well. After MSG signed a large contract to broadcast
New York Yankees games the same year, Gumbel served as host of the pregame and postgame shows. He became host of
The NFL Today (alongside
Terry Bradshaw) for the
1990 to
1993 seasons. Gumbel also anchored CBS' coverage of
Major League Baseball,
college football, and, in 1999,
CBS' coverage as a studio host for the
Daytona 500 and
Pepsi 400. Besides his hosting duties, Gumbel provided
play-by-play for the
NBA (alongside
Quinn Buckner),
Major League Baseball including the
1993 American League Championship Series (alongside
Jim Kaat), and
College World Series baseball. Gumbel was the prime-time anchor for the
1994 Winter Olympic Games from
Lillehammer, Norway, and co-anchor for the weekday morning broadcasts of the
1992 Winter Olympics from
Albertville, France.
NBC Sports Gumbel moved to
NBC in 1994 following CBS' losses of the NFL and Major League Baseball broadcasting contracts (Gumbel's last on-air assignment for CBS was providing play-by-play for the
College World Series). While at NBC, he hosted
NBC's coverage of the
1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Gumbel also did play-by-play for the 1995 Major League Baseball
National League Division Series and
National League Championship Series (on both occasions, teaming with
Joe Morgan), did play-by-play for
The NBA on NBC, hosted NBC's daytime coverage of the
1996 Summer Olympics from
Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the
1995 World Championships of Figure Skating, and served as the studio host for
The NFL on NBC beginning in 1994. The network announced that he would serve as studio host for the network's coverage of college basketball, including the annual
NCAA tournament. In addition, since CBS had recently regained NFL broadcast rights by outbidding NBC for its coverage of the AFC, they named Gumbel as their lead broadcaster beginning in the fall of 1998, with
Phil Simms as his
color commentator. and
XXXVIII. For the
2004 NFL season, Gumbel traded positions with
Jim Nantz as host of
The NFL Today with Nantz taking over as lead announcer. At the end of the
2005 NFL season, Gumbel was replaced as studio host of
The NFL Today by
James Brown. Gumbel returned to the broadcast booth as the 2 play-by-play man, replacing
Dick Enberg, alongside color man
Dan Dierdorf until Dierdorf retired after the
2013–14 NFL season. Gumbel also worked alongside
Trent Green in the No. 3 team from
2014 until
2019. He worked in a three-man booth with Green and
Bruce Arians for the
2018 NFL season. Gumbel then traded spots with
Kevin Harlan in
2020, teaming with
Rich Gannon.
Adam Archuleta became Gumbel's partner in the No. 4 slot the following year after CBS declined to renew Gannon's contract. CBS Sports extended its contract with Gumbel on March 15, 2023, which allowed him to continue hosting college basketball while stepping back from NFL coverage. However, Gumbel was absent from
March Madness coverage in 2024 due to family health issues. ==Personal life and death==