Richard Alan Enberg was born on January 9, 1935 -- 1 day after Elvis Presley -- in the Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens, Michigan. The family name was originally Katajavuori, meaning "juniper mountain" in Finnish. That's a tough name for anybody outside of Finland to say, so his father changed it to the Swedish equivalent, "Enberg," before Dick was born.
The family moved to Connecticut, then California, then back to Michigan, where Dick grew up. He went to Central Michigan University, and got his 1st broadcasting job at a radio station in Saginaw, Michigan. He was told "Enberg" sounded Jewish, so he should change it. He considered "Dick Breen" -- this was before the New York-based sportscaster Mike Breen was born -- but decided to leave it as "Enberg."
He then went to graduate school at Indiana University, broadcasting for their football and basketball teams. In 1961, he broadcast his 1st college basketball game, the NCAA Tournament Final, in which the University of Cincinnati dethroned defending National Champion Ohio State.
While at Indiana, he met fellow student Jeri Taylor, and was married to her from 1963 to 1973. They went out to Los Angeles, and Dick worked for radio station KMPC, allowing him to broadcast the baseball team then known as the California Angels and the Los Angeles Rams; and KTLA-Channel 5, allowing him to call UCLA basketball.
This is where he developed his catchphrases: "Oh, my!" for a great play, "Touch 'em all!" for a home run (long before John Gordon began using it in Minnesota and Tom Cheek in Toronto), and, when the Angels won, "And the halo shines tonight!"
Moving to L.A. also worked out for Jeri, as she wrote for several TV series in the 1970s, going to the past with Little House On the Prairie, to the present but very sciencey with Quincy, M.E. and The Incredible Hulk. In the 1980s, she joined the staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She created the alien race the Cardassians, and later served as the guiding force of Star Trek: Voyager.
Dick and Jeri had 3 children: Alexander, Andrew and Jennifer. Alexander, now a special effects designer, played Vulcan engineers on both Trek series on which his mother worked.
His timing was excellent, especially as far as UCLA was concerned. Coach John Wooden won 10 National Championships in 12 seasons, with players like (in chronological order) Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich, Lew Alcindor (who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar early in his pro career) and Bill Walton.
A nationally-syndicated network was set to broadcast the 1968 "Game of the Century" between UCLA, then ranked Number 1 in the country and led by Alcindor, against the University of Houston, ranked Number 2 and led by Elvin Hayes, at the Astrodome. Enberg broadcast it, and became nationally known, as the game lived up to the hype. Houston won, but UCLA got its revenge in the Final Four.
From 1971 to 1979, Dick hosted the nationally syndicated game show Sports Challenge. It featured 2 teams, literally, of 3 players who each came from an particular team. Depending on who could be booked, it could be current players or team legends. At least one of the Los Angeles-area teams -- the Dodgers, the Angels, the Rams, the Lakers, the Kings, USC or UCLA -- would usually be represented, simply because of convenience. But teams representing the Yankees did participate, including Joe DiMaggio (with 2 of his 1940s teammates) and Mickey Mantle (with 2 of his 1950s or '60s teammates).
In 1975, Dick was hired by NBC, and did pretty much everything they broadcast, but specialized in football, including the Rose Bowl and (in the years in which they had it) the Super Bowl; and college basketball, including calling the 1979 NCAA Tournament Final with former Marquette coach Al McGuire, the Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird game that has been credited, along with the 1968 UCLA-Houston game, of raising interest in college basketball to a new level. He was also their lead voice for Wimbledon.
Dick and Merlin Olsen. Dick had called Merlin's games for the Rams.
Jeri had written scripts for him on Little House.
In 1982, NBC told Dick that he would become NBC's new lead for their Saturday baseball Game of the Week broadcast. Then they changed their minds, and brought in the Dodgers' Vin Scully instead. He agreed that Scully was a better announcer than he was, but he didn't like the fact that NBC seemed to break a promise. They gave him a big raise, though, and he stayed with them for the rest of the 20th Century, which also allowed him to do the Olympics in 1988, 1992 and 1996.
Dick and Vin, last year, in the Padres' booth.
There were no hard feelings.
In 2000, his contract with the Peacock Network up, he was signed by CBS, and continued to do the NFL, college basketball, and tennis, switching from Wimbledon (which NBC still had the rights to) to the U.S. Open (which has been CBS' domain for as long as I can remember). They also put him on golf, calling The Masters and the PGA Championship. (Traditionally, ABC does the U.S. Open, NBC the British Open.)
In 2010, he became the TV play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres, and cut back to this one job. He retired in 2016, having won 13 Emmy Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the broadcasting awards of the Baseball, Pro Football, and Basketball Halls of Fame. UCLA named the media center at their arena, Pauley Pavilion, after him.
Dick remarried, to Barbara Hedbring, and they had 3 children: Ted (who followed him into sportscasting), Nicole and Emily. So, in total, 3 sons and 3 daughters.
Yesterday, Barbara reported that Dick had died at their home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, California, of an apparent heart attack. He was a few days short of his 82nd birthday.
Touch 'em all, Dick.
UPDATE: His final resting place is not publicly known.
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