A passionate baseball fan and a multiple National Award winner, Bob Costas is a 58 years old renowned
NBC sportscaster. He was born on 22nd March, 1952 in New York (Queens). His mother Jayne is an Irish-American and father John George Costas is of Greek-American decent. He did his schooling from Commack High School South, when his family relocated themselves in Commack, New York. He joined Syracuse University and attended S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He was hired to work on the radio during his university years. Interest in commentary and broadcasting magnetized him quite early in his life, resulting in incomplete schooling.
As a
sportscaster and broadcaster, he started his career as soon as he entered the Syracuse University. He was hired as a commentator for the Syracuse Blazers. But professionally, he initiated his career as an announcer for American Basketball Association's Spirits of St. Louis. He was announcing games as a play by play telecaster. He then joined KMOX radio's Spirits' station, located in St. Louis. After contributing to the book Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association, during 1979-1980 he was broadcasting on WGN-TV for announcing play by play games of Chicago Bulls.
In 1980,
ABC hired Bob for a very short tenure of less than a year and then he joined
NBC. At
NBC, he used to host NFL, NBA and Major league baseball games in the studio. From 1977 till 2000, he teamed up with Doug Collins and Isiah Thomas for announcing basketball games. For baseball games he paired up with Joe Morgan, Bob Uecker and Tony Kubek. Bob also announced NFL matches play by play with Bob Trumpy. Then, in the year 1984 he was made the studio announcer for NFL's broadcast on
NBC. Costas has also announced numerous Olympics for
NBC, a few of them include Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, and Sydney in 2000. After broadcasting Olympics in Sydney for
NBC, he was again chosen for announcing Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, Athens in 2004, Torino in 2006, and Beijing in 2008, and will also be announcing the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
He has also announced many Horse Racing events, World Figure Skating Championships and also covered the bravo's coverage in 2009. Costas has also covered many National Hockey League matches for
NBC. His line of business with
NBC is not just restricted to
sports casting and hosting games; in 1988 Bob was given a talk show to host, which was named as 'Later with Bob Costas'. The show lasted for 5 successful years. HBO
sports hired Bob in 2001, for hosting a series for 12 weeks'. This show was named as 'On the Record with Bob Costas'. He accepted many other shows and tasks at HBO and successfully marveled all of them.
Everyone knows how crazy Bob is for baseball. He even wrote a book in 2000- Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball. This book was a big commercial success. Today Bob is married to Jill Sutton, his second wife and is happily living in St. Louis, Missouri. He divorced his first wife Carole Krumenacher in 2001. He has two children from his first wife- daughter Keith and Son Taylor. Bob has won National
Sportscaster of the Year awards, several times and 20 Emmy awards.
