George Allen "Pat" Summerall (May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013) was an American professional football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN.

[citation needed] Summerall's most memorable professional moment may well have been at the very end of the December 14, 1958 regular-season finale between his Giants and the Cleveland Browns at Yankee Stadium.

"[8][9] Sports Illustrated ran the story as one of its primary articles the next week, with a leading photograph showing the football heading between the uprights through the snow.

[citation needed] The urban legend was his nickname became "Pat" because of the abbreviation for "point after touchdown" that a field-goal kicker was credited for in a game summary.

But in a 1997 Dallas Morning News story, Summerall said after his parents divorced, he was taken in by an aunt and uncle who had a son named Mike.

"My aunt and uncle just started calling me Pat to go with their Mike", Summerall would say, referencing frequently named characters in Irish jokes told during that time.

[citation needed] Following their dismissal of announcer Harry Caray in 1969, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team considered hiring Summerall to be their new radio voice.

After retiring from football, Summerall was hired by CBS Sports in 1962 to work as a color commentator on the network's NFL coverage.

[citation needed] In 1981, Summerall was teamed with former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden, a pairing that would last for 22 seasons on two networks and become one of the most well-known partnerships in television sportscasting history.

[2] Summerall and Madden were first teamed on a November 25, 1979 broadcast of a Minnesota Vikings–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game due to Brookshier having a family commitment.

In contrast to John Madden's lively, verbose persona, Summerall continued the traditionally minimalist delivery of predecessor as CBS's main NFL announcer, Ray Scott.

In 1975, Summerall hosted the Pan American Games in Mexico, and in 1976 he teamed with Tom Brookshier to call some heavyweight boxing matches for CBS.

In 1985, Summerall once again called college basketball, working NCAA men's tournament games for CBS with Larry Conley.

Summerall supposedly replied "Because they wouldn't be yelling this loudly if (Phil) Esposito (another high-scoring Boston player of the era) had scored!"

[15] On April 15, 1987, Summerall did color commentary alongside Steve Stone[16] for a Chicago Cubs–Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game on WGN-TV.

[to the audience] I'll miss you.In 1994, the Fox network surprised NFL fans by outbidding CBS for the NFC broadcast package.

However, since Madden had left to take over the color commentator position on Monday Night Football from Dan Fouts and Dennis Miller for ABC and Fox had promoted Joe Buck to be its number one NFL play-by-play voice (Buck was initially partnered with Cris Collinsworth and, since 2004, Troy Aikman, who both replaced Madden as Fox's lead NFL color commentators), Summerall was paired with Brian Baldinger on regional telecasts.

Summerall was joined by Daryl Johnston, who at the time was working as Fox's #2 color man with Dick Stockton and who was a longtime teammate of Smith's with the Cowboys, for this game.

[citation needed] Summerall retired again following the 2002 season but in 2006, he served as a substitute for Kenny Albert alongside Baldinger for the Week 8 (October 29) game between the eventual NFC champion Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers.

Summerall teamed with Brian Baldinger on the 2007–09 Cotton Bowl Classic telecasts, and worked with Daryl Johnston on the 2010 game (his final play-by-play assignment of any kind) between Ole Miss and Oklahoma State.

In the 2000s, Summerall provided voiceover sponsorship credits for the CBS Masters golf telecasts, and voice-overs for game coverage on NFL Network.

Summerall called several preseason and early regular-season NFL games for the ESPN network in 2004, substituting for regular announcer Mike Patrick while the latter recovered from heart surgery.

[19] Since 2006, the "Pat Summerall Award" has been presented at the annual Legends for Charity Luncheon given on Super Bowl weekend at the NFL's headquarters hotel in the host city.

The award is given "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents."

Recipients have included James Brown (2006), Greg Gumbel (2007), Jim Nantz (2008), Chris Berman (2009), Cris Collinsworth (2010), the entire Fox NFL crew (2011), Al Michaels (2012), Archie Manning (2013), Michael Strahan (2014), Joe Buck (2015), John Madden (2016), Rich Eisen (2017), Tony Dungy (2018), Bill Cowher (2019), Jim Kelly (2020), Erin Andrews (2022), Howie Long (2023).

Summerall served as the longtime radio spokesman for the Dux Beds company, a Swedish maker of mattresses, and its "Duxiana" stores.

[24] Summerall also provided commentary, alongside Madden, on Cartoon Network's annual Super Bowl parodies, The Big Game, from 1998 through 2001.

With his first wife Katherine (married 1955 - 1995), they had three children, including political consultant and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and 10 grandchildren.

"[25] During the 1990 season, Summerall was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer after vomiting on a plane during a flight after a Chicago Bears–Washington Redskins game, and was out for a considerable amount of time.

While Verne Lundquist replaced Summerall on games with Madden, Jack Buck (who was at CBS during the time as the network's lead Major League Baseball announcer) was added as a regular NFL broadcaster to fill-in.