The Top 10 Announcers in Dallas Sports History

In retrospect, Ole Miss and Texas Tech are merely above-average college football teams. Their little clash in Dallas last week, however, was called by two of this area's icons of announcing. Though he's looked better, it was good to see Pat Summerall working the game on TV. And on radio...

By Richie Whitt

January 6, 2009

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In retrospect, Ole Miss and Texas Tech are merely above-average college football teams. Their little clash in Dallas last week, however, was called by two of this area's icons of announcing.

Though he's looked better, it was good to see Pat Summerall working the game on TV. And on radio - with his primary team's season short-circuited - there was the legendary Brad Sham.

Hearing those two got me to thinking about the best voices in Dallas sports history. Then turning on the new Baseball Network and watching former Rangers' announcer Victor Rojas deliver the opening lines yanked me to the other end of the spectrum.

So, as I've been known to do, I started constructing a list. My list. Made up of the best, most memorable voices I've heard since tuning into my transistor radio along about 1970.

Not of the guys from here necessarily, but more so the ones that have called our team's games. For example, Don Meredith wouldn't be elgible; Brad Davis would.

Dallas' Mount Voicemore:

10. Ted Davis - Mavericks' voice of the early/mid-90s became legendary for reading movie reviews during the most insufferable moments of another blowout loss.

9. Bob Ortegel - Mavs' tactitionary TV analyst has perfected the art of rooting without being a homer.

8. Mark Holtz - The man who crafted "Hello, win column!" for the Rangers was also the Mavs' original radio voice in '80.

7. Daryl Reaugh - Yeah, he puts the hokey in hockey, but most times his mix of entertainment and information is the only reason I pause on a Stars' game.

6. Verne Lundquist - His call of Jackie Smith's dropped touchdown in Super Bowl XIII - "Bless his heart, he's got to be the sickest man in America." - haunts me to this day.

5. Brad Sham - It's criminal that Dave Garrett called Super Bowl XXX instead of the undisputed voice of the Cowboys.

4. Eric Nadel - On the verge of his 31st season with the Rangers, he'd get my sympathy vote even if he weren't so damn insightful.

3. Chuck Cooperstein - From his days getting irate over knucklehead calls on KRLD's "Sports Central" to last week's stirring Mavericks' comeback, his is a unique blend of passion and precision.

2. Bill Mercer - The Cowboys' voice of the mid-60s and Rangers' voice in the early 70s - not to mention the king of professional rasslin' - is still going strong as color man for the Frisco RoughRiders.

1. Frank Glieber - Seems like just yesterday I listened to him eloquently call the Cowboys' first Super Bowl win. But I remember him more so for hosting TV's The Tom Landry Show complete with exhausting film breakdown and the head coach's weekly NFL picks. - Richie Whitt

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