 Born in Washington, DC, on December 20,
1927, sportscasting legend Jim Simpson covered nearly every major
sporting event during his 52 year career. In all, he covered sports
in 49 states and 22 countries, including 16 Major League All-Star
games, 14 Olympic Games, 6 Super Bowls, 6 World Series, all major
golf and grand slam tennis tournaments, and every major college
bowl. In addition, he covered the NFL for 15 years, was the voice
of the Baltimore Orioles for two seasons, and broadcast college
basketball, football and baseball for many years at ESPN. Simpson
was also the first person to appear on U.S. television live via
satellite from Asia, and broadcast the first sporting event to use
instant replay. Simpson began his career, in 1945, working for
radio stations in the Washington area, before getting his first TV
job in 1949. Then in 1955, he moved to WRC-TV where he began a 25
year association with NBC, when he began doing play-by-play for
Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball. In 1964, he
joined NBC exclusively and over the next 15 years covered a wide
variety of sports for them as well as assignments for other
networks including ABC. Then in 1979, Simpson joined ESPN, where he
worked for the rest of his career. In recognition of Simpson's
illustrious sportscasting career, he received the Lifetime Time
Achievement Award at the annual Sports Emmy Awards, in 1998. He was
inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of
Fame on May 1, 2000, for his outstanding achievements. |