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Black History Month: The Forgotten Announcer
I wrote something about Black History Month: Charlie Neal. This is about someone Neal’s age, but who didn’t get his start with announcing. Before he went to TV, he was a pro football player, but I suspect that was ‘accidental’ given his educational background–being a Northwestern University graduate (not to mention he was a 7th Rd. draft pick…not the usual round for stars to be drafted).
So who is this guy? He’s one of the first announcers I remember from my childhood, co-host of “NFL Today” with Brent Musberger and Phyllis George: Irv Cross.
Cross did a ton of stuff in his life–nine years in the NFL (including two Pro Bowls) and then 23 years in broadcasting. He covered lots of sports for CBS, but he was most importantly, the first black studio host for national broadcasts. It wasn’t like the 21st century where you have people in the studio because they are former stars–Cross was selected because he knew his stuff impeccably…it was an era where he had to if he was going to get an opportunity. If he’d made a mistake, he would’ve been replaced, unlike white announcers of the time.
In 1994, Cross wound up out of broadcasting. Instead, with no admin experience, he wound up spending the next nine years as a college athletic director. At that point, he left athletic administration to become CEO for the Big Brothers/Sisters program of Minnesota until his retirement another five years later (which may have been related to CTE/dementia issues beginning to appear).
Cross received the Football HOF Radio-TV award for excellence–the first black announcer to receive that award in the sport’s history.
Cross is important for his success overcoming poverty and the endemic racism of his youth (and adulthood), but he’s important for another reason with that–his is the American dream. He overcame poverty, went to a prestigious school, had success as an athlete and then in business/as a CEO…the exact things everyone dreams of, hopes for for their own family members.
As an update–here we are a few days after I initially wrote this post and it turns out Cross was suffering from CTE: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35752687/irv-cross-former-nfl-star-analyst-died-2021-had-cte
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