Don Criqui (born October 1, 1940) is an American sportscaster. He holds the record for longest-tenured NFL broadcaster in U.S. TV history, calling NFL football for 47 seasons (1967-2013) on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

and CBS. Criqui's final NFL broadcast came on December 8, 2013, when he filled in for Bill Macatee as he was having traveling issues in a snow storm in Dallas, calling the 27-26

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

victory over the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

. Criqui's most recent network assignment was CBS Sports from 1998 until 2013, where he called the NFL, women's and men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

and

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

. From 1995 to 2012, he was the voice of

pre-season football with Randy Cross. Criqui called 14 Orange Bowls, including 4 games that decided the college football national championship. From 2006 until 2017, Criqui served as the football radio play-by-play voice for Notre Dame, his alma mater.

Early life

Criqui is a native of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

and grew up in the suburb of Kenmore. He graduated from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in Kenmore, before attending the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

. He served in the

U.S. Air Force Reserve The Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force, with its headquarters at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It is the federal Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the U.S. Air Force, consisting of commiss ...

Career

Though he was the

NFL on NBC The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

's top announcer only once (Week 6 of the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

season), Criqui has always been a featured announcer in the American sports scene and is notable for his longevity. Criqui began with CBS in 1967 before moving to

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

in 1979; he was 'traded' by CBS to NBC for

Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...

. When CBS reacquired the NFL in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, Criqui rejoined the network, and continued to serve as a play-by-play announcer as part of the ''

NFL on CBS The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts si ...

'' until his retirement from that position after the 2012 season. From 1999 to 2004, Criqui and

Steve Tasker Steven Jay Tasker (born April 10, 1962) is an American sports reporter, locally in Western New York on the MSG Western New York cable TV station, and on WGR Radio and formerly for CBS Sports. He is a former football player who was a wide receive ...

were the designated play-by-play team for most

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

games on CBS. He has also announced a number of other sports for CBS,

and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

including

, the ABA, the NBA, the NHL, professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

tournaments, Triple Crown horse racing, the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

() and several

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

events. During his tenure at NBC, Criqui called 14

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in ...

games. Criqui's most memorable call was the 1984 Orange Bowl between undefeated

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. Nebraska was on a 22-game winning streak coming into the game, but lost to Miami 31–30 when the Cornhuskers failed on a two-point conversion attempt which would have won the game. His most famous college basketball call was most likely the last-second upset by St. Joseph's over top-seeded DePaul in the Mideast regional second round of the 1981 NCAA Tournament. Criqui was the radio play-by-play voice of

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Da ...

on the Notre Dame IMG Sports Network from 2006-2018.

Other projects

His other projects include hosting radio talk shows about sports, serving as a part-time TV announcer for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major lea ...

in 1991, and working as the play-by-play announcer for

pre-season telecasts on

WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

from 1995 to 2008 and for

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (ch ...

from 2009 to 2012. Criqui was also for many years the key spokesperson for

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

, appearing as himself in many television, radio and print advertisements as part of the

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based advertising agency, agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging wit ...

-produced advertising campaign: "You're Gonna Like Us (sm). TWA.", which ran between 1978 and 1984 in support of the airline's domestic U.S. marketing efforts. For years, he also served as co-host of the weekend version of the newsmagazine ''

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is no ...

''. He also served as a sportscaster on WOR radio in New York on the ''

Rambling with Gambling ''Rambling with Gambling'' was a news and talk radio program that aired in New York City from 1925 through 2016, almost uninterrupted, with one name change toward the end of its run. It was hosted by three generations of people named John Gambling ...

'' show, as well as on

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...

radio on '' Imus in the Morning''.

Memorable NFL calls

One of Criqui's most memorable NFL calls came on November 8, 1970: Tom Dempsey's 63-yard field goal that lifted the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

to a 19–17 victory over the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

' Tulane Stadium. Other memorable NFL games that Criqui took part in were the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

Miracle at the Meadowlands The Miracle at the Meadowlands was a fumble recovery by cornerback Herman Edwards of the Philadelphia Eagles that he returned for a touchdown at the end of a November 19, 1978, National Football League (NFL) game against the New York Giants in Gi ...

" and the 1982 " Epic in Miami". Criqui also did play-by-play of the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

– 86 seasons of ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, ...

'' and Super Bowls XX and XXI (alongside Bob Trumpy) for

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first tw ...

. He also called "

Red Right 88 Red Right 88 was a passing play called by the Cleveland Browns during the January 4, 1981 American Football Conference divisional playoff game against the Oakland Raiders; in the years since, the term has been used to refer to the game itself and ...

" in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

, when Brian Sipe threw an interception in the end zone to end the

' season. He along with Randy Cross called the

' comeback victory over the Browns in 2009. He was presented with the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

in 2003. He is also a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Criqui lives with his wife Molly in

Essex Fells, New Jersey Essex Fells is a borough in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 2,113,Don Criqui
,

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

. Accessed May 8, 2012. "He was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and lives with his wife, Molly, in Essex Fells, N.J."

References

External links

Don Criqui ProfileProfile of Don Criqui from Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame
americansportscastersonline.com; accessed April 3, 2018.

accessed April 3, 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Criqui, Don 1940 births Living people American Basketball Association announcers American horse racing announcers American infotainers American sports radio personalities American television sports announcers Association football commentators Canadian Football League announcers Cleveland Browns announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Golf writers and broadcasters Gymnastics broadcasters Motorsport announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters New England Patriots announcers New Orleans Saints announcers New York Giants announcers New York Knicks announcers New York Mets announcers Television anchors from New York City Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Radio personalities from Buffalo, New York People from Essex Fells, New Jersey Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recipients St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute alumni Swimming commentators Tennis commentators Track and field broadcasters University of Notre Dame alumni Women's college basketball announcers in the United States