John Henry Drees (February 8, 1917 – July 27, 1988) was an American sportscaster who worked for ABC and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, as well as various stations in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Early life and career

Drees was born on February 8, 1917 in Chicago. He attended Austin High School and the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

, where he was an all-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

center on the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team. After graduating, he went to work for WJJD in Chicago as a secondary baseball play-by-play announcer to John Harrington. His first day on the air was May 23, 1938. In addition to baseball, Drees also called

National Football League 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 majo ...

games and horse races from

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on th ...

for WJJD and sister station

WIND Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...

. Although he had never seen a horse race prior to calling one, Drees became "the most accurate and respected horse race announcer in the country" according to

Jack Brickhouse John Beasley Brickhouse (January 24, 1916 – August 6, 1998) was an American sportscaster. Known primarily for his play-by-play coverage of Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV from 1948 to 1981, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Ha ...

US Navy

During World War II, Drees served 35 months in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. He served 33 months at sea as a gunnery officer on a merchant ship and rose to the rank of lieutenant.

Los Angeles

After the war, Drees returned to WJJD and WIND, but the stations had dropped their sports coverage. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he called horse races and served as Public Relations director for the Los Angeles Dons of the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

. After the league folded in 1949, he returned to Chicago, where he called horse races and college football.

Television

National

Drees first television role was co-hosting ''

Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts ''Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts'', later ''The Wednesday Night Fights'', is a television program that broadcast boxing matches from New York's Madison Square Garden featuring Russ Hodges, Jack Drees, and Bill Nimmo. It finished at #26 for the 1950-19 ...

'' with Russ Hodges. His television broadcast of the 1963

Sonny Liston Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 1930 – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson ...

Floyd Patterson Floyd Patterson (January 4, 1935 – May 11, 2006) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1952 to 1972, and twice reigned as the world heavyweight champion between 1956 and 1962. At the age of 21, he became the youngest boxer in hi ...

world heavyweight championship fight drew the largest audience in history up to that point. In 1954, he was hired by ABC to announce college football games with

Tom Harmon Thomas Dudley Harmon (September 28, 1919 – March 15, 1990), known as Tom Harmon, as well as by the nickname "Old 98", was an American football player, military pilot, actor, and sports broadcaster. Harmon grew up in Gary, Indiana, and playe ...

. In 1960, he was hired by CBS to call

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

football games. In 1967/68 he called

Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...

and II for the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

. In addition to NFL games, Drees also called college football, golf, and horse races for CBS. He returned to ABC, and in 1972, hosted a 5-minute daily broadcast on the American Information Radio Network.

Chicago

During the 1960s, Drees broadcast the Illinois state high school basketball tournaments on

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

. He also hosted a program on WGN-TV called "Sports Unlimited". He was the play-by-play voice for

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

telecasts on

WFLD WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV ...

from 1968 through 1972. His broadcast partners were Dave Martin (

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...

), Mel Parnell (

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Billy Pierce Walter William Pierce (April 2, 1927 – July 31, 2015) was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1945 and 1964 who played most of his career for the Chicago White Sox. He was the team's star pitcher in the decade from 19 ...

(

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

) and Bud Kelly (

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

–

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

).All-time Broadcasters (pre-2009) – Chicago White Sox.
/ref>

Later career and retirement

In 1974 Drees and James C. Mullen published a book entitled ''Where Is He Now? Sports Heroes of Yesterday - Revisited''. From 1977 to 1985 he worked for

WKRG-TV WKRG-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Mobile, Alabama, United States, serving southwest Alabama and northwest Florida as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Gulf Shores, Alabama–licensed The CW, ...

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

. In 1986, he retired to

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. Drees died on July 27, 1988 of cancer at his Dallas home. He was 71 years old.

Personal life

Drees and his wife Mary were married on August 16, 1939. They had three children. Drees' son Brian was also a sportscaster, notably working for

KMGH KMGH-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling-licensed independent station KCDO-TV, channel 3 (and its Denver-licensed translat ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drees, Jack 1917 births 1988 deaths American horse racing announcers American television sports announcers Boxing commentators Chicago Bears announcers High school basketball announcers in the United States Chicago Cubs announcers Chicago White Sox announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Golf writers and broadcasters Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball players Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers New York Giants announcers People from Chicago People from Dallas People from Mobile, Alabama St. Louis Cardinals (football) announcers American men's basketball players