Bill Macatee (born November 17, 1955) is an American sports broadcaster for CBS Sports and Tennis Channel.

Early life and career

Macatee was born in Rome, New York, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso. In 1978, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Lamar University in

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...

. While in college, Macatee worked at KLTV-TV in Tyler, Texas as well as KTVV-TV in Austin, Texas. He became Sports Director at KBMT-TV in Beaumont, Texas where he was hired by Bill Paradoski. Following that he worked at KMBC-TV in Kansas City before spending three years at WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. Macatee was hired by

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 d ...

in 1982 and worked for NBC News and NBC Sports while based in New York.

NBC Sports

Macatee began his network sports broadcasting career with NBC. where he covered a wide range of events including

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, the Rose Bowl and the World Series. He hosted NBC's '' Major League Baseball Game of the Week'' pre-game show for four years as well as numerous events for the network's sports anthology show, '' NBC Sportsworld''. Additionally, Macatee served as the sports correspondent for the '' Today Show'' and sports anchor for '' NBC News at Sunrise'' and '' Sunday Today''. He also co-anchored the

syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

show '' USA Today on TV''.

USA Network

Macatee joined USA Network as a sportscaster in 1990. From 1991 until 2006, Macatee anchored coverage of the PGA Tour and hosted the network's Thursday/Friday coverage of The Masters from Butler Cabin as well as coverage of the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

. His other duties included play-by-play for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

at Roland Garros.

CBS Sports

Joining CBS Sports in 1995, Macatee served as a tower announcer and handled post-round, network interviews for The Masters and PGA Championship. Macatee also substituted for Jim Nantz during other PGA Tour events and anchored CBS' coverage of the LPGA Championship and various

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

events. In 2015, Macatee hosted the Golf Channel series, ''Greatest Rounds''. Macatee co-anchored weekend coverage of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan for CBS Sports and also served as a studio host for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy (NBC/USA Network). In tennis, Macatee was the lead CBS play-by-play announcer for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships (taking over from Dick Enberg in 2012) and other

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

and WTA events. For 16 years (1998 - 2013) Macatee did play-by-play for the NFL on CBS. He also called NCAA Basketball for CBS Sports including the NCAA Tournament and the NCAA Men's Division II Basketball National Championship Game. Macatee handled network play-by-play in sports as diverse as figure skating, skiing, track-and-field, gymnastics, boxing and even sumo wrestling.

Tennis Channel

Additionally, Macatee served as the main play-by-play voice and studio host for the cable network Tennis Channel, covering the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, The

(French Open Tonight),

(Wimbledon Primetime) and the U.S. Open.

Personal life

In 2013, Macatee joined The Vistria Group, a Chicago private equity firm, first serving as a Senior Advisor to the firm and then as Partner. Macatee has been a Director on multiple privately-held company boards, as well as the Advisory Board of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Foundation. Macatee spent two years as an adjunct professor at

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...

in Southern California, teaching Sports Media at the prestigious Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Macatee served as a Trustee at Lamar University from 2016-2019. He was named Distinguished Alumnus at Lamar University in 2010 and gave the Commencement Address for the university's graduating class in May 2014. In 2018, Macatee was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also in the El Paso (Tx) Sports Hall of Fame and in 2011 was Grand Marshall of the Sun Bowl Parade. On May 10, 2014, Macatee married Sonya Lee. They reside in Dallas, Texas. He is also father to Caitlin Macatee, an up-and-coming comedian and author.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macatee, Bill American television sports announcers Golf writers and broadcasters Major League Baseball broadcasters 1955 births Living people Tennis commentators Sportspeople from Rome, New York Olympic Games broadcasters Lamar University alumni National Football League announcers American television reporters and correspondents Bowling broadcasters College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Boxing commentators Figure skating commentators Track and field broadcasters