Bill Macatee (born November 17, 1955) is an American retired sports broadcaster for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

and

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of tennis, al ...

Early life and education

Macatee was born in

Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lie ...

, and grew up in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso. In 1978, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

. While in college, Macatee worked at KLTV-TV in Tyler, Texas as well as KTVV-TV in Austin, Texas.

Career

Macatee 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 (1979–82) at

WFAA-TV WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed independent station KFAA-TV (channel ...

in Dallas, Texas. Macatee was hired by

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

in 1982 and worked for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

and

while based in New York. Macatee began his network sports broadcasting career with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. 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 * W ...

, the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

, the Rose Bowl and the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

. He hosted

's ''

Major League Baseball Game of the Week Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

'' 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 ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' and sports anchor for '' NBC News at Sunrise'' and '' Sunday Today''. He also co-anchored the syndicated show '' USA Today on TV''. Macatee joined

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

as a sportscaster in 1990. From 1991 until 2006, Macatee anchored coverage of the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

and hosted the network's Thursday/Friday coverage of

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major golf championships, men's major championships in Professional golf tours, professional golf. Schedul ...

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, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

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

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

at Roland Garros. Joining CBS Sports in 1995, Macatee served as a tower announcer and handled post-round, network interviews for

and

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

. Macatee also substituted for Jim Nantz during other PGA Tour events and anchored

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

' coverage of the

LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

and various Champions Tour 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 and WTA events. For 16 years (1998 - 2013) Macatee did play-by-play for the ''

NFL on CBS ''NFL on CBS'' is an American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from September 30, 1956 to January 23, 1994. The show returned since September 6, 1998. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Foot ...

''. 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. Additionally, Macatee served as the main play-by-play voice and studio host for the cable network

, covering the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

, The

(French Open Tonight),

(Wimbledon Primetime) and the U.S. Open. In 2013, Macatee joined The Vistria Group, a Chicago private equity firm, first serving as a Senior Advisor to the firm, then as Partner and Senior 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, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...

in Southern California, teaching Sports Media at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Macatee served as a Trustee at Lamar University from 2016 to 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. In 2021, Macatee helped Warren Stephens create college golf’s acclaimed Jackson T Stephens Cup, featuring the top men’s and women’s golf teams in the country, played at such iconic venues as Seminole (2022), the Alotian Club (2021) and Shore Acres (2025). Macatee retired from broadcasting after the 2020 Masters.

Personal life

He is father to Caitlin Macatee, a comedian. In 2014, Macatee married Sonya Lee. They reside in Dallas, Texas.

References

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