Thomas Graham McNamee (July 10, 1888 – May 9, 1942) was an American

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

broadcaster, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade. He originated

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

sports broadcasting for which he was awarded the

Ford C. Frick Award The Ford C. Frick Award is presented annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame in the United States to a broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball". It is named for Ford C. Frick, former commissioner of baseball. Prior to his career as an exe ...

by the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

in 2016.

Early life and career

Graham McNamee's father, John B. McNamee, was an attorney and legal advisor to President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

's cabinet, and his mother, Anne, was a homemaker, who also sang in a church choir. Born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and raised in

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

, McNamee had early aspirations of being an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

singer. He studied voice as a youth and sang in churches, and in 1922 gave a concert in Aeolian Hall, New York. In 1922, while serving jury duty in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, he visited the studios of radio station WEAF en route to the courthouse and, on a whim, went to audition as a singer. Someone noticed his voice and asked him to speak through a microphone. He was given an audition after which he was hired on the spot as a staff announcer. Along with fellow WEAF announcer

Phillips Carlin Phillips Carlin (June 30, 1894 – August 27, 1971)Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920 ...

, whose voice was so similar very few listeners could tell them apart, McNamee quickly became famous. Over the course of the next decade McNamee worked for WEAF, and for the national

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 ...

network, when WEAF became its flagship station.

Sportscasting

McNamee became well known for his broadcasts of numerous major

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

events, including several

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- ...

, Rose Bowl games, championship

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

matches, and

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

races. Radio broadcasting of sporting events was an entirely new thing in the 1920s. The announcers were a rotating group of newspaper writers. At the time baseball was America's most popular sport, and the reporters were at the games to write stories about them for print newspapers. Their descriptions were matter-of-fact, boring at best, had a lot of

dead air Dead air, also known as unmodulated carrier, is an unintended period of silence that interrupts a broadcast during which no audio or video program material is transmitted. Radio and television Dead air occurs in radio broadcasting when no audio ...

, mostly given in the past tense after a play was completed. In 1923, announcer McNamee was assigned to help the sportswriters with their broadcasts. One day,

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an American sportswriter and poet known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you playe ...

, told McNamee to finish the game on his own, and left. McNamee was not a trained sports writer, so he immediately began to describe exactly what he was seeing as it happened, thus originating

sports broadcasting. He wasn't a baseball expert, but had a knack for conveying what he saw in great detail, and with great enthusiasm, bringing the sights and sounds of the game into the homes of listeners. In 1927 he broadcast

the Long Count Fight The Long Count Fight, or the Battle of the Long Count, was a professional boxing 10-round rematch between world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and former champion Jack Dempsey, which Tunney won in a unanimous decision. It took place on Septemb ...

between

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923 ...

and

Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. One of the most iconic athl ...

with

to more than 60 NBC radio stations. When a colleague asked him, shortly before his passing, what his favorite piece of commentary was, McNamee mentioned

Babe Ruth's called shot Babe Ruth's called shot is the home run hit by Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees against the Chicago Cubs in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, held on October 1, 1932, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. During his at-bat, Ruth made ...

in the

1932 World Series The 1932 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1932 season. The 29th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion New York Yankees versus the National League champions Chicago Cubs. The ...

Other work

McNamee also broadcast the national

political convention The terms party conference (British English, UK English), political convention (American English, US and Canadian English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain Delega ...

s, the presidential inaugurations, and the arrival of aviator

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

following his transatlantic flight to

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, in 1927. He opened each broadcast by saying, "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. This is Graham McNamee speaking." He was featured on the cover of the October 3, 1927, issue of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine. McNamee continued to broadcast into the 1930s, as an announcer on such weekly programs as

Rudy Vallee Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to: People Given name or nickname *Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...

's, and

Ed Wynn Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He began his career in vaudeville in 1903 and was known for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show ...

's. He played

straight man The straight man (or straight woman in the case of female characters), also known as a "comedic foil", is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically ...

on the latter, reacting to Wynn's gags. He worked in motion pictures, narrating ''

Krakatoa Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. Tw ...

'' (1933),

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

' weekly

Universal Newsreel Universal Newsreel (sometimes known as Universal-International Newsreel or just U-I Newsreel) was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, S ...

s, and '' Camera Thrills'' (1935), an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated short subject produced and directed by Charles E. Ford. He also appeared as the announcer at the beginning of ''

The Phantom of Crestwood ''The Phantom of Crestwood'' is a 1932 American pre-Code murder-mystery film released by Radio Pictures, directed by J. Walter Ruben, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Anita Louise, H.B. Warner, and Pauli ...

'' (1932). On April 20, 1936, he also worked in ''Circus stars bring joy to hospital's little shut-ins'' (clowns and performers of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus performed at Bellevue Hospital in New York to amuse children), by Universal Newsreel. In the same year, on July 7, he was briefly reunited with Ed Wynn for an ad-libbed spot on an experimental, NBC television broadcast. In the early 1940s his principal activity was as a newsreel commentator, but he maintained much of his radio work as well, hosting ''

Behind the Mike ''Behind the Mike'' was a Blue Network (NBC) radio series hosted by Graham McNamee, spotlighting behind-the-scenes stories in radio broadcasting. The sustaining show aired Sundays at 4:30 p.m. ET from September 15, 1940, to April 19, 194 ...

'' for NBC.

Personal life

He was married twice: the first time, in 1921, to concert and church soprano Josephine Garrett. They were divorced in 1932, and he married Anne Lee Sims in 1934.

Death

McNamee died on May 9, 1942, at St. Lukes Hospital at the age of 53. The cause of death was a brain

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (air embolism, gas embolism), amniotic ...

after he had been hospitalized with a

streptococcus ''Streptococcus'' is a genus of gram-positive spherical bacteria that belongs to the family Streptococcaceae, within the order Lactobacillales (lactic acid bacteria), in the phylum Bacillota. Cell division in streptococci occurs along a sing ...

infection. He was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

Legacy

In his foreword to McNamee's 1926 memoir ''You're on the Air'', journalist

Heywood Broun Heywood Campbell Broun Jr. (; December 7, 1888 – December 18, 1939) was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, later known as The Newspape ...

paid tribute to McNamee's role as a pioneer in the then-nascent field of commercial broadcasting:

Awards

In 1925, at the Radio World Fair, McNamee won a solid gold cup (designed like a microphone) as America's most popular announcer, receiving 189,470 votes out of 1,161,659 votes cast. In February 1960, McNamee was posthumously recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1964, McNamee was inducted into the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

Hall of Fame. In 1984, he was part of the

American Sportscasters Association The American Sportscasters Association (ASA) was founded in 1979 by broadcaster Dick London (Hanna) and associate attorney Harold Foner as a non-profit association to represent sportscasters by promoting and supporting the needs and interests of ...

Hall of Fame's inaugural class, which included sportscasting legends

Red Barber Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sports announcer and author. Nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", he was primarily identified with broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four ...

Don Dunphy Don Dunphy (July 5, 1908 – July 22, 1998) was an American television and radio sports announcer specializing in boxing broadcasts. Dunphy was noted for his fast-paced delivery and enthusiasm for the sport. It is estimated that he did "blow-by ...

Ted Husing Edward Britt Husing (November 27, 1901 – August 10, 1962) was an American sports commentator. He was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on radio and television. Overview Early life an ...

and

Bill Stern Bill Stern (July 1, 1907 – November 19, 1971) was an American actor and sportscaster who announced the nation's first remote sports broadcast and the first telecast of a baseball game. In 1984, Stern was part of the American Sportscaste ...

. The

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

inducted McNamee in 2011. On December 9, 2015, McNamee was named the 2016 recipient of the

by the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United St ...

, presented during the Hall's induction weekend in July.

Cultural references

McNamee is portrayed by actor

Dayton Lummis Dayton Lummis (August 8, 1903 – March 23, 1988) was an American film, television and theatre actor. He was perhaps best known for playing the role of General Douglas MacArthur in the 1955 film '' The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell''. Lummis ...

in '' The Winning Team'', the 1952 film biography of

Grover Cleveland Alexander Grover Cleveland Alexander (February 26, 1887 – November 4, 1950), nicknamed "Old Pete" and "Alexander the Great", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played from 1911 through 1930 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, an ...

References

Notes

: "The batter just hit a long fly to right field for a sacrifice out. The baserunner safely advanced from second to third." : "With no outs and a runner on second, the manager will call for a sacrifice fly. The pitcher looks over his shoulder at second, turns, takes his stance, and delivers. It is a fastball, hit cleanly into deep right field. The fielder is backpeddling rapidly, and the runner is holding at second. He makes the catch, one out. The runner takes off for third. Here comes the throw, the runner slides, and is SAFE! The crowd cheers wildly. The play was beautifully executed."

External links

*
Graham McNamee
Ford C. Frick Award biography at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame: Remembering... Graham McNamee
* ttps://sabr.org/journal/article/graham-mcnamee-broadcast-pioneer/ Society for American Baseball Research: Graham McNamee: Broadcast Pioneer
Graham McNamee recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:McNamee, Graham 1888 births 1942 deaths 20th-century American people American horse racing announcers American male journalists American people of Irish descent American radio journalists American radio sports announcers American boxing commentators Burials at Mount Calvary Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio) College football announcers Ford C. Frick Award recipients Infectious disease deaths in New York (state) Major League Baseball broadcasters Mass media people from Saint Paul, Minnesota Motorsport announcers NFL announcers NBC network announcers Radio and television announcers Radio personalities from Minnesota Radio personalities from New York City Radio personalities from Washington, D.C. American tennis commentators