Larry Nuber (November 29, 1948 – June 8, 2000) was an American

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience on a broadcast media programme or live event either on radio or television. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaki ...

, best known for his work on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

broadcasts of

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

and

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

races in the 1980s.

Before ESPN

Nuber graduated from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and was a lieutenant in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

from 1971 to 1974. In the late 1970s, he was an advertising account executive for WTHR Channel 13 in

Indianapolis, IN Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County. Indianapolis is situated in the state's central till plain region along the west fork o ...

. During his tenure at WTHR, Nuber met sportscaster

Paul Page Paul Page (born November 25, 1945) is an American motorsports broadcaster who is best known for serving as the play-by-play commentator for the Indianapolis 500 for a total of 50 years across radio and television. Page was the radio ''Voice of th ...

, which led to a career in broadcasting.

Announcing career

Nuber joined the new ESPN network in 1979 for their first motor sports telecast. Nuber and

Bob Jenkins Robert Francis Jenkins (September 4, 1947 – August 9, 2021) was an American television and radio sports announcer, primarily calling American open-wheel car racing, Indy car and NASCAR telecasts for ESPN/American Broadcasting Company, ABC and ...

called the race, a USAC event in Salem, IN. In 1984, Nuber helped start '' SpeedWeek'' on ESPN, a weekly auto racing news program. He co-hosted the show until 1989. During his years with the network, he also announced

and Thursday night "Thunder" USAC events. At the 1985

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. ...

Darlington Raceway Darlington Raceway is a egg-shaped oval track in Darlington, South Carolina. The track has hosted a variety of racing events since its inaugural season of racing in 1950; primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The venue has a capacity of 47,00 ...

, Nuber made one of his most memorable calls when

Bill Elliott William Clyde Elliott Sr. (born October 8, 1955), also known as "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville", "Million Dollar Bill", or "Wild Bill" is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the Superstar Racing Experienc ...

won the race and became the first winner of the

Winston Million Historic and prestigious races in NASCAR are often called Crown Jewels. Most commonly these races are the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and Southern 500. NASCAR also recognizes the Brickyard 400 as a Crown Jewel. During the Winston Million program, ...

. In addition to his work with ESPN, Nuber also worked on TNN and

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 ...

race broadcasts. During a 1989 "Thunder" broadcast on ESPN, an on-air dispute between Nuber and fellow announcer/former racer Steve Chassey led to their dismissal from the network.

Wynn's

Nuber was instrumental in bringing

Wynn's Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) is an American ''Fortune'' 500 company that produces engineered fasteners and components, equipment and consumable systems, and specialty products. It was founded in 1912 by Byron L. Smith and has built its growth ...

sponsorship into the ASA AC Delco Series during the early 1990s while working with TNN. Before his death, he managed every aspect of the Wynn's Racing Program.

Death

On June 8, 2000, Nuber was found dead at the age of 51 in his Indianapolis home by local police who received a call from family members that had not heard from him in several days. He died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

while working on his computer. Instead of flowers at his funeral, it was asked that donations be made to the Rich Vogler Scholarship Fund.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuber, Larry Motorsport announcers 1948 births 2000 deaths American sports announcers NASCAR people Ohio State University alumni People from Maumee, Ohio Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame