Irwin Elliot Shalek (May 7, 1915 – September 17, 1998), better known as Win Elliot, was an American

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

sportscaster and game show host. He was best known for his long tenures as a

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present In linguis ...

broadcaster of

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its ho ...

and NBA

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...

games and host of ''Sports Central USA'' on the CBS Radio Network. Elliot was the brother of movie and TV actor Biff Elliot.

Early life and broadcasting career

Elliot was born Irwin Elliot Shalek in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 square miles, Chelsea is the s ...

, and a graduate of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he played goalie for the Wolverines hockey club. In 1946, Elliot began a long run as Rangers radio and television broadcaster, an association that would last 24 years through the 1968-69 season. Later he called

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

matches on the NBC radio network during the 1950s decade. Elliot was also a game show host in his early career. From 1947 to 1949, he emceed '' Quick as a Flash'', a radio quiz program which featured drama segments with guest actors from radio detective shows. He went on to become a guest host with '' Beat the Clock'' and ''Win with a Winner'' on television. In September, 1958, Elliot replaced Jay Jackson as host of the TV version of the formerly popular quiz show ''

Tic-Tac-Dough ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, ''X'' or ''O'', on the board. Three versions were prod ...

'' for the last 13 weeks of its nighttime run. The program was taken off the air amid fallout from the quiz show scandals that had rocked the industry earlier in the year.

Career heyday

The final broadcast of ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' on December 29, 1958, also marked the last for Elliot on game shows. Soon he embarked on a full-time sports broadcasting career. In the mid-1960s, Elliot was the lead voice on " Schaefer Circle of Sports" broadcasts of Rangers and Knicks games, track and field and other events related to

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The ...

TV and later WOR TV. He also called the

1966 Stanley Cup Finals The 1966 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1965–66 season, and the culmination of the 1966 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Detroit Red Wings and the defending champion Montreal ...

for NBC, the first televised by an American network. All the while, Elliot broadcast horse racing events and conducted one of the early call-in

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comedy ...

talk shows on WCBS-AM in New York. Elliot then started anchoring ''Sports Central USA'' for CBS Radio, which he continued to do into the early 1980s. He also took part in several of the network's

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 World Series, 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The ...

broadcasts in the 1970s and 1980s.

Later years

Elliot died at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut on September 17, 1998 at the age of 83.

Notes

References

External links

Former Michigan goaltender, sportscaster leaves lasting legacy
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Win 1915 births 1998 deaths American game show hosts American horse racing announcers American radio sports announcers Bowling broadcasters Boxing commentators Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters New York Giants announcers New York Knicks announcers New York Rangers announcers People from Chelsea, Massachusetts University of Michigan alumni