Name |
Bryant Gumbel |
Height |
5' 9" |
Naionality |
American |
Date of Birth |
29 September 1948 |
Place of Birth |
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
Famous for |
|
Bryant Charles Gumbel (born September 29, 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana), is an American television personality for news and sports programs. He is best known as a former anchor of the Today Show, a morning news and entertainment program on the NBC television network. He is the brother of veteran sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel.
Bryant Gumbel began his television career in October of 1972, when he was named a sportscaster for KNBC-TV out of Los Angeles. He first worked for NBC Sports in the fall of 1975 as co-host of its NFL pre-game show Grandstand with the late Jack Buck.
From 1975 until January of 1982 (when Gumbel left to do the Today Show) Gumbel hosted numerous sporting events for NBC including of Major League Baseball, NCAA basketball, and the National Football League. Gumbel returned to sportscasting for NBC when he hosted the prime time coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul and the PGA tour in 1990.
After stepping down from the Today Show in 1997, Gumbel moved on to CBS, where he hosted various shows before becoming the co-host of the network's morning show "The Early Show" on November 1, 1999. Gumbel left The Early Show in 2002 and is currently concentrating mostly on his duties as host of HBO's investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (a show that he has hosted since 1995).
Bryant Gumbel earned a liberal arts degree from Bates College and has honorary doctorates from Bates, Xavier, Holy Cross, Providence College and Clark Atlanta University.
Having grown up in Chicago, Gumbel has acknowledged being a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. In 2003, Gumbel was interviewed on the ESPN special The Babe and the Billy Goat: Reverse the Curse.