1968
Brent Musburger’s broadcast career begins as Sports Director at Chicago’s WBBM-Radio and TV.  It was the start of a 22-year association with CBS.  Raised in Montana, the one-time minor league baseball umpire had attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and worked for the Chicago American (since defunct) as a sportswriter.

1973
Musburger begins calling NFL games for CBS Sports, often teamed with Tommy Mason, Bart Starr or Wayne Walker.

1975
Musburger is named host of CBS’ re-imagined and re-named NFL pregame show, The NFL Today, working with Irv Cross, Phyllis George and “Jimmy The Greek.”  In 15 years with Brent as host, the show was the standard bearer for the sports studio pre-game show.

For CBS, in addition to the NFL, he was host or play-by-play on the NCAA Final Four, tennis’ US Open, the NBA, the Masters, the Belmont Stakes and the College World Series. He also did baseball play-by-play for CBS Radio.

1976
Working for CBS alongside analyst Rick Barry, Musburger calls the NBA Finals, including the epic Game 5, a triple overtime classic between the Celtics and the Suns that some refer to as the greatest game ever played (Boston won 128-126).

1978
Musburger moves to Los Angeles as a sports anchor and, also, later the co-anchor of the evening news for KNXT-TV (now KCBS). His co-anchor for some of that time:  Connie Chung.  For a short period of time, Musburger anchored news and sports segments on the same newscast. He continued to anchor the news to 1980 even while becoming a larger part of CBS Sports.

1979
Made film acting debut in “Rocky II” and “The Main Event.”

1984
Musburger calls Doug Flutie’s famous “Hail Mary” as Boston College beats Miami 47-45.

1985
Musburger calls Villanova’s “perfect game” in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, a stunning 66-64 upset by an No. 8 seed over Georgetown, a No. 1 seed.

1990
Musburger joins ABC in May 1990, focusing on college football and basketball.  Over time, his assignments grew in number and variety, including for ESPN:  hosting and/or calling play-by-play for the NBA, college football (including seven BCS Championship Games) and basketball, golf, NASCAR and IRL races and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.  He called the Little League World Series from 2000-11.  He also hosted Super Bowl XXV’s pre-game and half-time shows as well as the 1991 Pan Am Games from Cuba.

Musburger has also been heard on ESPN Radio, beginning in October 1992.  He was the original host of its daily ESPN SportsBeat segments of news, interviews and commentaries, which premiered in January 1993, and for many years called NBA play-by-play, including The NBA Finals.

2010
Musburger calls the BCS Championship game in Glendale, Ariz., and Auburn wins the national championship 22-19 over Oregon with a 19-yard field goal as time expires.

2014
Musburger calls the BCS Championship Game at the Rose Bowl, where Auburn takes a 31-27 lead over Florida State with 1:19 remaining, but the Seminoles score a touchdown with 13 seconds to go for a 34-31 victory and the national championship.  It was the last of seven consecutive BCS Championship Games he called (first two on radio, last five on TV), bringing his trademark flair, folksiness and ability to convey the magnitude of the event, making memorable calls at big moments of the biggest games.

Musburger becomes the lead football play-by-play caller for the new SEC Network.  In the fall of 2016, his ESPN college basketball assignment focus shifts from Big 12 to SEC.

 

 

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