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College Football Sportscaster Keith Jackson Dies At Age 89

Jackson’s family did not specify a cause of death. His final game was the classic 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and USC.

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Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler are a good team, but I still have trouble not hearing Jackson call the Rose Bowl and the Game.

He might be best known for his “Whoa, Nelly!” exclamation, but he didn’t overuse it during games.

The Jackson that college football loyalists saw and heard was a down-home southerner who, much like ex-Los Angeles Dodgers sportscasting legend Vin Scully, had the ability to let his broadcasts breathe.

Those who didn’t know Jackson on such a personal level still felt an intimate connection to one of the industry’s all-time greats. Hi Keith!’ When Keith was in town, everybody took notice, because his presence meant it was the game of the day in college football.

Jackson leaves behind his wife Turi Ann, three grown children (Melanie, Lindsey, Christopher), and three grandchildren (Ian, Holly, Spencer).

“He was a farmer, he was a whistler”.

Over my almost 40 year career in the broadcast business, I have had the honor of working with a few people who deserved the title of an icon. “It was always about the kids on the field”. It was a fitting way for Jackson’s final broadcast assignment to send him off into retirement.

In his 56 years as a college football commentator, Jackson covered 15 Rose Bowls. Frank Gifford succeeded him the next year. Jackson did golf, boxing, NBA and college basketball, the USFL, an Evel Knievel jump and various forms of auto racing including the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Over a career of more than 50 years, Jackson’s Southern drawl and rhapsodic, folksy delivery was synonymous with some of college football’s most memorable moments.

He was born in the fall of 1928, a few months before California’s Roy Riegels acquired the lifelong nickname “Wrong Way” by returning a Georgia Tech fumble to the edge of the Bears’ end zone, where their quick-kick punt out of trouble was blocked for a safety.

Jackson retired in 2006 after 40 years with ABC. In 1958, he did the first live sports broadcast from the Soviet Union to the USA, a crew race between the University of Washington and a Soviet team. He joined ABC in 1966, where he would work for the rest of his career.

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Jackson was also a radio news correspondent with ABC News Radio. When swimmer Mark Spitz made Summer Olympics history by winning seven gold medals at Munich, in 1972, Jackson was there. Although he always had broadcasting aspirations, practicing calls to imaginary games, he finally got his chance at an actual broadcast while attending Washington State.

Keith Jacson was the voice of college football