Nantz Shanked Shot on Course, but Not in Broadcast Booth

It’s interesting how things work out sometimes.

Jim Nantz might be working as a civil engineer today rather than preparing to announce the Final Four for CBS had he never played golf at the Woodlands outside Houston in the summer of 1977.

Nantz had just graduated from Marlboro High in New Jersey. A year earlier, his parents had moved to Houston, where his father started a wholesale furniture business. Jim stayed behind in Colts Neck, N.J., near Marlboro, living with a friend. He didn’t want to miss his senior year at Marlboro High, where he became co-captain of the basketball team and captain of the golf team.

After graduating, Nantz joined his parents in Houston, where he met Ron Weber, the pro at the Woodlands. Weber was impressed enough with Nantz’s golf game to put in a call to his friend, Dave Williams, the golf coach at the University of Houston. Williams invited Nantz to join the team as a walk-on.

“I was planning to attend the University of Texas in Austin and major in civil engineering,” Nantz recalled from his home in Westport, Conn. “But then I started dreaming about becoming a professional golfer.”

Houston was the place to go. Williams was known for producing national champions and sending players to the PGA Tour.

Nantz’s freshman class included current pros Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister.

“I shared a suite with Fred and Blaine in the athletic dorm,” Nantz said. “Suite may sound pretty impressive, but it simply meant they shared the same bathroom with me and my roommate, John Horn (who had a brief pro career).”

Because Houston had so many good golfers, Nantz got to play in only one competition--a one-day freshman tournament at Clear Lake City, Tex.

Nantz, to his surprise, found himself leading at one under par after 11 holes.

Then, on the 12th tee, came a fateful shot. “I hit the worst golf shot I’ve ever hit,” Nantz said.

He shanked it so bad it went behind one of his playing partners. “It went right over the ball washer,” Nantz said.

Nantz ended up back in the pack with a 77. He also ended up realizing a pro career was an unrealistic dream.

During his sophomore year at Houston, some of Nantz’s friends suggested sportscasting as a career. Now he had a new dream but was unsure what to do about it.

In the spring of 1979, Nantz, Couples, McCallister and Horn watched an early round of the Houston Open at the Woodlands.

“We saw the NBC trucks there, and someone said I should go over there and ask for a job,” Nantz said.

“Yeah, right,” Nantz thought.

But the group went over, and Nantz knocked on a door.

“Someone came to the door and asked if he could help us,” Nantz said. “The only name I knew was Don Ohlmeyer (then the executive producer of NBC Sports), so I asked to see him.

“The guy said, ‘And who may I say is asking for him?’ I said, ‘Jim Nantz.’ ”

To Nantz’s astonishment, Ohlmeyer showed up at the door.

This is hardly recommended protocol, but Nantz’s boldness paid off. Ohlmeyer ended up using him as a volunteer runner the rest of the tournament, and also used him as a paid runner the next weekend at the Byron Nelson tournament in Dallas.

Through contacts Nantz made at those tournaments, he was able to land a low-level job with 50,000-watt Houston radio station KTRH, where such people as Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather got their starts. KABC’s Steve Edwards was another.

Nantz quickly moved up the ladder at KTRH and was soon doing a weekend sports talk show. “I don’t think my listeners realized I lived in a college dorm,” Nantz said.

Nantz graduated from Houston in 1981, joined KTRH full time and also worked for the Mutual Radio Network, along with being the public address announcer for University of Houston sports.

In December 1982, he went to Salt Lake City and KSL-TV.

“Television was what interested me the most, and, also, I was working so much in Houston, I really had no personal life,” Nantz said.

While in Salt Lake City, Nantz married his high school sweetheart, Lorrie.

In 1985, Nantz, then 26, was called by CBS and asked to audition for the job as the host of the network’s college football scoreboard show. Nantz was chosen for the job from about 100 who auditioned.

For Nantz, who will turn 32 on May 17, it’s the Final Four this weekend, then the Masters in two weeks. Not a bad parlay.

He has been the host of CBS’ Masters coverage since 1989, and has worked the tournament since 1986.

“To be in the Butler cabin when Jack Nicklaus came in as the winner in ‘86, well, that’s a career highlight that probably will never be topped,” he said.

“I’ve been very fortunate. No one knows that more than me.”

Nantz’s rise to the top of his profession has been swift, but he remains personable and well liked by those who know him.

“He’s the nicest guy in the world,” said former Houston sportswriter and current Times staffer Thomas Bonk, a longtime friend.

Nantz did something for Bonk a year ago that helps illustrate what kind of person Nantz is.

Rudy Martzke of USA Today, in writing about Nantz, credited him with coming up with the Phi Slama Jama nickname for the 1983 Houston basketball team. Actually, Bonk was the originator of the tag.

No big deal, but Nantz felt so bad about the mistake, he made a correction on national television.

“I just didn’t want Tommy, or anybody, to think I was taking credit for something I didn’t do,” Nantz said.

TV-Radio Notes

The Kings’ telecast on Channel 5 Sunday, the first on regional television in six years, got an impressive 5.0 Nielsen rating, the second highest sports rating in Los Angeles that day. Only the Duke-Connecticut NCAA tournament game on CBS did better, with a 5.9. The earlier NCAA regional final, North Carolina-Temple, got a 4.1; the Detroit-San Antonio NBA game on NBC got a 4.2, and the World League of American Football game on ABC got a 3.1. . . . Although Channel 5 hopes to televise 10 to 20 King games next season, Roy Mlakar, the Kings’ executive vice president, said no deal will be completed until after the season. However, Channel 5 is saying it already has a deal. Said Mlakar: “Our first loyalty would be to Channel 5.”

ESPN will televise the Sports Emmy Awards show from New York Wednesday at 6 p.m. Dennis Miller of “Saturday Night Live” will be the host, and presenters will include Dennis Conner, Jerry Glanville, Warren Moon, Raghib (Rocket) Ismail, Bernard King, Rick Pitino, Florence Griffith Joyner and Mary Decker Slaney. Also appearing will be actors Dabney Coleman, Dennis Hopper and George Wendt, singers Randy Travis and Glenn Frey, and model Cheryl Tiegs. Finalists in the host/play-by-play category are Dick Enberg, Greg Gumbel, Chris Berman, Jim McKay and Bob Costas. Finalists in the analyst category are Dan Dierdorf, Dick Vermeil, Tim McCarver, Joe Theismann and John Madden. ABC leads in nominations with 35. CBS is next with 22. ESPN has 21 nominations, NBC 15. New shows: Golfweek, a national weekly golf newspaper, launches a new show by the same name today on Prime Ticket at 12:30 p.m. Golfweek columnist Bob Russo is the host of the show, scheduled for a 26-week run. . . . A relatively new show is “Tennis Magazine,” Fridays on Prime Ticket. It’s on at 4:30 p.m. today. Carl Foster is the host and co-producer. . . . “This Week in the WLAF”--no kidding--will be on Prime Ticket Saturday at 12:30. The show, dealing with the new World League of American Football, should be worth a look since it is produced by NFL Films. . . . For soccer fans, “Just for Kicks,” is scheduled for a 10-week run on ESPN, beginning Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.

Radio talk: Gabe Kaplan’s “Sportsnut” show on KLAC Monday, which will be on before and after the national radio coverage of the NCAA championship game, will originate from Carroll O’Connor’s Place in Beverly Hills. . . . XTRA will have Steve Hartman reporting from Indianapolis. . . . Billy Packer and Dick Vitale will be among Lee Hamilton’s guests on XTRA tonight. . . . Tex Schramm will discuss the difficulties in starting the WLAF on XTRA’s new show, “The Business of Sports,” Sunday at 8 a.m. . . . Last add XTRA: The station recently made a three-year deal to broadcast San Diego State sports. . . . Beginning tonight, KORG will carry speedway motorcycle racing from the Orange County Fairground Friday nights from 8:30 to 10:30.