Fantasy Came True for Sports Announcer

Dick Enberg announced his first sporting event as a youngster, alone on a field near his Canoga Park home, describing an imaginary game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Hollywood Stars of the old Pacific Coast League.

“I thought there was something wrong with that boy,” his mother recalled.

Five decades later, Enberg ranks as as one of television’s best-known voices, a winner of seven Emmy Awards whose familiar “Oh my!” has punctuated the action at championships ranging from the Super Bowl to Wimbledon. But turning his fantasy into reality took patience.

In the late 1950s, Enberg studied health sciences at Central Michigan University, then went to Indiana University for a master’s degree and doctorate in the field. He did some radio work on the side, calling play-by-play for $35 a game, but landed back at Cal State Northridge (then called Valley State College) as a teacher and assistant baseball coach.

Again, he found time to announce, working nights for a succession of Los Angeles radio and television stations.

In 1965, KTLA hired him as a full-time sportscaster with one proviso: The station president started him in the summer and suggested that he keep his teaching position in case he didn’t last through fall.

Not only did Enberg last, but he soon became the radio voice of the Rams and the television announcer for UCLA basketball games. The jump to national TV was not far off.

“I love what I do,” Enberg told The Times in 1993. “There’s no question there is something addictive about it. It’s like a narcotic.”