Bob Wolff, a sports broadcaster for eight decades who interviewed both Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter, died Sunday in South Nyack, N.Y., at age 96, his family told the New York Times.
He was a broadcaster at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for more than 50 years, calling Rangers and Knicks games including the latter team’s two NBA titles.
And in a storied career that began in radio and spanned the cable TV era, he was on hand to describe some of the most seminal moments in 20th century sports history, including Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series and the classic 1958 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts.
“If you added all the time up, I’ve spent about seven days of my life standing for the national anthem,” Wolff once said, according to the New York Times.
He was a broadcaster at Madison Square Garden for more than 50 years, calling Rangers and Knicks games, which included the Knicks’ two NBA titles.
The Knicks released a statement on his death Sunday evening.
“Bob Wolff was not only one of the seminal figures in American sportscasting, but he was a part of the very fabric of Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers for more than six decades,” the Knicks said in a statement released on Sunday.
“In addition to leaving behind an unmatched body of work, his spirit carries on in hudnreds of broadcasters he mentored and the millions of fans he touched. His legacy will live forever.”
There are not many men who can say they interviewed Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter, but Bob Wolff was one of them. @Yankees #RIPBobWolff pic.twitter.com/iXZ9DQG4w2
— Kevin Maher (@KMaherNews12) July 16, 2017