Dick Enberg Net Worth: Legendary Sportscaster Dies At 82
Former sportscaster Dick Enberg died Thursday at the age of 82 at his home in La Jolla, San Diego. Engberg's daughter Nicole confirmed his death to media outlets.
She said her father was supposed to fly out to Boston to meet up with his family but never showed up.
"He was dressed with his bags packed at the door," Enberg’s wife said, Los Angeles Times reported. "We think it was a heart attack."
Enberg was born on Jan. 9, 1935, in Mount Clemens, Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University and went to pursue Masters and Doctorate degrees from Indiana University. He is survived by his wife Barbara Hedbring and six children - Alexander, Andrew, Nicole, Jennifer, and Ted.
Enberg’s net worth is estimated at $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Most of his life savings were accumulated during his long career as a sports broadcaster.
Surprisingly, Enberg started his career by working for just a dollar an hour at a radio station custodian in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. From weekend sports and disc jockey gigs that paid him a meager wage, Enberg moved on to doing high school and college football games.
Enberg initially started working for the CW-affiliated TV channel KTLA. While working in the news station, he said the most historically important sports event he covered was "The Game of the Century," where Houston beat Bruins’ in a 1968 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) basketball match, breaking the latter’s winning streak, according to Article Bio.
"That was the platform from which college basketball's popularity was sent into the stratosphere," Enberg said.
"The '79 game, the Magic-Bird game, everyone wants to credit that as the greatest game of all time That was just the booster rocket that sent it even higher ... UCLA, unbeaten; Houston, unbeaten. And then the thing that had to happen, and Coach Wooden hated when I said this, but UCLA had to lose. That became a monumental event," he added.
He became known for his famous catchphrases — "Oh my!" while commenting on games that could not be described in words and "Touch 'em all" when a team delivered home runs. Enberg joined NBC Sports in 1975 and covered sports events from the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), college football and basketball to the U.S. Open, the Breeders' Cup, the Olympic Games, the Wimbledon, and the French Open.
He moved onto to working as a broadcaster in 2000, where he covered NFL, college basketball, and the US Open. After four years, he was hired by ESPN, where he mainly focused on covering tennis.
Enberg retired in October 2016 after spending 60 years as a broadcaster. For his outstanding contribution to the world of sports broadcasting, he received 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. He also earned a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, UCLA named its Media Center in Pauley Pavilion after Enberg.
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