Jim Simpson, a legendary sportscaster whose credits included the radio call of the first Super Bowl, has died at the age of 88.
In addition to calling six Super Bowls and serving as an NFL play-by-play voice for 15 years, Simpson called the Major League Baseball All-Star game 16 times, the World Series six times and the Olympics 14 times, and he worked all four major championships in both golf and tennis.
Simpson was one of the first people hired to work at ESPN when it launched in 1979, and he and Dick Vitale called the network’s first college basketball game together. Simpson also called college football and United States Football League games for ESPN.
On Friday NFL Network will re-air Super Bowl I in its entirety for the first time ever, and it will be Simpson’s NBC Radio call that will provide the play-by-play.