{"id":2609,"date":"2023-03-19T14:10:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2609"},"modified":"2023-03-21T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T18:45:15","slug":"at-home-in-houston-a-final-final-four-shining-moment-for-superstar-sportscaster-jim-nantz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/personalities\/2609\/at-home-in-houston-a-final-final-four-shining-moment-for-superstar-sportscaster-jim-nantz","title":{"rendered":"At Home in Houston: a Final, Final Four Shining Moment for Superstar Sportscaster Jim Nantz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jim<\/a>

Jim Nantz and fellow Houston Alum Jim Perry from Michigan with a glass of The Calling \u2013 Nantz\u2019s wine. Photo Credit: Harrison Shiels<\/p><\/div>\n

CBS Sportscaster Jim Nantz, the voice of the NCAA Final Four, the Masters Tournament, and the NFL\u2019s Super Bowl, also travels to 43 weeks’ worth of \u201cregular season\u201d sporting events across America each year.<\/p>\n

Nantz, a husband and father of three, broadcasts at the top level, produces The Calling wine label and creates the Vineyard Vines Jim Nantz apparel line in addition to performing speaking engagements. He even travels to put his feet up (sort of) at one of his family homes in Nashville, Pebble Beach and now Cabo, Mexico with his wife Courtney and well-traveled children young Finley, Jameson, plus his betrothed daughter Caroline, a Southern Cal alum.<\/p>\n

He was in Los Angeles to call the PGA Tour event at Riviera CC in February and was staying at the historic Beverly Wilshire – a Four Seasons Hotel at the top of glittering Rodeo Drive. I caught up with him there and a few blocks away at Nate-n-Al\u2019s, the deli where he once had breakfast with another member of broadcasting royalty Larry King. The late CNN talk monarch who was a regular there. Nantz was on his way to meet another television star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to Bel-Air Country Club to play golf with Al Michaels. Al plays every single day there; he basically lives there. I revere the man. He\u2019s had a stand-alone career,\u201d said Nantz of Michaels, the commentator who has provided live commentary for everything from the US Olympic hockey team\u2019s gold medal win at Lake Placid to O.J. Simpson\u2019s \u201cwhite bronco\u201d police chase. \u201cAl is in his mid-70\u2019s but he\u2019s got all the energy in the world. He looks great and sounds great. I consider him one of my closest friends in the entire business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nantz also lauded his enthusiastic NFL broadcast partner, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. \u201cI work with great people and there\u2019s not a better guy to be with than Tony Romo.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nantz said 2023 is the final time he will travel the \u201croad to the Final Four\u201d to call the NCAA Tournament games and championship. It\u2019s a trip he\u2019s taken for 37 years as host and then a play-by-play voice, calling 15 games in 23 days in multiple cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am just trying to get a little time back with my family,\u201d Nantz explained over eggs and blackened toast near Hollywood. \u201cThis is exactly the way I scripted out my \u2018exit \u2013 stage right\u2019 to close my college basketball career. The championship game is in Houston, where I went to school. It was my gateway city into the broadcasting industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nantz was the University of Houston student public address announcer for Cougar basketball games and hosted Coach Guy Lewis\u2019 television show. Michigan native Jim Perry, a Nantz classmate who played hoops for the Cougars, will be back in Houston… by Jim\u2019s side. (\u201cAlways by my Side\u201d is the title of Nantz\u2019s brilliant autobiographical book about his late father\u2019s love and support. His book recalls Nantz\u2019s other father figure \u2013 the late President George HW Bush \u2013 who lived half of the year in\u2026Houston.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWouldn\u2019t it be something if my last basketball call was a national championship for the program that gave me my entrance into the business? My alma mater could win that game!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That \u201cshining moment\u201d (the broadcast\u2019s closing musical montage video narrated by Nantz) will give way to an annual curtain call for Nantz each year. The NCAA and CBS will bring him back annually to present the championship trophy. \u201cNext year I will hang around the edges and bring my kids to Phoenix for the weekend. I\u2019ll present the trophy on Monday night and head straight to Augusta to call the Masters Tournament,\u201d he explained.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nantz starts each of his broadcasts with his signature greeting, \u201cHello, Friends.\u201d He told me he just signed a new long-term deal with CBS so it will be a long time before he says \u201cgoodbye\u201d to broadcasting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve still got golf and the NFL to do for years and years to come,\u201d he insisted. \u201cIt\u2019s all a blessing. I\u2019m surrounded by a lot of great friends at CBS and people I have met along the way, like you, who are treasured friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to the Final Four or Houston, just as in Beverly Hills, which actually has two Four Seasons properties, Houston\u2019s Four Seasons Hotel is a social landmark. The iconic hotel opened in 1982\u2014the year Nantz left Houston to take on the rest of the broadcasting world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at <\/span><\/i>MShiels@aol.com<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 His radio program may be found at MiBigShow.comor weekday mornings from 9-noon on WJIM AM 1240<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conversation with sportscaster, Jim Nantz, on his final call of the Final Four<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[360916,4148,1028442,1023756],"class_list":["post-2609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personalities","tag-jim-nantz","tag-final-four","tag-houston","tag-four-seasons-hotel-houston"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2023\/03\/Michael-Shiels.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions\/2620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}