Howard Cosell

Howard William Cosell born Howard William Cohen, was an American sports journalist on American television. His abrasive personality and tendency to speak his mind, often in erudite terms unusual for a sportscaster, made him, according to one poll, both the most-liked and most-hated television reporter in the country.

Sourced

• This is Howard Cosell telling it like it is.
  • Catchphrase.

• Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston's not coming out! Sonny Liston's not coming out! He's out! The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world is Cassius Clay!
  • February 25, 1964, calling the victory of Cassius Clay (who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali) over Sonny Liston.

• Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis! He is beaten!
  • February 16, 1970, on ABC's Wide World of Sports , calling the first of two knockdowns scored by Joe Frazier over Jimmy Ellis in the fourth and final round of their world heavyweight title match.

• I think he hurt Joe Frazier. I think Joe is hurt...Angie Dundee, Ali's trainer right next to me is saying it, you may hear him--DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! The heavyweight champion is taking the mandatory eight count, and Foreman is as poised as can be in a neutral corner!
  • January 22, 1973, on ABC's Wide World of Sports , calling the first of six knockdowns scored by George Foreman over Joe Frazier during their world heavyweight title match.

• There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.
  • October 12, 1977, reporting a school fire (initially mistaken as a tenament fire), while announcing Game 2 of the 1977 World Series.

• He's ready to go. This must be stopped. It is a sad way to end...
• Legends die hard, and Ali is learning that even he cannot be forever young.
  • February 10, 1980, as Muhammad Ali, at the absolute twilight of his career, is pummeled by Larry Holmes in the ninth round of his penultimate fight.

• This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead ... on ... arrival.
  • Monday Night Football, December 8, 1980.

• I wonder if that referee is constructing an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he is a part of?
  • 1982, while announcing a particularly brutal boxing match.

• Look at that little monkey go.
  • September 1983, referring to wide receiver Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins; the statement was denounced as racist, but it was pointed out that Cosell had regularly used the same term to describe small players of all races.

• I'd never really wanted to become a lawyer. I guess the only reason I went through with it was because my father worked so hard to have a son who'd be a professional.
  • To Playboy interviewer Lawrence Linderman.

• I was infected with my desire, my resolve, to make it in broadcasting. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and how.
  • Cosell

• [T]hey wanted... another Joe Louis. A white man's black man... Didn't these idiots realize that Cassius Clay was the name of a slave owner? ... Had I been black and my name Cassius Clay, I damned well would have changed it!
  • Cosell

• I'm one helluva communicator.
  • I Never Played the Game.

About Howard Cosell

• Howard Cosell was a good man and he lived a good life. I have been interviewed by many people, but I enjoyed interviews with Howard the best. We always put on a good show. I hope to meet him one day in the hereafter. I can hear Howard now saying, 'Muhammad, you're not the man you used to be.' I pray that he is in God's hands. I will miss him.
  • Muhammad Ali

• He become a giant by the simple act of telling the truth in an industry that was not used to hearing it and considered it revolutionary. Every person working in sports journalism today owes a tremendous debt to Howard Cosell. His greatest contribution was elevating sports reporting out of daily play-by-play and placing it in the larger context of society.
  • Roone Arledge, former president of ABC News

• He rose to prominence during a time of drama and upheaval in sports. His style -- part journalist, part carnival barker -- made him unique.
  • Bob Costas

• He was loud, boisterous and extreme, but he really got people's attention and he was really bright.
  • Billie Jean King

• History will reflect that Howard Cosell was easily the dominant sportscaster of all time, and certainly the most famous.
  • Al Michaels, foreword, What's Wrong with Sports by Howard Cosell

• [A] broadcasting pioneer who changed the way people listen to and watch sports.
  • Shelby Whitfield, director of ABC radio sports, People magazine.

• Historian (showing Miles a tape of Howard Cosell): "At first we didn't know exactly what this was, but we've developed a theory. We feel that when citizens in your society were guilty of a crime against the state, they were forced to watch this."

Miles Monroe (Woody Allen): "Yes. That's exactly what that was."

• • An exchange in the film Sleeper (1973)