Race Caller - History

History

Among the earliest prominent race callers was Clem McCarthy. According to the book Sports on New York Radio, McCarthy was hired in 1927 as the first track announcer at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois, the first Thoroughbred racetrack with a public-address system. He later gained national fame calling important horse races for the NBC Radio Network, including the Kentucky Derby, starting in 1929.

Other prominent race callers were early sportscasters Ted Husing, Bill Stern, and Marty Glickman, all of whom called horse racing and track-and-field events during their careers.

The best-known horse-race callers since the dawn of the television age have been Chic Anderson, Dave Johnson, Trevor Denman and Tom Durkin. All four gained acclaim not only as public-address announcers but network sportscasters, providing pre-race analyses and features for national fans as well as the race calls.

Other prominent horse-race callers of recent decades & present day include Marshall Cassidy, Cawood Ledford, Fred Capposella, Luke Kruytbosch, Michael Wrona, Joe Hernandez, Frank Mirahmadi, Larry Collmus (Monmouth & Gulfstream), John Dooley (Arlington & Fair Grounds), Peter Berry (Mountaineer Park), Phil Georgeff, John Imbriale (NYRA), Ken Warkentin (Meadowlands), Ken Vick (Waterford Park), Kurt Becker (Keeneland), John Lies (Lone Star), Vic Stauffer (Hollywood Park), Mike Battaglia (Turfway), Joshua Brown (Backup at Charles Town, Penn National. Calls at Rosecroft and Ocean Downs) and Terry Wallace who retired from Oaklawn. Terry also called 20,000 races in a row at his present track. Harness-racing fixtures are Ken Middleton (Woodbine/Mohawk), Larry Lederman (Freehold), Bullet Bob Meyer, Roger Huston (The Meadows), Jack E. Lee, and Sam McKee (The Meadowlands), while Shannon 'Sugar' Doyle (Northlands) calls both thoroughbred and harness racing full time.

In New England, at Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park, a legendary announcer named Babe Rubenstein called races for decades, starting in the 1930s. Rubenstein, it was said, never miscalled a race. He was working at Rockingham Park on the day of the 1938 hurricane, when the winds are said to have blown off the broadcast booth from the top of the grandstand. An often told story in the 1950s had it that Babe was contacted by one networks, for possible employment on a national level, as opposed to his work in New England. The story went that as part of the proposed contract Babe would have to change his name. He refused, saying, "I was born Babe Rubenstein and I will die Babe Rubenstein." Jim Hannon was another prominent race caller in New England.

In track and field, one of the most prominent race callers is Tom Hammond of NBC Sports, who also anchors the network's horse-racing coverage.