Trivia

Was openly against the hiring of ex-athletes for sportscasting roles solely based on their playing fame. He felt that many qualified candidates who never played sports were being unfairly overlooked for these positions. He used the term "jockocracy" to describe this.

Was said to be a very devout family man who never recovered from his wife's death.

Was a lawyer before becoming a sports announcer.

Son of Nellie (Rosenthal) and Isadore M. Cohen, an accountant. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant. His mother was born in Massachusetts, to Russian Jewish parents, and her own father was a rabbi.

Had a special friendship with boxer Muhammad Ali, which included being one of the first journalists to address him by his Islamic name after changing it from Cassius Clay.

On Dec. 8, 1980 at 11:30 pm while broadcasting a game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots on NFL Monday Night Football (1970), he was the first person to publicly announce the death of John Lennon. This was long before there was the Internet and 24-hour news channels. Concidentally, Lennon had appeared in the broadcast booth on NFL Monday Night Football (1970) exactly five years earlier (Dec. 8, 1975).

Inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.

Inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.

After his law career, he started out as a radio sports reporter before he was hired by ABC to cover sports for TV.

Ranked #5 by the American Sportscasters Association in its list of the Top 50 Sportscasters of All-Time (January 2009).

Uncle of NFL analyst and NFL Films producer Greg Cosell.

He co-wrote with Peter Bonventre a book called "I Never Played The Game" in which he coined the word "jockocracy" to describe how athletes were given announcing jobs that they had not earned.

In 1983, during a Monday Night Football matchup between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, he referred to Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett as a "little monkey." Following two months of intense public pressure, he resigned from the MNF broadcast team.

Inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1993 with Marty Glickman.

He was a frequent target of mockery by Mad Magazine.