Legendary sports broadcaster Greg Gumbel dies at 78 [Video]

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Legendary sports broadcaster and former Chicagoan Greg Gumbel has died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.

CBS Sports and Gumbel’s family announced the news Friday afternoon. In a statement issued to social media, CBS Sports President & CEO David Berson called Gumbel “a tremendous broadcaster and gifted storyteller,” adding, “there has never been a finer gentleman in all of television.”

Gumbel, along with his younger brother and fellow prolific journalist Bryant Gumbel, grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from De La Salle Institute. He even began his television broadcasting career in Chicago, working for several years in the mid to late 70s at Channel 5- NBC Chicago as a sports reporter and anchor.

Gumbel subsequently left for New York and a job at the sports cable network MSG.

He would soon launch a national career at ESPN, CBS and NBC as a play-by-play …