Chris Schenkel

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Christopher Eugene Schenkel (August 21, 1923 – September 11, 2005) was an American sportscaster.

Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.

Personal life and death

He was married to former dancer and model, Fran Paige.

Schenkel had three children, Christina, Ted, and John. He also has three grandchildren, Christopher, Michael, and Katie.

Chris resided on Tippecanoe Lake in Leesburg, Indiana.

In 1971, Schenkel, a longtime friend of Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman, was a passenger in the pace car for that year's Indianapolis 500 race. Astronaut John Glenn and Hulman were also in the car when its driver, Indianapolis-area Dodge dealer Eldon Palmer, crashed the 1971 Dodge Challenger convertible into a camera platform at the beginning of the race.

Schenkel died of emphysema in 2005 at the age of 82. He is interred at Saint Johns United Church of Christ Cemetery in Bippus, Indiana.

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Early life and career

Schenkel was born in Bippus, Indiana, on August 21, 1923 to second-generation immigrant parents. He was one of six children. He began his broadcasting career at WBAA while enrolled in a premedical degree at Purdue University, where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. He served in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War. He worked in radio for a time at WLBC in Muncie, Indiana. Then converted to television in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1947, the Harvard football games were announced. He competed at the Thoroughbred horse races in Narragansett Park for six years, as well as local radio.

Schenkel was hired by the DuMont Television Network in 1952, and the network's primary boxing announcer replaced Dennis James. Schenkel was at the microphone for DuMont's last broadcast and only color television broadcast, a high school football championship game played on Thanksgiving in 1957.

He began to call Giants games in 1956, when DuMont left the network television market, as well as boxing, Triple Crown horse racing, and The Masters golf tournament. Schenkel and Chuck Thompson called the 1958 NFL Championship Game for NBC. He was the voiceover artist on the first NFL Films film ever made, the 1962 NFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants.

Schenkel was hired by ABC Sports in 1965, and the Summer and Winter Olympic Games were shown on television. He began reporting pro bowling for the Professional Bowlers Association, mainly for the Professional Bowlers Association (with the Professional Bowlers Tour being introduced). He covered bowling from the 1960s to 1997, making it one of ABC's most popular Saturday afternoon pastimes. Billy Welu (through 1974) and Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr. (1975-1997), Jr. (1975–97). Schenkel and his broadcast staff added to a sport that is not normally thought of by a television audience. Pro Bowlers Tour dominated college football and college basketball in the ratings from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many viewers viewed bowling on Saturday afternoons, leading to ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Schenkel was sent away from ABC during his 36 years on The Professional Bowlers Tour for several weeks to cover other obligations. Interestingly, he was off duty for the first three of the PBA's televised 300 games. Given that Schenkel was in the broadcast booth for three televised 299 games in the 1970s, a light-hearted discussion among the PBA faithful revealed that Schenkel was a "curse" for anyone with a desire to shoot a perfect game on television. In the first match of the Greater Los Angeles Open, Houstonian Pete McCordic bowled one on January 31, 1987, he would call a televised 300 game. Schenkel told McCordic that it had been a good time for him because he was away all the time. For five more televised 300 games, Schenkel will be in the ABC booth. Schenkel was also away for the first time on television by Mark Roth.

Charlie Robbins, a businessman from Georgia Southern University, honoured Schenkel by establishing in his name, a golf scholarship, and the "Chris Schenkel Intercollegiate Golf Tournament," which features some of the best college golf teams in the country. Schenkel was in the service near Statesboro during WW II and was then known as Georgia Teacher's College (1930-1958). Today, there are a few books in the School's library, with Schenkel's name as the one checking out the library book. The Schenkel Tournament ended after the 1989 tournament was discovered that the golf club hosting the tournament was all-white, but the E-Z-Go Schenkel Invitational was revived in 1999. This college tournament is regarded as one of golf's finest intercollegiate tournaments in the East.

Chris Schenkel played by-play (with Bud Wilkinson providing color commentary) for the infamous 1969 Texas vs. Arkansas football match, which is also known as a "Game of the Century" in 1969, marking the first 100 years of College Football. The game saw a 52.1 percent share, implying that more than half of the televisions in the United States had been tuned in. "It was the most exciting, most important college football game I've ever televised," Schenkel said. Schenkel continued to air many more big games, including the coveted Nebraska-Oklahoma match on Thanksgiving Day 1971, as well as the Sugar Bowl national championship matchdown between Notre Dame and Alabama on New Year's Eve 1973 (with Wilkinson and Howard Cosell in a rare college football game). In 1974, Keith Jackson was named as ABC's lead play-by-play man for college football telecasts, but college football games continued to be broadcast for many years.

He was the spokesperson for Owens-Illinois' "Good Taste of Beer" advertising campaign, which began in 1975 and continued through the decade.

He received the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award in 1975.

In 1976, Schenkel was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in the "Meritorious Service" category, and in 1988, he was inducted into the American Bowling Congress (now the United States Bowling Congress) Hall of Fame, also in the "Meritorious Service" category.

Schenkel was inducted in 1981 in the National Sportswriters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

He has been named National Sportscaster of the Year four times, and Emmy Award in 1992 was given to him in recognition for his lifetime achievement. The Pro Football Hall of Fame awarded Schenkel with the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 1992. He received the Jim Thorpe Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

The National Football Foundation established an award in his honour in 1996, which is distributed annually to outstanding individuals in television broadcasting with ties to a university.

After Schenkel, the Professional Bowlers Association named Player of the Year award in 1999.

The American Sports Association ranked Schenkel 25th on its list of the Top 50 Sportscasters of All-Time in a 2009 poll conducted by its members.

Comedian Chris Hardwick (son of former pro-bowler Billy Hardwick) claimed he was named after Schenkel in a 2010 podcast.

Fran Paige, a former dancer and model, was married to him.

Christina, Ted, and John were three children in Schenkel's three children. Christopher, Michael, and Katie are three children, as well as three grandchildren.

Chris spent his time in Leesburg, Indiana, on Tippecanoe Lake.

Schenkel, a long-time friend of Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman, was a passenger in the Indianapolis 500 race in 1971. At the start of the race, astronom John Glenn and Hulman were also in the car when its driver, Eldon Palmer of the Indianapolis area, crashed the 1971 Dodge Challenger convertible into a camera platform.

Schenkel died of emphysema at the age of 82 in 2005. He is laid to rest at Saint Johns United Church of Christ Cemetery in Bippus, Indiana.

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