Bill MacPhail

William "Bill" Curtis MacPhail (March 25, 1920 – September 4, 1996) was a television sports executive.

MacPhail was born in Columbus, Ohio, son of Larry MacPhail, a baseball executive and innovator. He was a graduate of Swarthmore College and served in the United States Navy. His brother was longtime baseball executive Lee MacPhail, and Larry and Lee MacPhail are both members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.Andy MacPhail, also a baseball executive, is his nephew.

MacPhail worked his way up in the front office of several minor league teams. He was traveling road secretary for the New York Yankees in 1946 and then worked for eight years for three minor league teams before becoming director of publicity for the Kansas City Athletics in 1955. CBS hired him the following year.

MacPhail was a former President of CBS Sports, where he worked from 1956-1973. Afterwards he was associated with Bob Wold, a satellite sports pioneer, and then brought to CNN by Reese Schonfeld to create the CNN Sports department in 1980 upon its launch, which he ran until retiring from CNN in 1995. While at CBS Sports, MacPhail is credited with implementing instant replay for the first time in sports — during the Army-Navy Game of 1963.

MacPhail is known for hiring famous broadcasting talent. He introduced a number of sportscasters nationally, including Chris Schenkel, Jim McKay, Dan Patrick, Phil Griffin and Keith Olbermann. He hired former New York Giants kicker Pat Summerall as a sportscaster at CBS. He also hired Frank Gifford,Jack Buck, and golf producer Frank Chirkinian.

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