Bob Elson
| Bob Elson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 22, 1904 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | March 10, 1981 (aged 76) Chicago, Illinois |
| Occupation | Broadcaster |
| Known for | Broadcasts of Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox baseball games |
Robert A. Elson (March 22, 1904 – March 10, 1981) was a pioneering American sportscaster.
Born in Chicago, Elson got into broadcasting by accident. While vacationing in St. Louis in 1928, he took a tour of radio station KWK. A receptionist saw him among 40 men in line for an audition, and thought he was going to audition as well. He became a finalist, and was hired after a vote by listeners. A few days later, officials at Chicago's WGN heard about Elson's victory and wondered what a Chicago native was doing broadcasting for a St. Louis station. They quickly hired him. Starting in 1929, he began calling all the home games of the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Such double duty would be impossible today, but in those days the Cubs and White Sox almost never played at home on the same day and most teams "recreated" "away" games in the studio using telegraphed messages from the ballpark rather than sending out their broadcasting crew with the team for road play-by-play, to save money. In 1930, he called his first World Series for the Mutual Broadcasting System, the first of 12 in a row. He also called Chicago Bears football games in the 1930s and early 1940s.
An article in Radio and Television Mirror's December 1940 issue called Elson the top football announcer for Mutual.
In 1942, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served four years in World War II—a stint which earned him the nickname "The Ol' Commander." But none other than President and Commander-in-Chief Franklin D. Roosevelt himself had him called home to announce the 1943 World Series.
Also, when Major League Baseball began making annual films of the World Series in 1943, Elson was chosen to narrate them, and narrated the official World Series film from 1943 through 1948.
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