Ross Porter (sportscaster)

Ross Porter (born November 29, 1938) is an American sportscaster, known for his 28-year tenure (1977-2004) as a play-by-play announcer for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.

Porter was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1955, then went on to earn a radio journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma. His broadcasting career began at age 14 when he broadcast a few innings in several games involving Shawnee's Class D baseball team, the Hawks, a Los Angeles Dodgers farm club, over KGFF. At age 15, Porter was elevated to play-by-play man of the Shawnee Wolves' football and basketball broadcasts and the Hawks when the regular announcer resigned. At a high school football game one night, Ross was introduced by his father to the legendary Jim Thorpe.

After earning his college degree, Porter was hired by WKY radio in Oklahoma City as a newscaster. He also was a sports anchor for WKY-TV, and at age 24 became the youngest recipient of the Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year award, and the youngest state winner ever in the nation. Ross repeated the next year.

In 1966, at age 27, he left for Los Angeles and subsequently spent 10 years as a sportscaster for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. He worked alongside Tom Snyder on the 6 PM news and Tom Brokaw on the 11PM news. Porter won two local Emmys.

Porter worked for NBC Sports in the early 1970s, calling NFL football from 1970-76 and Pacific-8 college basketball from 1972-76. Porter had to give up his NBC assignments when he joined the Dodgers in 1977 due to an overlap in seasons. He later was the radio and television voice of UNLV Rebels football and basketball from 1978-92.

During the 1970s, Porter had been the television play-by-play announcer for the high school basketball Game of The Week on KNBC showing matchups between Los Angeles area teams. Former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax worked as a game analyst with Ross the first year.

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