The on-site coverage of the campaign 2025 Man’s March crazy selection performance
Gentleman, Greg Gumbel reached out to provide a warm handshake. Ernie Johnson answered…fist bumps?
Ten years later, Johnson still described the awkward communication as “so awkward” – which lasted about two seconds. For TV veteran Johnson, it feels like eternity. However, if two seconds or 20 seconds have to happen, it is agreed that no one else can handle it well except Gumbel.
For more than a quarter of a century, Gumbel has provided a calm attitude in the most chaotic sports calendar, from one exciting frustration to another big game. Each year, he starts the March madness on Sunday’s selection show and ends by throwing it to “a shining moment.”
“Through some shows, it’s all about ‘Let’s add a bunch of bells and whistles,” Johnson told sports. “But in Sunday’s choice, you just need a Greg Gumbel and a stand. There’s so much to play the show, but to be honest, you could have taken a camera shot once: It’s Greg, it’s brackets, go.”
The game is here again, which is since the legendary sports actor died on December 28 at the age of 78. Although he missed last March for the first time since he started in 1998 for undisclosed reasons (which people know about his illness), many hope he wants him to return to the studio this spring.
The tooth glue descriptions of those who know him best and work with him are flattering and varied: kind, elegant, soothing, charismatic, surprisingly fun. Most importantly, it cannot be changed.
Unless, of course, Charles Barkley is in the studio.
“When you can make Greg Gibel laugh,” Barkley told sports“That’s when you know you’re having a good time.”
Reports of CBS and Turner’s merger in 2011 brought TNT’s “internal NBA” crew to the NCAA Championship, allowing Barkley to relax college basketball fans and Gumbel.
“At first I would never forget that I wasn’t in the studio anymore, I went back to the call game, so I looked from the gym and I thought, ‘Oh my god, what happened?!” Basketball analyst Clark Kellogg recalled laughter during another lieutenant racing during the NCAA Championships, another midstream to the NCAA Championships. “When it became a little bit like a circus, the look on Greg’s face, you can tell he was frightened – but only when you work with him and know him, only. He is so adaptable, he handles it very well.”
Under Gumbel’s leadership, including Johnson and Clark, after moving back to the studio in 2014. The new group soon discovered a rhythm even if it continued to involve Barkley being Barkley. A particularly memorable playback moment: Gumbel answers Barkley’s strange story in uniform, smiling uncontrollably.
According to Gumbel’s daughter Michelle, her father likes the messy speed of March Madness and the fact that there is no script that can keep up with the “unstop action.” His widow Marcy points out that her husband appreciates the unpredictability of basketball, and that every spring, no matter what team ranks, if he calls their names in his Sunday choices, they will have “a chance to pursue their dreams.”
But tooth glue is not one of the most trustworthy and reassuring voices in college basketball. Barkley thinks he is the king whose father is joking. He liked the Rolling Stones with unparalleled enthusiasm and participated in more than 50 concerts. He despises golf. “It’s a stupid game,” he would tell anyone who would listen. “You walk around and chase the ball – that’s not a sport!” David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports, likes to describe it, and he has a “huge laugh” that recognizes the audience just like his authenticity and warmth on the camera.
He is a pioneer and rare talent. He is also a husband, father and grandpa.
CBS Sports’ first female director Suzanne Smith, who started working with Gumbel on football broadcasts since the early 1990s, said: “Greg has always been the coolest person in the room – he never knew it.”
Gumbel’s career achievements include being the first black contest announcer to host a major sporting event when he did so in 2001 on Super Bowl XXXV. He won three Emmys, anchored three Olympics on both networks, and led everything from the NFL to the NBA. Not that he once wanted to brag.
“He was an iconic pioneer in the field, but he was so interested in talking about it that you tend to forget it,” Kellogg said. “Even for me, it was a revelation, especially as a fellow black man. I forgot some of the pioneering things he did. Trust me, he won’t tell you.”
At CBS, Harold Bryant became the first black executive producer to oversee sports in any major broadcast network. Kobe studied how Gumbel handles himself as the “first” himself.
“He doesn’t want to be called a pioneer,” Bryant said. “He wants his existence to speak for himself, and I get a lot from it.
“He just said, ‘I want to be called the best of my craft.’ He always shows that anyone can do the job, and that’s not limited to one specific type of person. He’s not talking about breaking the mold.”
Barkley said Gumbel’s talent is always clear.
“As long as he is in the business and he is going to go from sports to sports, it’s not easy – you don’t have that career until you’re really good,” he said.
Despite sitting in the first chair, Gumbel never thought of focusing on him.
A few years ago, the Indianapolis Steakhouse was famous for its shrimp cocktails after calling the foals in St. Elmo. In the group, the waiting time was told was two, maybe three hours, and several people nudged the gumbel and suggested that he put down his name. After all, his photos hang on the wall of celebrities.
“He doesn’t want to attend,” Smith said. Afterwards, when the staff insisted on taking the photos next to him, he was mostly engraved with pain, asking his colleagues, “What are we doing? No one cares who I am!”
Smith said there are “voices from certain broadcasters” throughout the sports media. “Greg Gumbel is one of them. If he calls it, you know it’s an important, special event.”
Although almost everyone has been recognized on sports TV, Gumbel keeps postponing to teammates.
“He really likes to pave the way for others,” said CBS Sports President Berson. “It’s a big part of being such a great studio host because he’s been looking to kick off and make them look good.”
Gumbel learns how to subtly transition from one topic and analyst to another, smoothly passing the audience through the entire failure. Perhaps the best for everyone who works with him, he never had a rattle. The audience’s experience in the living room is the same thing the producer goes through in the production truck and in the scene.
This is the case regardless of the situation – the highlights don’t work, the promotion is not read correctly, or Barkley needs to correct it.
“When we left the track, Ernie was used to it,” Barkley said. “We do this with him about 20 times a year on TNT. But Greg only meets us once a year and he has to react in real time. Talent. He never seems to panic.”
Many people who worked with Gumbel talked about his ability to fight tension on the spot, although that was never done at the cost of others.
Kellogg calls him a “closet comedian.” Barkley recalls Gunbel joking about “10 dads every day, they’re terrible. You never know if you laugh because it’s funny or because they’re so nerdy.”
Although the work of dental glue revolves around sports, these stories are imprinted on the minds of colleagues, friends and family, about life and dialogue outside the court or field.
Greg Gumbel is a personal character, but his love for the Rolling Stones, his granddaughter Riley is no secret. (Provided by the Gumbel family)
Michael Gluc has been a Gumbel observer in the NFL game for more than two decades. They exchanged family stories and holiday cards during the offseason and signed in to each other. Gluc still keeps himself waiting for Gumbel’s regular email sharing of the second day dinner plan, any of these NFL cities.
“He loves stones, everyone knows that he sees them many times at concerts. For 24 years, I can’t tell him that I prefer the Beatles. “I don’t want to let him down.” ”
Gumbel was a CBS host at the 1992 Winter Olympics, who took off his plane in Albertville, France and noticed Smith was struggling. After breaking her feet, she couldn’t mess up her luggage. Gumbel, who hasn’t seen Smith, is eager to help.
“About 200 people got out of the car, and this guy is a superstar in CBS and ran over to help people he didn’t know,” Smith said.
In the 2011 final in Houston, Berson shared a car with Gumbel and a car with Reliant Stadium. Gumbel asked Berson about his interests outside of sports. After discovering that they prefer the same suspense writers like Vince Flynn, Harlan Coben and Sue Grafton, they all spent the entire riding trade book recommendations (Gumbel also recommended John Sandford and Lee Child).
However, there is no doubt that the real highlight of Gumbel’s life was born in 2012’s granddaughter Riley. Although Gumbel is a very personal person, many people at CBS were not diagnosed with cancer until shortly before their death – a topic he never came back was Riley.
“The pictures and videos are constantly coming,” Kellogg said.
Riley’s favorite memories of grandpa include dancing in the kitchen, telling knock-knock jokes, and insisting she is familiar with the Rolling Stones, too.
“He always sends me the songs he wants and I end up loving every song,” Riley wrote in an email sports. “Whenever I hear one of these songs on the radio, like ‘Brown Sugar’, I always think of him and how he communicates with me from above.”
A few years ago, Riley was in fifth grade, her school organized a morning show. When it was Riley’s turn to anchor, her parents recorded it and sent it to grandpa for feedback.
She is in front of the camera next time she is shining.
“I remembered everything he taught me,” she said. “Slowly speaking, pronunciation words, always smiling.”
As March Madness prompted this week, Gumbel’s absence will be felt. Michelle, who joined her first and fourth place in Houston in 2011 with her dad, proudly “watching him do the best he’s always done.”
“I’ve been lucky to have had the chance to grow up over the years,” Michelle said via email. “I’ll miss his dispatch so much after calling or hosting a game, and say goodbye to heart. Goodbye, so long.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / sports;Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today’s Network via Image)
