Bob Trumpy
Encyclopedia
Bob Trumpy is a former professional American Football
tight end
who played for the American Football League
's Cincinnati Bengals
from 1968 to 1969, and for the NFL Bengals from 1970 through 1977. He is currently an analyst for CBS Radio Sports/Westwood One
.
in 1967, Trumpy was selected by the Bengals in the 12th round (301st overall) of the 1968 Common Draft
. Despite his low draft selection, Trumpy worked hard in the offseason and managed to earn the starting tight end spot in the team's lineup. He didn't disappoint in his rookie season, recording 37 receptions for 639 yards and 3 touchdowns, and earning a place on the AFL Western Division All-Star
team. In 1969, Trumpy was selected by The Sporting News as the AFL's All-League tight end
.
The following year, Trumpy had the best season of his career, catching 37 passes for 835 yards (a franchise record 22.6 yards per catch average) and 9 touchdowns. In a game against the Houston Oilers, Trumpy became the first Bengals tight end ever to record 3 touchdown receptions in a single game, assisting his team to a 31-31 tie.
, earning 2 trips to the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl in 1970 and 1973. In his final season, he caught only 18 passes for 251 yards and 1 touchdown, but his touchdown was one of the most memorable plays of his career. In a November 20 game against the Miami Dolphins
during a driving rainstorm, Trumpy caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ken Anderson on a flea flicker
play that involved 3 different players handling the ball before it was thrown to him. First, Anderson handed the ball off to running back Archie Griffin
, who then pitched the ball to receiver John McDaniel
running in the opposite direction. McDaniel then handed the ball back to Anderson, setting up his 29-yard touchdown pass to Trumpy. The Bengals went on to defeat the Dolphins 23-17, knocking them out of playoff contention. "It was magic", said Trumpy about the play,
, he joined NBC
and worked with Jim Simpson
. He would later team with Don Criqui
(as well as Bob Costas
before Costas moved over to a studio anchor position for NBC in 1984
) from 1982
-1988
. In 1992
, he became lead color commentator (replacing Bill Walsh) alongside Dick Enberg
until 1995
(when NBC went to a three man booth with Paul Maguire
and Phil Simms
replacing him). The team of Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy called Super Bowls XXVII
(1993) and XXVIII
(1994). He would then be paired with Tom Hammond
(1995
-1996
) and Charlie Jones
(1997
) until NBC lost football (the American Football Conference
package to be more specific) to CBS
after the 1997 season
.
Trumpy hosted a week night sports talk show
on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio
from 1980-1989. He left the show to be able to work more assignments at NBC Sports
, including PGA Tour
golf and the Olympics
. He was replaced on the sports talk show by Cris Collinsworth
.
He currently works an analyst for CBS Radio Sports/Westwood One
on Sunday Night Football
, and has been with the network since 2000
(save for the 2005 season
, where he was replaced by John Riggins
), and also does programming for WLW-AM radio. With Westwood One he was most frequently paired with Joel Meyers
.
During the first round of the 2006-07 NFL playoffs, Trumpy and Enberg were in the broadcast booth together for the first time since the 1994 AFC Championship Game, covering the Colts
-Chiefs
game for Westwood One. They were paired again for the Patriots
-Chargers
game the following weekend.
.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
tight end
Tight end
The tight end is a position in American football on the offense. The tight end is often seen as a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like offensive linemen, they are usually lined up on the offensive line and are large enough to be...
who played for the American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
's Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
from 1968 to 1969, and for the NFL Bengals from 1970 through 1977. He is currently an analyst for CBS Radio Sports/Westwood One
NFL on Westwood One
The NFL on Westwood One is the brand name given to weekly National Football League games carried on the radio over the Dial Global Radio Network...
.
Playing career
After graduating from the University of UtahUniversity of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
in 1967, Trumpy was selected by the Bengals in the 12th round (301st overall) of the 1968 Common Draft
Common Draft
The Common Draft was the name given to the selection of college football players in a combined draft from 1967 to 1969 by the American Football League and the National Football League . This took place after the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966....
. Despite his low draft selection, Trumpy worked hard in the offseason and managed to earn the starting tight end spot in the team's lineup. He didn't disappoint in his rookie season, recording 37 receptions for 639 yards and 3 touchdowns, and earning a place on the AFL Western Division All-Star
American Football League All-Star games
-All-League Teams:The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
team. In 1969, Trumpy was selected by The Sporting News as the AFL's All-League tight end
American Football League All-League Teams
The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
.
The following year, Trumpy had the best season of his career, catching 37 passes for 835 yards (a franchise record 22.6 yards per catch average) and 9 touchdowns. In a game against the Houston Oilers, Trumpy became the first Bengals tight end ever to record 3 touchdown receptions in a single game, assisting his team to a 31-31 tie.
1977
Trumpy continued to play for the Bengals until 19771977 NFL season
The 1977 NFL season was the 58th regular season of the National Football League. The Seattle Seahawks were placed in the AFC West while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were slotted in the NFC Central....
, earning 2 trips to the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl in 1970 and 1973. In his final season, he caught only 18 passes for 251 yards and 1 touchdown, but his touchdown was one of the most memorable plays of his career. In a November 20 game against the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
during a driving rainstorm, Trumpy caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ken Anderson on a flea flicker
Flea flicker (American football)
A flea flicker is an unorthodox play in American football designed to fool the defensive team into thinking that a play is a run instead of a pass...
play that involved 3 different players handling the ball before it was thrown to him. First, Anderson handed the ball off to running back Archie Griffin
Archie Griffin
Archie Mason Griffin is a former American football running back. Griffin played seven seasons in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals. He is college football's only two-time Heisman Trophy winner...
, who then pitched the ball to receiver John McDaniel
John McDaniel
John McDaniel is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Cincinnati Bengals and the Washington Redskins. He played college football at Lincoln University of Missouri and was drafted in the eighth round of the 1974 NFL Draft....
running in the opposite direction. McDaniel then handed the ball back to Anderson, setting up his 29-yard touchdown pass to Trumpy. The Bengals went on to defeat the Dolphins 23-17, knocking them out of playoff contention. "It was magic", said Trumpy about the play,
Career statistics
Trumpy finished his 10 year career with 298 receptions for 4,600 yards and 35 touchdowns in 128 games. His 4,600 receiving yards, 35 touchdown receptions, and his 15.4 yards per catch average are the most ever by a Bengals tight end.Broadcasting career
After his NFL career, Trumpy became an NFL broadcaster. In 19781978 NFL season
The 1978 NFL season was the 59th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded the regular season from a 14-game schedule to 16. Furthermore, the playoff format was expanded from 8 teams to 10 teams by adding another wild card from each conference...
, he joined NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and worked with Jim Simpson
Jim Simpson (sportscaster)
Jim Simpson is a retired American sportscaster, known for his smooth delivery as a play-by-play man and his versatility in covering many different sports. In 1997, he won the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters...
. He would later team with Don Criqui
Don Criqui
Don Criqui is an American sportscaster, currently employed as a play-by-play announcer for CBS Sports. Criqui's duties include occasional television coverage of National Football League games, women's and men's college basketball, occasional college football and radio play-by-play of ISP Sports'...
(as well as Bob Costas
Bob Costas
Robert Quinlan "Bob" Costas is an American sportscaster, on the air for the NBC network since the early 1980s.-Early life:...
before Costas moved over to a studio anchor position for NBC in 1984
1984 NFL season
The 1984 NFL season was the 65th regular season of the National Football League. The Colts relocated from Baltimore, Maryland to Indianapolis, Indiana....
) from 1982
1982 NFL season
The 1982 NFL season was the 63rd regular season of the National Football League. A 57-day long players' strike reduced the 1982 season from a 16-game schedule per team to an abbreviated nine game schedule...
-1988
1988 NFL season
The 1988 NFL season was the 69th regular season of the National Football League. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to the Phoenix, Arizona area becoming the Phoenix Cardinals but remained in the NFC East division....
. In 1992
1992 NFL season
The 1992 NFL season was the 73rd regular season of the National Football League.Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the New England Patriots–Miami Dolphins game that was scheduled for September 6 at Joe Robbie Stadium was rescheduled to October 18. Both teams originally had that...
, he became lead color commentator (replacing Bill Walsh) alongside Dick Enberg
Dick Enberg
Richard Alan "Dick" Enberg is an American sportscaster. He currently provides play-by-play for telecasts of San Diego Padres baseball on 4SD, following a long career calling various sports for such networks as NBC, CBS, and ESPN...
until 1995
1995 NFL season
The 1995 NFL season was the 76th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 30 teams with the addition of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars...
(when NBC went to a three man booth with Paul Maguire
Paul Maguire
Paul Leo Maguire is a former American football player and current television sportscaster.-Early sports career:Maguire attended Ursuline High School in Youngstown,Ohio and was recruited to play at The Citadel by the late Al Davis who was then an assistant coach and chief recruiter...
and Phil Simms
Phil Simms
Phillip Martin "Phil" Simms is a former American football quarterback, and currently a television sportscaster for the CBS network. After a standout career at Morehead State University, Simms was drafted in the first round by the New York Giants of the National Football League with the number...
replacing him). The team of Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy called Super Bowls XXVII
Super Bowl XXVII
Super Bowl XXVII was a football game played on January 31, 1993 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1992 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Dallas Cowboys defeated the American Football Conference champion...
(1993) and XXVIII
Super Bowl XXVIII
Super Bowl XXVIII was an American football game played on January 30, 1994, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1993 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Dallas Cowboys defeated the American Football...
(1994). He would then be paired with Tom Hammond
Tom Hammond
Tom Hammond is an American sportscaster for NBC Sports television. Hammond is one of the network's staple on-air presenters, along with Bob Costas and Dan Hicks...
(1995
1995 NFL season
The 1995 NFL season was the 76th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 30 teams with the addition of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars...
-1996
1996 NFL season
The 1996 NFL season was the 77th regular season of the National Football League and the season was marked by notable controversies from beginning to end...
) and Charlie Jones
Charlie Jones (sportscaster)
Charlie Jones was an American Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC and ABC.-Education:Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jones earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Arkansas.-American Football League/National Football...
(1997
1997 NFL season
The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
) until NBC lost football (the American Football Conference
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
package to be more specific) to CBS
NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
after the 1997 season
1997 NFL season
The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee...
.
Trumpy hosted a week night sports talk show
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
from 1980-1989. He left the show to be able to work more assignments at NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
, including PGA Tour
PGA Tour on NBC
Golf Channel on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of golf on the NBC network. The network's coverage has traditionally focused on the main professional golf tours in the United States, alongside other major tournaments...
golf and the Olympics
Olympics on NBC
NBC Sports' coverage of the Olympic Games consists of broadcasts on the various networks of NBC Universal in the United States, including the NBC broadcast network, Spanish language network Telemundo, and many of the company's cable networks....
. He was replaced on the sports talk show by Cris Collinsworth
Cris Collinsworth
Anthony Cris Collinsworth is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League for eight seasons in the 1980s. He played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played his entire professional career for...
.
He currently works an analyst for CBS Radio Sports/Westwood One
NFL on Westwood One
The NFL on Westwood One is the brand name given to weekly National Football League games carried on the radio over the Dial Global Radio Network...
on Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football is a weekly American football game held throughout most of the season by the National Football League. Sunday night games have been played regularly since 1987 and have thus far aired on three different television outlets:...
, and has been with the network since 2000
2000 NFL season
The 2000 NFL season was the 81st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXXV when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants.Week 1 of the season reverted to Labor Day weekend in 2000...
(save for the 2005 season
2005 NFL season
The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...
, where he was replaced by John Riggins
John Riggins
Robert John Riggins, nicknamed "The Diesel", is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. Riggins was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992....
), and also does programming for WLW-AM radio. With Westwood One he was most frequently paired with Joel Meyers
Joel Meyers
Joel Meyers is an American sportscaster and former play-by-play announcer of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association on Fox Sports West and KCAL. Meyers left the Lakers at the end of the 2010-2011 season when the team did not renew his contract.-Career:Meyers joined the Lakers...
.
During the first round of the 2006-07 NFL playoffs, Trumpy and Enberg were in the broadcast booth together for the first time since the 1994 AFC Championship Game, covering the Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
-Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
game for Westwood One. They were paired again for the Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
-Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
game the following weekend.
Personal
Trumpy is married with grown children. He lives with his wife in the Cincinnati suburb of Glendale, OhioGlendale, Ohio
Glendale is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2000 census. It is site of the Glendale Historic District.-Geography:Glendale is located at ....
.