Howard Cosell
Overview
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...

 who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." In its obituary for Cosell, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

described Cosell's impact on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."

In 1996, Howard Cosell was ranked #47 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time and in 2011 his first full biography, Howard Cosell: The Man, The Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports was published.
Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...

 to accountant Isidore Cohen and his wife Nellie Cohen.
Quotations

Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston's not coming out! Sonny Liston's not coming out! He's out! The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world is Cassius Clay!

February 25, 1964, calling the victory of Cassius Clay (who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali) over Sonny Liston.

Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis! He is beaten!

February 16, 1970, on ABC's Wide World of Sports , calling the first of two knockdowns scored by Joe Frazier over Jimmy Ellis in the fourth and final round of their world heavyweight title match.

There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.

October 12, 1977, reporting a school fire (initially mistaken as a tenament fire), while announcing Game 2 of the 1977 World Series.

He's ready to go. This must be stopped. It is a sad way to end...

Legends die hard, and Ali is learning that even he cannot be forever young.

February 10, 1980, as Muhammad Ali, at the absolute twilight of his career, is pummeled by Larry Holmes in the ninth round of his penultimate fight.

This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead ... on ... arrival.

Monday Night Football, December 8, 1980.

I wonder if that referee is constructing an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he is a part of?

1982, while announcing a particularly brutal boxing match.

Look at that little monkey go.

September 1983, referring to wide receiver Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins; the statement was denounced as racist, but it was pointed out that Cosell had regularly used the same term to describe small players of all races.

I'd never really wanted to become a lawyer. I guess the only reason I went through with it was because my father worked so hard to have a son who'd be a professional.

To Playboy interviewer Lawrence Linderman.

 
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