CBS Sportscaster Jim Nantz voted into National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Central Coast local and CBS sportscaster, Jim Nantz, has been voted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame.

Nantz has been a mainstay at CBS since 1985 and you may have heard his voice before as he's done sports play-by-play announcing on your television screens for March Madness, the PGA Tour and for NFL games, including the Super Bowl.

He'll join a number of other sportscasters, including Bill King and Dick Stockton during a ceremony in June. Sportswriters Larry Merchant, William Nack, William C. Rhoden, and Rick Telander will also be inducted into the NSMA Hall of Fame.

For Nantz, it's an honor that allows him to join the hall with some of the great sportscasters of his lifetime, including Dick Enberg, Chris Schenkle, Jim McKay and Pat Summerall among others.

"I wouldn't be here today without those heroes who showed me how to do things with class and dignity," says Nantz. "My career, I'd like to say, is a tribute to them. They made me."

Nantz recalls having dinners and hanging out with Pat Summerall to fine-tune how he would call games in the future. Nantz refers to Summerall as "a dear friend" who had a "profound influence" on his life.

But what's a celebration without the thought of family? Nantz says the first people he thought of when he was announced to the NSMA Hall of Fame were his youngest children.

"For my children to be able to see this. That's the thrill for me above all," says Nantz. "I'm inspired by all three of my kids and how they've been able to have a complicated life...in the sense dad is traveling all the time and he comes home during the week but is gone every weekend."

Nantz says he intends on paying tribute to his kids when the induction ceremony takes place June 26 - 28, 2021 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

For now you can catch Jim Nantz calling NFL Playoff games on CBS, including the Super Bowl 55 on February 7, 2021.

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