After Prince’s passing at the age of 57 Thursday, the sports and entertainment worlds have been busy paying tributes to him. It’s interesting that the musician himself once paid a very public tribute to a major figure in the sports and entertainment world, though: current HBO personality Bryant Gumbel.
Gumbel started his national career with NBC Sports in 1975 and then shifted to NBC’s Today in 1982, and in 1996, he landed the first sit-down interview with Prince on a live TV show. A few weeks later on Jan. 3, 1997, during Gumbel’s final appearance on Today before his move to CBS, Prince showed up dressed as Gumbel and delivered a great impersonation of him:
Sadly, the song Prince performed for Gumbel isn’t included in there, thanks to copyright (it was “Take Me With U”), but we still get to see his great impersonation of some of Gumbel’s dress style and mannerisms. Nicely played.
[Esquire]
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About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.