One of the event’s signature faces will retire after next week’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National.
Legendary broadcaster Verne Lundquist will be on the call for CBS Sports’ event coverage, and upon the weekend’s conclusion, Lundquist will be officially retired.
It will mark the 40th Masters that Lundquist has called in his hall-of-fame career, along with numerous Final Fours, Olympics and plenty of events in between.
Lundquist, who attended high school in Austin, Texas, before starting his career in Dallas, talked to Tyler Feldman of KVUE TV Austin over the weekend about the conclusion of his legendary broadcasting career.
“It’s time. I’m not a spring chicken anymore,” the 83-year-old Lundquist said of his impending retirement.
“My boss and I talked about it a couple of years ago. By the way, he is retiring at the same time, as is [CBS Sports Chairman] Sean McManus, Jim McKay’s son. I don’t know if you remember Jim; he was the greatest storyteller we ever had in this business. But Sean is retiring after Augusta, and we will be there for the full week and then head up to New York for Sean’s retirement party. It’ll be emotional; I’m not going to deny that,” he added.
Reflecting on his long tenure, Lundquist then shared a memory: “My first one was in 1982,” he said. “I missed a couple, but fortunately, that was the last one that was rained out on Sunday and they had to play on Monday. It hasn’t happened since. God, don’t let it happen this year. I’ll miss the people and the membership. We’ve gotten close to a lot of the members now after 40 years, and I adore some of the folks. I’ve done the 16th hole since 2000, I can’t wait to see who they’re going to put at 16, because I don’t know. I have a couple of pretty good ideas. But, it’ll be a very emotion-filled week, no doubt about that.”
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