Mel Allen
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Mel Allen (February 14, 1913-June 16, 1996, originally Melvin Allen Israel) was an American sportscaster. During the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions. In his later years, he gained a second professional life as the first host of This Week in Baseball.
Allen was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He was educated as a lawyer, but boyhood love for baseball led him to become first a sports columnist and then a radio announcer. However, his first broadcast was not a baseball game but a football game, between Tulane University and the University of Alabama. As a law school alumnus of Alabama, this game had a special significance to him.
In 1937 Allen was invited to join the CBS radio network as an announcer, and often did non-sports announcing such as big band remotes or game show announcements. Among the game shows, he did Truth or Consequences.
In 1939 Allen started doing play-by-play for both the New York Yankees and the then-New York Giants. Ultimately he became the main broadcaster for Yankees' games, though he also did Giant games until 1943. He was known for his "How about that?" exclamation on Yankee home runs.
In 1943 (in World War II) he entered the United States Army, and while in the service changed his name legally to Mel Allen; he broadcast on The Army Hour and Armed Forces Radio Service programs.
After returning to civilian life, Allen resumed baseball announcing, doing 24 All-Star Game broadcasts for Major League Baseball as well as Yankee games (including World Series broadcasts when the Yankees were in it, which was most of the years, a total of 20 World Series).
He also did a number of football bowl games: 14 Rose Bowls, 2 Orange Bowls, and 2 Sugar Bowls. For many years Allen also provided voiceover narration for Fox Movietone newsreels.
Allen also served as play-by-play announcer of New York Football Giants games on WCBS Radio in 1960 -- with some of the games also being carried by the CBS Radio Network. Allen was behind the WCBS mike when Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik levelled Giants running back Frank Gifford during a clash at Yankee Stadium.
Allen continued to broadcast Yankee games until 1964, when he was fired for reasons that the ballclub has not explained to this day. In 1968 he worked Cleveland Indians games. Allen was welcomed back to the Yankees family in 1976 and joined the crew of SportsChannel (now Fox Sports Net New York) to announce Yankees broadcasts along with the regular crew of Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White and occasionally Fran Healy.
Allen remained with the Yankees cable crew into the late 1980s. Among the memorable moments he called in that stretch were Yankee outfielder Reggie Jackson's 400th home run in 1980; and Yankee pitcher Dave Righetti's no-hitter on July 4, 1983.
In his later years, Allen was exposed to a new audience as the host of the syndicated highlights show This Week in Baseball, which he hosted from its inception in 1977 until his death.
In 1978 Allen was one of the first winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award. (The other was Red Barber, who for some of the time served alongside Allen as the Yankees' announcer.) He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.
Upon his death in 1996, Allen was buried at Temple Beth El Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut.
External links
- Alabama Communication Hall of Fame page on Mel Allen (http://www.ccom.ua.edu/dean/halloffame/allen.html)
- Mel Allen bio on the Baseball Library site (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/A/Allen_Mel.stm)
- Baseball Hall of Fame page on Mel Allen (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/frick_bios/allen_mel.htm)
- Jewish Virtual Library page on Mel Allen (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Allen.html)
- Radio Hall of Fame page on Mel Allen (http://www.radiohof.org/sportscasters/melallen.html)
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- Mel Allen, legendary Yankees voice, dies at 83 (http://espn.go.com/classic/s/moment010616_mel_allen.html)