Thom Brennaman

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Thomas Wade "Thom" Brennaman (born September 12, 1963) is an American sportscaster, and the son of sportscaster Marty Brennaman.

[edit] Career

After graduating from Anderson High School and Ohio University where he was a member and later president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, Brennaman called play-by-play for the Cincinnati Reds (along with his father) in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s he did Chicago Cubs broadcasts, and in 1994 he was hired by Fox Sports to call the network's National Football League and Major League Baseball telecasts. He served as the first television voice for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and left after the 2006 season to join his father Marty in Cincinnati.

In 2006, Brennaman was appointed as Fox's lead play-by-play announcer for the Bowl Championship Series. In addition to calling the BCS National Championship Game, Brennaman called the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. On both broadcasts, Brennaman worked with former University of Wisconsin-Madison head coach Barry Alvarez, and former University of Tennessee defensive back and current broadcaster Charles Davis.[1] Brennaman also called the 2008 Sugar Bowl.

Additionally, the Big Ten Network named Brennaman as their lead play-by-play announcer for college football games beginning in September 2007.[2]

Prior to that, Brennaman had been the voice of the Cotton Bowl on Fox from 2000 to 2006.

His signature pet phrase is Can you believe it?!, which became famous following the end of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma and Boise State.

[edit] Famous calls

In the past few years, Brennaman, due to his increased role with Fox Sports (as the #2 play-by-play man for the network's MLB coverage and now as the lead voice of both Fox's BCS coverage and the Big Ten Network's football coverage), has been part of some of the most memorable moments in recent sports history:

• Oakland Athletics at Detroit Tigers, October 14, 2006. Magglio Ordoñez' walk-off home run in Game 4 of the 2006 American League Championship Series defeated the A's 6-3 and sent the Tigers to the World Series for the first time since 1984.

• Boise State vs. Oklahoma, 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. In a game considered one of the greatest in college football history, the underdog Broncos scored a touchdown on a "hook and lateral" play to make it 35-34:

After the Broncos converted the extra point to tie the game at 35 and send it into overtime, the Sooners scored a touchdown on their overtime possession and a PAT to make it 42-35, the Broncos put up a touchdown of their own. Instead of kicking the extra point to send the game into a second overtime, they elected to go for the two-point conversion to end the game:

• Appalachian State vs. Michigan, September 1, 2007. The Mountaineers shocked the then #5 ranked Wolverines 34-32 in a game considered the greatest upset in college football history. It was the first time a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division 1-AA) team had defeated a ranked Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A) team:

[edit] Move to the Cincinnati Reds

On October 3, 2006, the Cincinnati Reds owner, Robert Castellini announced^[1] that Thom has signed a contract through the 2010 season to announce 45 Reds games on FSN Ohio television and 45 games on the Reds Radio Network, flagship station being 700 WLW. His father's contract with the Reds is set to expire after the 2010 season and Marty has said that he wishes to retire following the 2010 season. In exchange for allowing Thom to break his contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Reds agreed to travel from Florida to Phoenix to play a series of exhibition games at the end of spring training, beginning in 2008^[2](this is in addition to the usual, regularly scheduled National League road games the Reds will play at Chase Field during the regular season).

[edit] Other ventures

Brennaman also performed play-by-play announcing for Microsoft Baseball 2001 for PC, All-Star Baseball 2002 with Bob Brenly, and All-Star Baseball 2003-2005 with Steve Lyons for Gamecube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox during the ballgame. He has also done college basketball announcing for CBS Radio and Fox Sports Net cable.

Brennaman commentated on the BBC's highlights coverage of the Miami Dolphins vs. New York Giants match at Wembley Stadium on 28th October 2007 with Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa.

On January 1, 2008 Brennaman announced the Sugar Bowl for FOX. The Georgia Bulldogs convincingly beat the Hawaii Warriors 41-10. During the broadcast, Thom mistakenly referred to the Bulldogs as the Gators and called Knowshon Moreno "Omar Moreno".

[edit] References