McNAMEE, Graham

(b. 10 July 1888 in Washington, D.C.; d. 9 May 1942 in New York City), radio's first significant sports broadcaster and an all-purpose program announcer; generally considered the father of sportscasting.

McNamee was the only child of John Bernard McNamee, a lawyer, and Anne Liebold McNamee, a homemaker. Moving to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1894, McNamee attended school there. At an early age it was noticed that he had an excellent voice and enjoyed singing. His mother, who sang in a church choir, encouraged him in piano and voice lessons for years, and as a teenager he began performing at local social events.

After graduation from high school, McNamee worked briefly as a freight clerk for the Great Northern Railroad but soon became a traveling salesman for the Armour Meat Packing Company. At that time salespeople traveled through their rural territories by horse-drawn buggy, and after McNamee wrecked a series of carriages during his first year he was dismissed.

After his father passed away in 1912, McNamee and his mother moved to New York City so he could continue his voice training with more prominent teachers. McNamee, a baritone, became a singer with various church and opera groups and made his solo debut on 22 November 1920 at New York's Aeolian Hall. He married Josephine Garrett, a professional singer, on 3 May 1921, and for the next few years struggled financially while continuing his musical career.

In April 1923, while serving jury duty in Manhattan, McNamee applied for a job at radio station WEAF, located in the AT&T Building. After a short audition he was hired as an all-purpose worker, with occasional singing and announcing duties, for $50 per week. On 23 August 1923 McNamee broadcast his first sporting event—the middle-weight championship fight in New York between Harry Greb and Johnny Wilson. Station KDKA in Pittsburgh had been broadcasting the occasional sports event since 1921, but commitment to such programming was nonexistent, as were designated sportscasters. McNamee was made lead announcer midway through WEAF's live coverage of the 1923 World Series over a four-station network on the East Coast, and at the conclusion of the Series he received 1,700 letters.

That same fall McNamee broadcast his first football game and, while continuing to handle his announcing duties for studio shows, began to cover an increasing number of sporting events. By 1924 there were an estimated 3 million radios and over 200 broadcasting stations in the United States, and station managers were coming to realize that sports events were the hottest programming they offered at the time. However, it was a nonsporting event that launched McNamee to national renown.

In the summer of 1924 he was assigned to broadcast the Republican and Democratic National Conventions over a sixteen-station network—the first time the conventions had been broadcast. The Republican Convention was routine, but at New York's Madison Square Garden the Democrats became hopelessly deadlocked. For fifteen days, broadcasting sixteen hours a day and living on sandwiches and soda, McNamee covered the convention through over 100 ballots before John W. Davis was selected. These broadcasts made McNamee a nationally known celebrity. His status was solidified when he received 50,000 letters after his coverage of the 1925 World Series. He eventually broadcast the World Series for twelve years—through 1934.

McNamee possessed a superb speaking voice that soon was recognizable to listeners around the country, along with his trademark sign-on: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience." Announcing sports with a vibrant and energetic style, he conveyed an obvious enthusiasm for the events. Although often criticized by newspaper reporters for his lack of technical knowledge in some sports, McNamee's informal, freewheeling, and chatty style of broadcasting conveyed a sense of on-site presence to listening sports fans. His game accounts were filled with asides about things happening in the grandstands, clouds in the sky, the scenery around the stadium, and celebrities in attendance. McNamee believed that this was an essential aspect of sports broadcasting, yet his announcing of championship boxing always conveyed incredible intensity and drama for the listeners.

When the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was formed in 1926, the company's first president called McNamee "radio's greatest asset," and he was considered the most popular radio announcer on the air. McNamee joined NBC, and his fame continued to grow in 1927 as he broadcast the 1927 Rose Bowl football game and the World Series live over the network's first coast-to-coast hookup. McNamee also covered the 1927 return of Charles Lindbergh from Paris—considered the biggest assignment of his career.

By 1929 radio was significantly expanding the programming of variety shows, and McNamee was always busy announcing for many such programs through the remainder of his career. Among the more notable variety shows he announced were the Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, Texaco Fire Chief, Major Bowes and His Original Amateur Hour, Atwater Kent Auditions, and Behind the Mike.

McNamee covered events in ten sports for NBC as well as unusual events such as the National Marbles Tournament and the National Soapbox Derby. He always covered the most important sporting events. Among his favorites were the Jack Dempsey—Gene Tunney "long count" fight of 1927, Babe Ruth's "called" home run in the 1932 World Series, Glenn Cunningham's record-breaking mile run in 1934, and the golfer Ralph Guldahl's victory in the 1939 Masters.

By the 1930s radio was turning to sportscasting specialists, and McNamee's sports assignments were scaled back—he was considered too valuable to be removed from the commercial side of radio—although he never completely left sportscasting. In February 1932 McNamee was divorced from his first wife, and on 20 January 1934 he married Ann Lee Sims. His last broadcast appearance was on 24 April 1942. Soon afterward he died from a stroke at age fifty-three. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

In recognition of his many contributions to broadcasting history, McNamee was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame in 1977 and the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1984.

McNamee was a pioneer in a medium for which there were few ground rules when he began. His distinctive announcing style quickly swept radio audiences into the excitement of the events and provided a shared experience for listeners around the country. Shaping the outlines of sports broadcasting into an art form, McNamee was described by Red Barber as "the greatest sports announcer we ever had." McNamee played a major role in the expansion of radio's popularity, and sports announcers still emulate his technique.

McNamee coauthored a memoir, You're On the Air (1926), with Robert G. Anderson; the book provides some useful information but is limited by its early publication date. A valuable source of information on McNamee's personality and nonsports broadcasting is Sam J. Slate and Joe Cook, It Sounds Impossible (1963). Other useful sources include Red Barber, The Broadcasters (1970); Geoffrey T. Hellman, "Profiles," New Yorker (9 Aug. 1930); and T. R. Kennedy, Jr., "A Voice to Remember," New York Times (17 May 1942). An obituary is in the New York Times (10 May 1942).

Raymond Schmidt