American football player and sportscaster (1927?1995)
Albert John DeRogatis
(May 5, 1927 – December 26, 1995) was an
American football
player and
television
and
radio
sportscaster
.
Life and career
[
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]
DeRogatis was born in
Newark, New Jersey
, and attended the city's
Central High School
, earning All-State honors at
center
. At
Duke University
, after a
knee
injury shortened his junior season, he made the 1948
All-America
team as a tackle.
He was drafted the following year by the
New York Giants
of the
National Football League (NFL)
and played
defensive tackle
. He was an NFL
All-Pro
in both
1950
and
1951
. A recurrence of the knee injury he suffered at Duke ended his playing career after four seasons of professional football. For thirty-three years beginning in 1953, he served as a vice president with
Prudential Insurance
.
From 1966 through 1975, the bespectacled DeRogatis served as a
color commentator
for professional and college football telecasts on
NBC
, primarily with
Curt Gowdy
on the network's top broadcast team for
American Football League
(later,
American Football Conference
) regular-season and playoff matches,
Super Bowls
III
,
VII
and
IX
and several
Rose Bowls
. He also was paired with
Jim Simpson
to call a few
Orange Bowls
. Prior to joining NBC, DeRogatis had begun his broadcasting career working with
Marty Glickman
on New York football Giants radio broadcasts on
WNEW-AM
from 1960 through 1965. DeRogatis was among several veteran announcers who returned to call some NFL telecasts for NBC in September 1988, while many of the network's regular broadcasters were busy calling that year's
Summer Olympics
in
Seoul
.
DeRogatis can be heard with Gowdy calling a football game in the 1978 film
Heaven Can Wait
.
DeRogatis was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame
in 1986. A resident of
Spring Lake, New Jersey
, he died of
cancer
at Jersey Shore Medical Center on December 26, 1995.
[1]
Legacy
[
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]
Sports Illustrated
magazine's "Dr. Z" (aka
Paul Zimmerman
) has rated DeRogatis as his #1 football analyst of all time.
[2]
Upon his death in 1995, DeRogatis was eulogized in the
Boston Globe
as a prototype for what it means to be a
gentleman
, in the sense of displaying a gracious, polite, kind and generous nature.
[
citation needed
]
The
Globe
also published a picture of DeRogatis in the NBC booth together with Curt Gowdy and
Don Meredith
in the
2006: The year in photos
series, after Curt Gowdy's death in 2006.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
via
Associated Press
.
"Al DeRogatis, 68, Sports Broadcaster"
,
The New York Times
, December 28, 1995. Accessed July 14, 2011. "Al DeRogatis, a former defensive tackle for the New York Giants who achieved considerable popularity and recognition through his keen analysis of pro football games on radio and television, died of cancer on Tuesday at the Jersey Shore Medical Center. He was 68.... DeRogatis, who lived in Spring Lake, N.J., is survived by his wife of 45 years, Louise; two daughters, Mary Ann D'Agostino and Diane Hagen; two brothers, Pat and Michael; two sisters, Rose Mastracchio and Paula Mossucco, and five grandchildren."
- ^
Masters of the Mic: NFL
, Sports Illustrated news web site, retrieved June 23, 2007.
- ^
2006: The year in photos
, The Boston Globe, retrieved June 23, 2007.
External links
[
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]