By Nicole Brown
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Bryant Charles Gumbel (born September 29, 1948) is an American television journalist and sportscaster, best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC‘s Today. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. From 1995 to 2023, he hosted HBO‘s acclaimed investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which has been rated as “flat out TV’s best sports program” by the Los Angeles Times. It won a Peabody Award in 2012.
Gumbel was hired by NBC Sports in the fall of 1975 as co-host of its National Football League pre-game show GrandStand with Jack Buck. From 1975 until January 1982 (when he left to do The Today Show), he hosted numerous sporting events for NBC including Major League Baseball, college basketball and the National Football League. He returned to sportscasting for NBC when he hosted the prime time coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul and the PGA Tour in 1990.
NBC News made Gumbel the principal anchor of Today beginning September 27, 1982, and broadcast from Vietnam, Vatican City, Europe, South America, and much of the United States between 1984 and 1989. Gumbel’s work on Today earned him several Emmys and a large fanbase. He is the third longest serving co-host of Today, after former hosts Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. He stepped down from the show on January 3, 1997, after 15 years.
Gumbel moved to CBS, where he hosted various shows before becoming co-host of the network’s morning show The Early Show on November 1, 1999. Gumbel was hosting The Early Show on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was the first to announce the September 11 attacks to CBS viewers. Gumbel left CBS and The Early Show on May 17, 2002.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
The feast day of St. Michael, the archangel and overcomer of the Devil, is a Christian celebration based on the ancient Celtic calendar. Its main importance in people’s lives was that of a seasonal signpost in the year. In the British Isles, crops were harvested and the surplus sold by late September, so this became the time when farmers would pay their yearly rents to landowners. Everyone ate goose at Michaelmas to bring prosperity, and many farmers included “a goose fit for the lord’s dinner” with their rent payments. Great market fairs occurred just before the feast day, and the large crowds these attracted made it convenient to hold elections at this time. Michaelmas is also a “Quarter Day.” The ancient Celtic people divided the year into four major sections, or quarters, and then divided each of these in half to make an eight-part year that reflected the natural progression of the seasons. Foods traditional for Michaelmas include new wine; goose; cakes of oats, barley, and rye; and carrots. Some groups in the United States, such as the Pennsylvania Dutch, have kept Michaelmas, or “Harvest Home,” traditions alive.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
There is a thing that nothing is, and yet it has a name; ‘Tis sometimes tall and sometimes short; It joins our walks, it joins our sport; And plays at every game. (What is being described?)
Shadow
Born
- Francois Boucher (painter) –
- Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (author) –
- Henry Hobson Richardson (architect) –
- Herbert Agar (journalist) –
- Gene Autry (actor) –
- Michelangelo Antonioni (director) –
- Stanley Kramer (producer) –
- Jerry Lee Lewis (musician) –
- Madeline Kahn (actress) –
- Lech Walesa (Polish labor leader) –
- Bryant Gumbel (broadcast journalist) –
Died
- William Topaz McGonagall (poet) –
- W. H. Auden (poet) –
- Roy Lichtenstein (artist) –
- Tony Curtis (actor) –
Events
- Canadian satellite, Alouette 1, was launched–
- OSO 7 solar satellite launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida–
- Space shuttle Discovery launched–
- $389,500 paid for Lou Gehrig’s last baseball glove–
- 2-pound 13-ounce southern kingfish caught near Sandbridge, Virginia–
- Adventurer David Hempleman-Adams became the first person to cross the Atlantic solo in an open wicker basket balloon, landing in England after surviving hail, snow and a Concorde’s sonic boom. He lifted off from Sussex in New Brunswick, Canada–
- John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court–
- 31 ears of corn husked by 4 people in 1 minute, Markham, Ontario–
Weather
- Hurricane hit SE Louisiana. Wind gusts up to 140 mph recorded–
- Tornado hit Charleston, South Carolina–
- Snow began to fall in Caribou, Maine, and ended on the 30th, with 2.5 inches accumulating–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
