James William Nantz III is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men’s basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s.
Nantz joined CBS Sports in 1985, initially working as a studio host for the network’s college football and basketball coverage, and as an on-course reporter for PGA Tour golf, as well as calling NFL games on Westwood One
He has anchored CBS’s coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and has been the lead play-by-play announcer on CBS’s NFL coverage since 2004.
Nantz is also one of two men to host a Super Bowl, announce an NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game, and host coverage of The Masters from Butler Cabin with Brent Musburger being the other.
During Super Bowl XLVII, Joe Flacco unknowingly hit Nantz with the Vince Lombardi Trophy during the presentation, but Nantz simply brushed it off.
Nantz and broadcast partner Phil Simms called Thursday Night Football games in a deal with CBS and the NFL Network. Tracy Wolfson was the sideline reporter for the Thursday games along with the Sunday games on CBS.
Does Jim Nantz have a photographic memory?
Nantz is famous for his near-photographic memory. While discussing a game, Raftery asked Nantz if he recalled an Arizona player getting kicked out of practice the day before the game after fighting with a teammate.
Nantz not only remembered the incident but remembered the player’s name, Rolf Jacobs.
“It’s a gift, and I have a deep appreciation for it,” Nantz said. “I’ve always been able to remember names, numbers and places and almost take myself there and have these flashbacks of memory that are pretty darn accurate.”
His appreciation for the gift of memory will have a dual focus in Houston this weekend.
After team interviews Sunday, he will host a benefit honouring Dr Stanley Appel, chairman of the department of neurology at Houston Methodist, which houses the Nantz National Alzheimer Center named for Nantz’s late father, Jim Nantz Jr., who died in 2008.