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.
Jim Nantz Parents: Meet Doris Nantz, Jim Nantz Jr.
Jim was born in Charlotte, North Carolina to parents Doris Nantz, and Jim Nantz Jr.
Jim Nantz Jr. was born in Mount Holly, N.C., and attended Guilford College on a football scholarship. After military service, he worked in the trucking and shipping industry in North Carolina, Louisiana, California and New Jersey before he and his wife, Doris, moved in 1977 to Houston, where he owned a wholesale office furniture business.
It was in Houston that their son while attending the University of Houston, began a career as a sportscaster that led to his hiring in 1985 by CBS.
Nantz’s unprecedented feat in 2007 of calling the Super Bowl, Masters and NCAA Final Four in the same year led to his decision to write Always By My Side about his father and the example of others he has met during his career.
Nantz, 79, who was diagnosed in 1995 with Alzheimer’s, died with his son by his bedside.
Doris, who was born on March 24th, 1931, in Charlotte, North Carolina, loved nothing more than spending time with her family and seeing new places.
Since 1977, she had also been a devoted member of Memorial Drive United Methodist Church.
For her vibrant personality and upbeat view on life, Doris will always be remembered.
She never had a bad day and always put everyone else’s happiness above her own.
Doris Jean Nantz of Houston, Texas, died peacefully on Monday, October 3, 2022, with her family at her side.