Ross Porter Biography

Ross Porter is an American sportscaster, known for his 28-year tenure (1977-2004) as a play-by-play announcer for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball. His broadcasting career began at age 14 when he broadcast a few innings in several games involving Shawnee’s Class D baseball team, the Hawks, a Los Angeles Dodgers farm club, over KGFF.

Ross Porter Age

Ross Porter was born on November 29, 1938. He is 80 years as of 2018.

Ross Porter Family

Porter was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1955, then went on to earn a radio journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma.

Ross Porter Wife

There is no information about his Marital status.

Ross Porter Career

His broadcasting career began at age 14 when he broadcast a few innings in several games involving Shawnee’s Class D baseball team, the Hawks, a Los Angeles Dodgers farm club, over KGFF. At age 15, Porter was elevated to a play-by-play man of the Shawnee Wolves’ football and basketball broadcasts and the Hawks when the regular announcer resigned. At a high school football game one night, Ross was introduced by his father to the legendary Jim Thorpe.

After earning his college degree, Porter was hired by WKY radio in Oklahoma City as a newscaster. He also was a sports anchor for WKY-TV, and at age 24 became the youngest recipient of the Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year award and the youngest state winner ever in the nation. Ross repeated the next year. Between 1960 and 1966, he did the play-by-play of the previous day’s OU football game on channel 4’s one-hour “Sunday Playback Show.”

In 1966, at age 27, he left for Los Angeles and subsequently spent 10 years as a sportscaster for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. He worked alongside Tom Snyder on the 6 PM news and Tom Brokaw on the 11 PM news. Porter won two local Emmys.

Porter worked for NBC Sports in the early 1970s, calling NFL football from 1970–76 and Pacific-8 college basketball from 1972-76. Ross was the halftime host of 1974 Final Four on NBC, the sideline reporter for the network telecast of the 1975 Rose Bowl and was in the tower covering one hole for NBC at the Bing Crosby Pebble Beach golf tournament. Porter had to give up his NBC assignments when he joined the Dodgers in 1977 due to an overlap in seasons. He later was the radio and television voice of UNLV Rebels football and basketball from 1978-92.

During the 1970s, Porter had been the television play-by-play announcer for the high school basketball Game of The Week on KNBC showing matchups between Los Angeles area teams. Former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax worked as a game analyst with Ross the first year.

He was appraised among the best 60 baseball commentators ever by Curt Smith in his book Voices of Summer. Ross Porter is the main supporter to have been the voice of a World Series champion (the 1981 and 1988 Dodgers) and a school ball champion (with UNLV in 1990). In 1988, Porter was regarded as a Distinguished Alum of the University of Oklahoma.

The watchman was known for furnishing fans with factual data on players during his communicates. He was the host of pregame and postgame radio show known as DodgerTalk for a long time, noting telephone calls from audience members with inquiries relating to baseball. He was cast a ballot Los Angeles Sportstalk Host of the Year the initial three years the honor was exhibited by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association and later won it a fourth time.

Ross was drafted into the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2005 with Vin Scully, his partner of 28 years, as his moderator. In 2007, Porter got the Bill Teegins Excellence in Sportscasting Award from the Oklahoma Sports Museum.

On August 23, 1989, Porter set a noteworthy alliance baseball record for broadcasting 22 straight innings on the radio with no substitutions, in a six-hour, 14 moment game against the Expos in Montreal.

He broadcast the 1977 World Series and 1978 World Series on over 600 CBS Radio stations around the world. Ross also did Game of the Week broadcasts for CBS Radio in the 1980s and ’90s. His most famous national call is from the sixth and final game of the 1977 Series, during which Reggie Jackson smacked three home runs on three consecutive pitches.

Real Sports Heroes with Ross Porter

Porter began a new venture called “Real Sports Heroes with Ross Porter on April 2007. Real Sports Heroes highlighted the positive side of athletics and the great things that some athletes are doing and have done to give something back to the community. Porter aired 90-second Real Sports Heroes vignettes on KLAC and KABC radio in Los Angeles. The vignettes and Porter’s web site were sponsored by American Airlines.

He aired high school football games for the IBN Sports Network in 2011 and joined Fox Sports West in 2012 to announce prep football, basketball, and baseball contests. In 2016, Porter became the announcer for the Cal State Northridge Matadors baseball team. The campus radio station, KCSN, does not carry the games but they can be heard online at GoMatadors.com.

Ross Porter Net Worth

He has had quite a successful broadcasting career. However, his estimated net worth is still under review but will be updated as soon as it is clear.

Ross Porter Twitter

Tweets by therossporter