Howard Cosell

Cosell got married to his wife Mary Edith Abrams ‘Emmy’ Cosell in 1944 and the couple had two children Jill and Hilary Cosell. She died of a heart attack and from there onwards his health started to deteriorate.

He was diagnosed with cancer and got the tumors removed surgically from his chest. He was later diagnosed with kidney problems, heart disease and Parkinson’s. In 1995, at the age of 77, Cosell died of a cardiac embolism.

Howard Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Isidore and Nellie Cohen. His father worked as an accountant for a clothing store which required him to stay away from his family because of long working hours.

His parenting was mostly done by his mother, who was known to be a difficult person and a philanderer. He was raised in New York and did his bachelor’s degree from New York University in English literature. He also earned a degree in Law from the New York University School of Law.

After finishing his studies, Cosell was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1941. Soon the U.S. entered the World War II, and Cosell, United States Army Transportation Corps, where he rose to the rank of major.

After the war, Cosell started formally practicing law in Manhattan. Most of his legal clients were sportsmen, actors, etc. He met with athletes like Millie Mays, which is how he got in touch in with sports.

He got into sports casting after getting a nudge by his friend. In 1953, he became a part of the radio show program on the idea of sports casting and within three years ABC owned the program and Cosell was doing it full time.

From 1961–1974, owing to his success as a sports radio journalist and doing sports update for many radio stations all around the country, Cosell did sports anchoring on WABC-TV, New York.

In 1970, he was the commentator for the ‘Monday Night Football’, hired by ABC executive sports producer Roone Arledge. It was the first time in more than a decade that American football was broadcasted on the primetime.

One of the comments made by Cosell during commentary in 1973 was criticized as racist when he described the kick-off by Herb Mul-Key in one of the football matches as ‘Look at that little monkey run!’.

During a game in 1980, Cosell was asked by ABC to announce John Lennon’s death in between his commentary which he resisted saying that it will distract the audience and the players but he ultimately had to declare it because of the national importance of the news.