who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." In its obituary for Cosell, The New York Times
described Cosell's impact on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."
In 1996, Howard Cosell was ranked #47 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time and in 2011 his first full biography, Howard Cosell: The Man, The Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports was published.
Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
to accountant Isidore Cohen and his wife Nellie Cohen.
Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston's not coming out! Sonny Liston's not coming out! He's out! The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world is Cassius Clay!
Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis! He is beaten!
There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.
He's ready to go. This must be stopped. It is a sad way to end...
Legends die hard, and Ali is learning that even he cannot be forever young.
This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead ... on ... arrival.
I wonder if that referee is constructing an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he is a part of?
Look at that little monkey go.
I'd never really wanted to become a lawyer. I guess the only reason I went through with it was because my father worked so hard to have a son who'd be a professional.