Jimmy Cefalo
Encyclopedia
James Carmen Cefalo, is an American sportscaster
, game show
host and former professional American football
wide receiver
.
in the 1975 Cotton Bowl Classic. He was named most valuable player
of the 1976 Gator Bowl
.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts
in journalism
in 1978.
in the 1978 NFL Draft
. He would play six seasons for the Dolphins, including Super Bowl
s (XVII
and XIX
), earning a reputation as a sure-handed, dependable receiver. In Super Bowl XVII, Cefalo showed up ill for the game—he had the flu
with a 100°+ fever, but with receiver Nat Moore
out as the result of an ankle injury, he persevered, proving to be one of Miami's few bright spots in a 27-17 loss to the Washington Redskins
. He caught the team's only offensive touchdown
and averaged 21 yards per catch. Cefalo's 76-yard touchdown reception from quarterback David Woodley
still ranks as the fifth-longest in Super Bowl
history.
In 1984, Cefalo caught the Dan Marino
pass that broke the record for most touchdown passes in a season
.
He played in one of the most famous games in NFL history: the AFC divisional
playoff game between the San Diego Chargers
and Miami Dolphins on January 2, 1982 at the Orange Bowl
. The Pro Football Hall of Fame
named it the "NFL's Game of the '80s."
for NFL on NBC
, partnering with Charlie Jones
from 1985
-1987
, and Fred Roggin
in 1988
.
He has also been a correspondent
for NBC News
on The Today Show, sports anchor for NBC News at Sunrise
and co-host of the 1988 Summer Olympics
in Seoul, South Korea.
Cefalo hosted NBC's pregame coverage for Game 5 of the 1987 National League Championship Series
, as Marv Albert
was away on a boxing
assignment for NBC. Cefalo also hosted NBC's pregame show for Game 4 of the 1989 American League Championship Series
as Marv Albert was away on an NFL assignment for NBC.
for his writing on the 24th Olympic Games
. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named him Florida Sportscaster of the Year five times (1998, 2001-2004).
Cefalo co-hosted PM Magazine
, AM South Florida, and hosted the syndicated game shows Trump Card, and Sports Snapshot (according to The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows Volume 2). He is the only alumnus of Penn State to ever host a game show.
Cefalo became the play-by-play man on the Miami Dolphins
radio broadcast team on Dolphins flagship station WQAM in 2005. He was partnered with former Dolphins Joe Rose
and the late Jim "Mad Dog" Mandich
. He now works with Rose and Bob Griese
Beginning in 1993, he was been the Sports Director at WPLG
television in Miami
, hosting the station's Sport Jam Live program. His on-air time at the station decreased when he assumed his radio play-by-play duties, and in April 2007 he announced he would leave WPLG at the end of his contract to concentrate on his wine business.
He now hosts a morning news program on WIOD
radio in Miami.
with his wife Janice and three daughters: Mia, and twins Ava and Katie.
Cefalo is a well-known oenophile
, with over 1,200 bottles in his personal wine cellar
. His family has been in the wine business for several generations, and this love of wine has led to two Miami-area emporiums: Cefalo's Wine Cellar and Cefalo's Wine Corner. He also founded Cefalo's Cave Club, a $300-a-month private club with personal wine lockers, tastings
, classes and meals.
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
, game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
host and former professional American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...
.
High school
Cefalo attended Pittston Area High School in Pittston, Pennsylvania. It was his performance there that led to his inclusion on The Pennsylvania Football News All-Century Team.Penn State
Cefalo was a standout at Penn State University from 1974 to 1977. He led the Nittany Lions in all-purpose yards his senior season. He was instrumental in Penn State's 41-20 victory over BaylorBaylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
in the 1975 Cotton Bowl Classic. He was named most valuable player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...
of the 1976 Gator Bowl
Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Held continuously since 1946, it is the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nationally...
.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
in 1978.
National Football League
Cefalo was a third round draft choice (#81 overall) of the Miami DolphinsMiami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
in the 1978 NFL Draft
1978 NFL Draft
The 1978 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 2–3, 1978...
. He would play six seasons for the Dolphins, including Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
s (XVII
Super Bowl XVII
Super Bowl XVII was an American football game played on January 30, 1983 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the strike-shortened 1982 regular season...
and XIX
Super Bowl XIX
Super Bowl XIX was an American football game played on January 20, 1985 at Stanford Stadium, on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1984 regular season...
), earning a reputation as a sure-handed, dependable receiver. In Super Bowl XVII, Cefalo showed up ill for the game—he had the flu
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
with a 100°+ fever, but with receiver Nat Moore
Nat Moore
Nathaniel "Nat" Moore is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League for thirteen seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Moore played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for...
out as the result of an ankle injury, he persevered, proving to be one of Miami's few bright spots in a 27-17 loss to the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
. He caught the team's only offensive touchdown
Touchdown
A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...
and averaged 21 yards per catch. Cefalo's 76-yard touchdown reception from quarterback David Woodley
David Woodley
David Eugene Woodley was an American football player and quarterback for Louisiana State University , the National Football League's Miami Dolphins , and the Pittsburgh Steelers...
still ranks as the fifth-longest in Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
history.
In 1984, Cefalo caught the Dan Marino
Dan Marino
Daniel Constantine "Dan" Marino, Jr. is a retired American football quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League...
pass that broke the record for most touchdown passes in a season
NFL records (individual)
This is a list of records set by individual players in various categories in the National Football League.- Service :* Most seasons: 26, George Blanda, 1949–1958, 1960–1976...
.
He played in one of the most famous games in NFL history: the AFC divisional
NFL playoffs, 1981-82
The NFL playoffs following the 1981 NFL season led up to Super Bowl XVI. Both conference champions had losing records the previous season, the only time this has happened. All four of the AFC playoff games were between teams who had never faced each other in the postseason before...
playoff game between the San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and Miami Dolphins on January 2, 1982 at the Orange Bowl
Miami Orange Bowl
The Orange Bowl, formerly Burdine Stadium, was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida, west of downtown in Little Havana. Considered a landmark, it was the home stadium for the Miami Hurricanes college football team...
. The Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
named it the "NFL's Game of the '80s."
NBC
Cefalo was a color commentatorColor commentator
A color commentator is a sports commentator who assists the play-by-play announcer, often by filling in any time when play is not in progress. The color analyst and main commentator will often exchange comments freely throughout the broadcast, when the play-by-play announcer is not describing the...
for NFL on NBC
NFL on NBC
NFL on NBC is the brand given to NBC Sports coverage of National Football League games until 1998, when NBC lost the NFL American Football Conference rights to CBS...
, partnering with Charlie Jones
Charlie Jones (sportscaster)
Charlie Jones was an American Emmy Award-winning sportscaster for NBC and ABC.-Education:Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jones earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California and a law degree at the University of Arkansas.-American Football League/National Football...
from 1985
1985 NFL season
The 1985 NFL season was the 66th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XX when the Chicago Bears defeated the New England Patriots.-Major rule changes:...
-1987
1987 NFL season
The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4–6 were played with replacement players...
, and Fred Roggin
Fred Roggin
Fred Roggin is the sports anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, California. He was also a sports talk radio host at KMPC in Los Angeles, and until Fall 2007 hosted a morning sports show on KLAC with Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers and Simers' daughter, Tracy Simers...
in 1988
1988 NFL season
The 1988 NFL season was the 69th regular season of the National Football League. The Cardinals relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to the Phoenix, Arizona area becoming the Phoenix Cardinals but remained in the NFC East division....
.
He has also been a correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
for NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
on The Today Show, sports anchor for NBC News at Sunrise
NBC News at Sunrise
NBC News at Sunrise was an early morning news program produced by NBC News from 1983 to 1999. The program featured the top news headlines of the morning, sports and weather reports, and business segments. Many of the program's anchors also appeared on The Today Show...
and co-host of the 1988 Summer Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
in Seoul, South Korea.
Cefalo hosted NBC's pregame coverage for Game 5 of the 1987 National League Championship Series
1987 National League Championship Series
- Game 1 :Tuesday, October 6, 1987 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MissouriThe Giants struck first on an RBI groundout by Candy Maldonado, but the Cardinals tied it in the third on Vince Coleman's RBI single...
, as Marv Albert
Marv Albert
Marv Albert is an American television and radio sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."Including Super Bowl XLII, Marv has called...
was away on a boxing
Boxing on NBC
-Gillette Cavalcade of Sports:The earliest incarnation of NBC's boxing telecasts could be traced back to 1944. Although technically, an anthology program, the Cavalcade of Sports was best known for Friday night boxing on NBC from 1944 through 1960, and...
assignment for NBC. Cefalo also hosted NBC's pregame show for Game 4 of the 1989 American League Championship Series
1989 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 3, 1989 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CaliforniaThe A's went off as heavy favorites largely due to their status as defending American League champions. The Blue Jays had been in second place much of the year before catching and passing the Baltimore Orioles...
as Marv Albert was away on an NFL assignment for NBC.
Radio and television
In 1988, Cefalo won an EmmyEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for his writing on the 24th Olympic Games
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named him Florida Sportscaster of the Year five times (1998, 2001-2004).
Cefalo co-hosted PM Magazine
PM Magazine
PM/Evening Magazine was a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States...
, AM South Florida, and hosted the syndicated game shows Trump Card, and Sports Snapshot (according to The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows Volume 2). He is the only alumnus of Penn State to ever host a game show.
Cefalo became the play-by-play man on the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
radio broadcast team on Dolphins flagship station WQAM in 2005. He was partnered with former Dolphins Joe Rose
Joe Rose (football player)
Joseph Harold Rose is a former American football tight end who played six seasons for the Miami Dolphins from 1980 to 1985 and one game for the Los Angeles Rams in 1987 in the National Football League.-Football career:...
and the late Jim "Mad Dog" Mandich
Jim Mandich
James Michael "Mad Dog" Mandich was a professional American football tight end with the Miami Dolphins. Mandich was an All-American at the University of Michigan. In 2004 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. As color commentator for the Miami Dolphins , he was teamed with Jimmy...
. He now works with Rose and Bob Griese
Bob Griese
Robert Allen "Bob" Griese is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins...
Beginning in 1993, he was been the Sports Director at WPLG
WPLG
WPLG, channel 10, is an ABC network affiliated television station located in Miami, Florida. WPLG is owned and operated by Post-Newsweek Stations, a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. The station's studios are located in Pembroke Park, and its transmitter is located at the massive broadcast...
television in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, hosting the station's Sport Jam Live program. His on-air time at the station decreased when he assumed his radio play-by-play duties, and in April 2007 he announced he would leave WPLG at the end of his contract to concentrate on his wine business.
He now hosts a morning news program on WIOD
WIOD
WIOD is a news/talk formatted radio station in Miami, Florida. For over 80 years, it has been a major information station in South Florida...
radio in Miami.
Personal
He currently resides in Miami Beach, FloridaMiami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
with his wife Janice and three daughters: Mia, and twins Ava and Katie.
Cefalo is a well-known oenophile
Oenophilia
Oenophilia of wine ). An oenophile is a lover of wine. In the strictest sense, oenophilia describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, oenophilia simply refers to the enjoyment of wine, often by laymen....
, with over 1,200 bottles in his personal wine cellar
Wine cellar
A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae or plastic containers. In an active wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. In contrast, passive wine cellars are not...
. His family has been in the wine business for several generations, and this love of wine has led to two Miami-area emporiums: Cefalo's Wine Cellar and Cefalo's Wine Corner. He also founded Cefalo's Cave Club, a $300-a-month private club with personal wine lockers, tastings
Wine tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...
, classes and meals.