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CBS Sports opens March Madness coverage with stirring tribute to Greg Gumbel
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CBS Sports launched its NCAA Tournament coverage on Thursday by honoring March Madness treasure Greg Gumbel, who died of pancreatic cancer last December at age 78.
Gumbel did a lot during his career in sports broadcasting, but he was mostly synonymous with this time of year, as a generation of college basketball fans experienced his coverage of the NCAA Tournament. He anchored the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Selection Sunday and CBS Sports’ coverage of March Madness for a quarter century.
But as the 2025 tournament began Thursday, Gumbel was not there to offer his keen insights as he has for so many years. He was there in spirit though on Thursday as CBS Sports, where he had spent so much of his career, honored the sports broadcasting legend with a touching tribute before the NCAA Tournament games that Gumbel loved being around so much tipped off.
Another sports broadcasting icon, Ernie Johnson, who was anchoring the tournament coverage on Thursday, launched the tribute and had plenty of help from analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Clark Kellogg. Johnson, Barkley, Smith and Kellogg all spoke eloquently about Gumbel.
CBS Sports didn’t wait until Thursday to honor Gumbel though. Thursday’s tribute was merely the latest one for Gumbel. On Sunday, before the NCAA Tournament Selection Show got rolling, CBS Sports began the telecast with an equally touching tribute to Gumbel.
The NCAA Tournament was among the many sporting events that Gumbel worked for CBS Sports. Gumbel also worked the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and more.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
