Vin Scully Biography & Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers Broadcasting Career
Vincent (Vin) Edward Scully was born on Nov. 29, 1927, in the Bronx, New York. He grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and fell in love with the game of baseball at the age of eight, becoming a fan of the New York Giants. Scully passed away Aug. 2, 2022, at the age of 94.
Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University, where he majored in English after serving two years in the United States Navy. He was eventually recruited by Red Barber, the sports director of the CBS Radio Network, to help with college football coverage.
Scully then joined Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and television booths in 1950. It wasn’t until 1953 that he got his big break though as he replaced Barber calling the World Series that year, making him the youngest broadcaster to call a Fall Classic game at the age of 25 (a record that stands to this day).
Vin Scully takes center stage in Dodgers booth
Barber left the Dodgers to join the New York Yankees’ broadcast team after that 1953 season, and Scully took his place as the Dodgers’ lead broadcaster. He accompanied the organization when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.
Scully’s career in Southern California began with calling Dodgers games at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum from 1958-62, before the opening of Dodger Stadium.
Scully expanded to working NFL games for CBS from 1975-82. He also contributed to CBS’ coverage of tennis and PGA Tour during that time. He left CBS to begin calling MLB games for NBC in 1983 though, calling three World Series, four National League Championship Series and four All-Star Games from 1983-89.
After the 1989 NLCS, Scully’s contract with NBC expired and he left to focus primarily on his duties with the Dodgers while also calling World Series games on national radio for CBS. While Scully also continued broadcasting golf events for NBC and ABC for much of the 1990s, his primary focus was always the Dodgers.
Before the start of the 2016 season, Scully announced that his 67th year would be his last as a broadcaster. The final game he called at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 25 of that year ended in a walk-off home run off the bat of Charlie Culberson in the 10th inning to defeat the Colorado Rockies, clinching the NL West in the process.
His final game then came on the road against the San Francisco Giants on Oct. 2. Scully left open the possibility of calling postseason games, but ended up not doing so as he said goodbye when signing off of his final broadcast.
Scully was replaced by Joe Davis as the primary broadcaster of the Dodgers.
Career Awards
Throughout his decades in the booth, Scully won the Ford Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame, the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame, the California Sports Hall of Fame and the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Scully also became the first non-player or manager inducted into the Dodger Stadium Ring of Honor on May 3, 2017.
Personal life
Scully’s first wife, Joan Crawford, died at the age of 35 of an accidental medical overdose in 1972. He then married Sandra Hunt in 1973, and they remain together until this day, residing in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Scully has four children, two stepchildren, sixteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. His oldest son, Michael, tragically died in a helicopter crash at the age of 33 while working for the ARCO Transportation Company.
