Eli Gold, the voice of the Crimson Tide, will be the guest speaker at the 2014 Escambia County University of Alabama Alumni and Friends annual spring meeting and membership drive.
The meeting will be held Monday, May 12 at the Country Club of Brewton. Registration will begin at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.
Gold works with the Crimson Tide Sports Network (CTSN) — a network with more than 50 radio stations in Alabama and around the south will broadcast Alabama football games in 2013. Gold is now in his third decade as the voice of the Tide.
Gold has called the action of every Crimson Tide game since 1989. A nationally known sportscaster, Eli is also the host of ‘NASCAR Live’, a weekly, nationally syndicated radio call-in show. His broadcasting career includes play-by-play for NFL, Arena Football League and NHL games on radio and television.
According to his bio on his website eligold.com, Gold was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He started his sports broadcasting career in 1972 working as a weekend sports reporter with the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Eli has handled various play-by-play assignments over the years. Included are 12 years as a professional hockey announcer in the Eastern, North American, Southern, American
and Central Hockey Leagues as well as the World Hockey Association (Birmingham Bulls) and the National Hockey League (St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators).
Eli was the first play-by-play announcer for the UAB Blazers basketball team and remained part of that broadcast crew for six years.
Eli spent four years as the “voice” of the Birmingham Barons baseball team (AA Southern League) and was named the Southern League’s Broadcaster Of The Year in 1983.
Since 1976, Eli has been a member of NASCAR’s Motor Racing Network (MRN), which broadcasts NASCAR racing events over a 600 station radio network. Over the years, Eli has served the network as a co-anchor, turn announcer and pit reporter. In addition, since 1982, Eli has hosted a weekly, nationally syndicated, radio call-in show about NASCAR racing. “NASCAR Live” is now heard on over 450 of MRN’s radio affiliates each and every Tuesday night. Many companies with ties to racing continue to call upon Eli to narrate their corporate videos and speak at their special functions and dinner banquets.
Effective with the 1996 NASCAR racing season, Eli began serving as the anchorman for The Nashville Network’s (TNN) televised coverage of NASCAR racing. Eli has also worked in a play-by-play role with ESPN, CBS Sports and NBC Sports in their coverage of NASCAR racing.
Starting with the 1988 season, Eli became the radio play-by-play voice of the University Of Alabama Crimson Tide football and basketball teams. His responsibilities with “The Tide” also included hosting “Hey Coach”, the weekly football and basketball coach’s radio call-in show. To this day, Eli continues as the football “voice” of the Tide. In the past, Eli was called upon by CBS Sports to handle the play-by-play on a college basketball regional telecast featuring the Universities of Georgia and South Carolina.
Starting with the 2000 season, Eli became TNN’s “voice” of the Arena Football League handling the play-by-play for the network’s live coverage of the AFL. Eli continued as the play-by-play announcer for the entire 3-year run of the AFL on TNN. In 2003, NBC Sports hired Eli to join the network as a play-by-play announcer for their coverage of the Arena Football League. In addition to his work on NBC, Eli has also been an Arena Football League play-by-play announcer for both FOX Sports Net (FSN) and Comcast Sports.
Starting in the Fall of 2003, Eli became part of SportsUSA Radio Network’s coverage of the National Football League. SportsUSA Radio is one of two national networks to offer live, syndicated coverage of the NFL. Eli handles the play-by-play of one NFL game each weekend. In addition, Eli continues to “call” post-season college football bowl and all-star games for SportsUSA Radio.
Looking back, Eli has served as the host of “Thursday Night Thunder” which was part of ESPN’s auto racing coverage. He has handled college baseball broadcasts for SportsChannel America and was the radio network play-by-play voice of the Florida Citrus Bowl in both 1989 and 1990. For 7 years, Eli also hosted “This Week In NASCAR”, a live televised call-in show that over the years aired both on “Prime Network” and TNN.
Outside of his play-by-play duties, Eli was the Sports Director for WERC Radio in Birmingham, Alabama and for six years hosted a nightly sports call-in show entitled “Calling All Sports”. He resigned his position with WERC to accept a job as Sports Director with WBRC-TV Channel 6, which at that time was Birmingham’s ABC affiliate. At WBRC, Eli anchored three sportscasts each evening and also hosted a weekly call-in show “Sports Talk With Eli”. Eli elected to leave WBRC-TV at the expiration of his contract to further expand his play-by-play duties.
Eli is a 4-time Alabama Sportscaster Of The Year as voted by his peers in the National Sportscasters And Sportswriters Association. He was twice named Alabama Sportscaster Of The Year by the Associated Press and once earned the same honor from United Press International.
Born in December 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, Eli now resides in Birmingham, Alabama and Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina with his wife Claudette and their daughter Elise.
The event will be $35 per person. Guests are asked to RSVP by Thursday, May 8. For more information, contact Miriam McDaniel at 251-363-2020 or by fax at 251-809-8485. McDaniel can also be reached by email at mmcdaniel@indata.us.
Membership for the group is $15 for individuals or $25 for family. Please make checks payable and mail to: Escambia County Alumni Chapter, P.O. Box 1662, Brewton, Alabama, 36427.