Bryant Gumbel

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Bryant Gumbel's Bio: Best known as the long-time host of NBC's Today morning news program, Bryant Gumbel has distinguished himself as one of the most skillful and quick-thinking news hosts on television. He has also become, as was stated by Bill Carter in the New York Times, ";the most visible African-American in the world of network news." Gumbel gained this status during his 15-year tenure on Today and in other high-profile assignments, such as hosting NBC's coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Gumbel left the "Today Show" and "Dateline NBC" in 1997 and moved to CBS, hosting various shoes before becoming co-host of the network's "The Early Show" on November 1, 1999. He later left CBS to focus his energy on his acclaimed investigative series "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" on HBO. Although he has hosted "Real Sports" since 1995, the show has hit its stride in recent years thanks to Gumbel being able to devote the bulk of his time. According to HBO, "Real Sports" has been described as "flat out TVs best sports program" by the Los Angeles Times, and has earned 15 sports Emmys and a 2006 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for broadcast journalism, the first time in the award's history that it was given to a sports program.

Born in New Orleans in 1948, Gumbel grew up with two younger sisters and older brother Greg--who is now a well-known network sportscaster--in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His father Richard was a Cook County probate judge who had worked two jobs to put himself through law school at Georgetown University. Richard Gumbel would instill in Bryant his focus on the importance of reading and of writing and speaking well. He also taught him how to play baseball, feeding his son's growing passion for sports. As a student majoring in Russian history at Maine's Bates College, Bryant played baseball and football. However, his hope of becoming a professional athlete was ended by a wrist injury. Instead, Gumbel moved to New York City to work as a salesman for Westvaco Corporation, an industrial paper company; he quit this job after six months. While his parents hoped that he would attend law school, Gumbel was determined to try his hand at sports reporting. He soon landed a job with Black Sports magazine and, within the year, was promoted to editor. … Read more