Bob Wolff
Bob Wolff is honored by the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest career as a sportscaster with before the game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City, May 1, 2014. Getty Images

Bob Wolff, the longest running broadcaster in the history of television and radio, died Saturday night aged 96, according to reports.

The veteran sportscaster is said to have died peacefully at his Nyack home in New York. The cause of his death is unknown, however, according to his son Rick Wolff, he had been recovering from a cold.

Wolff began his broadcasting career in 1939 while he was studying at the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Throughout his career, he broadcasted thousands of games, from the World Series and the Super Bowl to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and interviewed many of the biggest names in sports, including Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

In the memory of the legendary sportscaster, here are 10 fast facts about him:

  1. Wolff graduated from the Duke University with Phi Beta Kappa Society and Omicron Delta Kappa honors.
  2. He is the only sportscaster to call play-by-play of championships in all four major North American professional team sports — baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.
  3. Wolff wanted to be a baseball star but broke his ankle in a rundown play as a freshman at the Duke University. He then turned to broadcasting and began his professional career in 1939 on CBS News in Durham, North Carolina, and was later was seen and heard on News 12 Long Island, MSG Network programming. He also conducted a number of sports interviews on the Steiner Sports' Memories of the Game show.
  4. Wolff became the pioneer TV voice of the Washington Senators Baseball Club in 1947, moved with the team to Minnesota in 1961 and then joined NBC News as the play-by-play man on the TV Baseball Game-of-the-Week in 1962.
  5. He was also the play-by-play announcer for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and the National Horse Show for 33 years.
  6. Wolff and another sportscaster Curt Gowdy are the only two broadcasters to be honored by both the Baseball and Basketball Halls of Fame. Wolff has also been honored with an induction into Madison Square Garden's Walk of Fame, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, Sigma Nu Fraternity Hall of Fame, among others.
  7. In 2014, he was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest consecutive run as a broadcaster at 74 years 6 months and 8 days as of that day.
  8. He maintained recordings of all his interviews and commentary and donated about 1,400 audio and video recordings, consisting of well more than 1,000 hours to the Library of Congress.
  9. With the Washington Senators, Wolff often had to act in commercials on live television. Once, he couldn’t pry the lid off a can of Prince Albert pipe tobacco, straining and yakking until the lid finally flew open, spilling the tobacco everywhere.
  10. Wolff has authored three books —10 Minutes to Massive Arms (1994),’ ‘Bob Wolff's Complete Guide to Sportscasting: How to Make It in Sportscasting With Or Without Talent(1996),’ ‘It's Not Who Won or Lost the Game – It's How You Sold the Beer(2011).’
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