RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Generations of Americans grew up knowing this voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DICK ENBERG: Third down to Kelly (ph), he throws, Brooks (ph) wide open. Kevin Ross makes the tackle.
MARTIN: Sportscaster Dick Enberg died yesterday at the age of 82 after a career that lasted half a century.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It goes back to 1965 when Enberg got a chance to work at a Los Angeles TV station. In the decades that followed, Dick Enberg called everything from Wimbledon to the World Series to the NCAA basketball finals to 10 different Super Bowls.
MARTIN: People knew his catchphrases.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ENBERG: That ball is drilled to deep left center field, and Myers will touch 'em all.
MARTIN: He'd say touch 'em all, all the bases. And when something astounding happened on the field...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ENBERG: There's a throw, and he is out of there. Oh, my.
INSKEEP: Oh, my, indeed. He kept working until last year, and as Dick Enberg stepped aside, he had a chance to address the crowd for his home team, the San Diego Padres.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ENBERG: And I promise I'm going to be alongside you fans on the curb when the San Diego Padres - no, the World Series champion San Diego Padres parade by.
INSKEEP: That's emblematic. He got to spend his life as a reporter but also as a fan.
(SOUNDBITE OF EL TEN ELEVEN'S "SETTLING WITH POWER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.