Bob Costas

Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster, on the air for the NBC network since the early 1980s. His mother was of Irish Catholic descent, and his father was of Greek descent. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. Bob's father, John Costas, was an electrical engineer, baseball fan, and gambler.

Career

Bob Costas was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in Commack on Long Island and went to Commack South High School. Following high school he attended the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, though he left school before graduating to begin his professional career.

Prior to joining NBC in 1980, he was a play-by-play announcer for the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association, worked at KMOX Radio in St. Louis, and was briefly employed by the CBS network.

Costas has frontlined many Olympics broadcasts for NBC. They include the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Salt Lake City in 2002, Athens in 2004, and Turin in 2006. A personal influence on Costas has been legendary ABC Sports broadcaster Jim McKay, who hosted many Olympics for ABC from the 1960s to the 1980s, although some observers felt that Costas' attitude towards the aging McKay during the 2002 Games seemed condescending at times.

In June 2005, Costas was named by CNN president, Jonathan Klein, as a regular substitute anchor for Larry King's Larry King Live for one year. Costas, as well as Klein, have said that Costas is not trying out for King's position on a permanent basis. Nancy Grace was also named a regular substitute host for the show.

On August 18, 2005, Costas refused to host a Larry King Live episode where the subject was missing teen Natalee Holloway. Costas said he had no hard feelings about the subject, but that he was uncomfortable with it.