Over the last two years, Tony Romo and Jim Nantz have emerged as the hottest duo in sports media while working as CBS' lead NFL broadcast announce team.
Although the 38-year-old and the 59-year-old are separated by a generation, golf history links these two CBS talents.
SN SOURCES:
Romo wants record deal from CBS
During a press call previewing CBS' coverage of the 2019 Masters, Nantz told an interesting story about his friendship with Romo. Turns out Romo's fondest sports memory as a kid was watching Nantz call the 1998 Masters, a tournament that often gets overlooked in the pantheon of memorable Masters moments.
In that final round more than two decades ago, defying all the laws of sports, age and logic, a 58-year-old Jack Nicklaus was making an improbable charge for his seventh green jacket. But in his way stood a formidable field of young and established golf stars: 1992 Masters champ (and Nantz's former college roommate) Fred Couples; 1994 PGA Champ Paul Azinger; future Masters champ Phil Mickelson; eventual major winners Jim Furyk and David Duval; and the year's ultimate winner, Mark O'Meara.
That spring, a teenage Romo was turning 18 and living in tiny Burlington, Wisc. Nicklaus, who had won his sixth Masters at age 46 in 1986, was Romo's golf hero. After returning from church with his family, Romo and his father made a beeline for the TV.
There was Nicklaus, sparking those familiar roars at Augusta National Golf Club.
Romo, who had remembered Nantz's classic line about Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters at age 46 — "The Bear has come out of hibernation" — had his hair set on fire by Nantz's 1998 opening for Nicklaus' last hurrah: "Welcome to the final round of the Masters. And you are not going to believe what you are about to see."
Fast-forward many years. When the former Cowboys quarterback was recently asked about his favorite sports moment as a kid, it wasn't a Super Bowl. He picked Nantz's spine-tingling table setter for Nicklaus' last stand at Augusta.
As Romo recalled last year to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated:
"Honestly, this is how I talked to Jim when we first met. I have to tell you this story. Remember in 1986 when Jack Nicklaus comes back to win the Masters when he was down by like four on that Sunday. That was Jim Nantz’s first or second Masters. And (Nicklaus) was on the 16th green and (Nantz’s) line when Jack makes a putt was — I think it is one of his best lines ever — “The Bear … has come out of hibernation.” It still gives me goose bumps.
But what people don’t remember, but I really do, is the 1998 line by Jim. The Masters did not come on until like noon or 1 p.m. so you didn’t even know what was happening on that Sunday morning. You could not just pull it up online or track it on the internet. You had to wait for the telecast to come on. So Nicklaus is 58 years old then, and my dad and I come home from church and we are waiting for the golf. Nicklaus is in contention. There are only five or six guys in front of him so if he plays a good front nine, he is in it. CBS comes on the air and Jim Nantz’s opening line is, "Hold on, folks, you are not going believe this.”
Scroll to Continue with Content
Boom, my eyes get wide and I hit my elbow on my ceiling because I jumped so high. They go right to Nicklaus and he had birdied on three and six. The Masters had opened up with Nicklaus within like one of the lead at 58 years old. Anything bigger than that? Think about if Tiger Woods was within one of the lead at the Masters next year on the final Sunday.I know I’m going off on a tangent, but I told Jim about my feelings on 1998 one of the first times we went out to dinner. This is what I remember about Jim Nantz. That line encapsulates the moments we remember and if you can hit the line and nail it, which he does so often, I think that is really cool. That’s what I want to do with some of these moments. You can make people feel the moment."
MORE 2019 MASTERS:
Odds for Tiger; favorites to win
Like Romo does, Nantz remembers the 1998 Masters like it was yesterday.
As Nantz recalls, the network's first image coming out of black, as they say on TV, was Nicklaus playing his second shot to the second hole. Once the tournament was over, he moved on. But years later, somebody forwarded an article to Nantz with the quote from a certain Cowboys QB citing Nantz/Nicklaus in '98. Call it the power of TV.
"So it became a little more meaningful as time went on," Nantz said.
Or, as CBS Sports boss Sean McManus added: "So, once again, evidence that Tony Romo was destined to work with Jim Nantz."
Nantz will chronicle the memorable 1998 Masters in his long-running-series, "Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta: Mark O'Meara at the Masters," on Sunday, April 14 (1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET).
For its 64th consecutive Masters tournament, CBS will offer week-long coverage, highlighted by third-round coverage Saturday, April 13 (3-7 p.m. ET) and final-round coverage Sunday, April 14th (2-7 p.m. ET).
CBS and Augusta collaborated on a re-design of on-air graphics, according to McManus. Otherwise, TV viewers should expect to see many familiar TV faces on their customary holes, including:
— Nantz and top analyst Nick Faldo in the 18th hole tower.
— Living legend Verne Lundquist on the par-three 16th Hole; his call of Tiger Woods' 2005 chip-in is now part of sports history lore. ("In your life, have you ever seen anything like that?)
— Plus, Ian Baker-Finch on the 17th hole; Peter Kostis on the 15th hole; Bill Macatee on the 14th hole; Dottie Pepper on the 13th hole; and Frank Nobilo on 11th and 12th holes. Amanda Balionis will handle interview duties.