Pat Summerall's early years behind the mic

Pat Summerall was an American football broadcasting institution, working on TV almost from the day he retired as a player after the 1961 season. With assistance from the excellent sports broadcasting information website the506.com, I've compiled this list of his early work for CBS:

1962-64: Summerall was the color commentator to Chris Schenkel's play-by-play man for New York Giants games.

(In those days CBS assigned a duo to each team. For much of the '60s fans received a home-team audio feed; for example, if Washington and New York were playing a regular-season game, fans in the New York market would hear Schenkel and Summerall while fans in the Washington viewing area would hear Jim Gibbons and Eddie Gallaher.)

1965-67: Summerall is switched to Washington and paired with Gibbons. Frank Gifford takes his place alongside Schenkel in the Giants' booth.

Summerall's first postseason broadcasting assignment is as an analyst for the Dec. 26, 1965 Western Conference playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts. He gets the same assignment for both nationally televised Packers-Colts games in the 1966 regular season, the 1966 NFL Championship Game, Super Bowl I, the 1967 Western Conference Championship Game between the Packers and the Los Angeles Rams and Super Bowl II.

1968-69: CBS moves to the system we see today, with fixed pairs of announcers working different games each week. Summerall is paired with Jack Buck. At the end of the 1969 season, Summerall and Buck were in the booth for Super Bowl IV between the Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs.

1970-71: Summerall is paired with Ray Scott throughout the regular season. They're in the booth for the 1970 and 1971 NFC Championship Games and Super Bowl VI, coincidentally all Dallas Cowboys victories.

1972: Summerall is again paired with Ray Scott during the regular season. After they broadcast the Dec. 23, 1972 playoff game between the Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park -- a game which was highlighted by Roger Staubach's late rally in relief of Craig Morton -- Summerall and Jack Buck are in the booth for the NFC Championship between Washington and Dallas at RFK Stadium.

1973: Summerall is moved around during the season. He works with Scott, Buck, and Jack Whitaker. For the Nov. 18, 1974, game between the Rams and 49ers, he's in a three-man booth with Buck and Bart Starr. It's Buck and Summerall in the booth for the NFC Championship Game, then Scott, Summerall and Starr behind the microphones for Super Bowl VII.

1974, Oct. 27: Summerall and Tom Brookshier, partners on the NFL Films highlight show "This Week In Pro Football" since the start of the 1970 season, work a CBS game together for the first time, Washington at St. Louis. Summerall had been with Buck before this game, but he and Brookshier are partners for the remainder of the season. In the playoffs, they're joined by Starr for the Washington-Los Angeles playoff game and the NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Rams. (The latter was Starr's last game as a CBS broadcaster; he'd taken the Green Bay Packers head coaching job five days before.)

NFL Films
Summerall also was the host for "This Week In The NFL" in 1968, and co-host with Charlie Jones for "This Week In Pro Football" during the 1969 season.