Ross Porter

Who is Ross Porter?

Ross Porter is an American sportscaster,

Porter was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1955, then went on to earn a radio journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma. His broadcasting career began at age 14 when he broadcast a few innings in several games involving Shawnee's Class D baseball team, the Hawks, a Los Angeles Dodgers farm club, over KGFF. At age 15, Porter was elevated to play-by-play man of the Shawnee Wolves' football and basketball broadcasts and the Hawks when the regular announcer resigned. At a highschool football game one night, Ross was introduced by his father to legendary Jim Thorpe.

After earning his college degree, Porter was hired by WKY radio in Oklahoma City as a newscaster. He also was a sports anchor for WKY-TV, and at age 24 became the youngest recipient of the Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year award, and the youngest state winner ever in the nation. Ross repeated the next year.

In 1966, at age 27, he left for Los Angeles and subsequently spent 10 years as a sportscaster for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. He worked alongside Tom Snyder on the 6 PM news and Tom Brokaw on the 11PM news. Porter won two local Emmys.

Ross joined the Dodgers broadcast team on radio and television before the 1977 season and spent 28 seasons. Porter also called play-by-play of NFL on NBC football for seven seasons and Pacific Eight basketball contests from 1972 to 1976 for NBC. Ross had to give up his NBC assignments when he joined the Dodgers because of an overlap in seasons. He later was the radio and television voice of UNLV football and basketball from 1978 to 1992.