Bob Costas Biography

American sportscaster Bob Costas was born Robert Quinlan Costas in 1952 in Queens, New York. Bob spent his formative years in Commack, New York, on Long Island, graduating from high school with a strong academic record and then attending Syracuse University to major in Communications. However, Costas never graduated; he was offered his first gig hosting a radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, and so he left New York and launched his broadcasting career in his early twenties.

Bob Costas began his sports casting career calling play-by-play for the Spirits of St. Louis and then later for the Missouri Tigers. He then fulfilled the same role for the Chicago Bulls in the late 1970’s, and landed his first network gig with CBS Sports in the mid 1970’s. But ultimately, it was with NBC that Bob Costas ultimately found his breakthrough in broadcasting, hosting NBC’s National Football League. He also did play-by-play for Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association, and then became host of his own program, Costas Tonight, on the NBC Sports Network.

Since that time, Bob Costas has become among the era’s most recognizable sportscasters, hosting coverage of nearly every sport, from golf to football. Costas has also front lined many NBC Olympic broadcasts, in nearly every Olympic year between 1992 to present day. Costas also hosted the syndicated radio program, Costas Coast to Coast, for a full decade, in addition to the late night television broadcast Late with Bob Costas. The show earned Costas an Emmy for Best Informational Series in 1993. In 2001, Bob Costas began hosting a series of shows for the HBO network, including: On the Records with Bob Costas, Inside the NFL, and Costas Now. In addition, he has served as host for various shows on the MLB Network, NFL Network, and PBS.

Today, Bob Costas can be seen doing play-by-play for the MLB Network, and on his own show, Studio 42 with Bob Costas, which also airs on MLB.




During his first four years at HBO, Costas hosted "On The Record With Bob Costas," which established itself as one of network television's most respected programs for its compelling mix of interviews, commentary and opinion.

In May of 2006, Costas was presented with the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Studio Host, marking the fifth straight year that he has received that honor from the National Academy of Arts & Sciences. The award recognized his work on both HBO and NBC Sports.

In addition, Costas Now was awarded the Sports Emmy for "Outstanding Edited Sports Special" for the compelling journey of David Robinson, the son of sports pioneer Jackie Robinson, who has built a life and a business cooperative in Tanzania.

In September 2002, Costas and all-time NFL great Cris Carter joined Cris Collinsworth and Dan Marino as co-hosts of HBO's award-winning football program "INSIDE THE NFL," cable's longest-running series. With the addition of Costas and Carter, ratings for the series rose considerably in 2002 and the program received the Sports Emmy Award in April of 2003 for Outstanding Studio Show - Weekly. The program was again recognized as the Outstanding Studio Show - Weekly at the May 2005 Sports Emmy event and the 2006 Sports Emmys. The 31st season of "INSIDE THE NFL" will begin Wednesday, September 13, 2006.

Costas, a 26-year veteran of NBC Sports, joined the network's sports division in 1980. Since then, he has hosted seven Olympics and been prominently involved in virtually every major sports event, including numerous World Series, Super Bowl and NBA Finals broadcasts. His most recent Olympics assignment was serving as prime time host for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

From August 1988 through January 1994, he hosted his own late-night interview show, "Later with Bob Costas," on NBC; the program won the 1993 Emmy Award(r) for Outstanding Informational Series. He has also received 15 Sports Emmys(r) as a broadcaster and two Sports Emmys(r) for writing and another as host of the general interest program "Later with Bob Costas" on NBC. His book "Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball," published in the spring of 2000 spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, garnering excellent reviews. He also was the narrator for the books and audio package "And the Crowd Goes Wild" and "The Fans Roared," both of which made The New York Times bestseller list. Costas has been honored as Sportscaster of the year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association a record eight times.