Eli Gold
Eli Gold (born December 1953 in Brooklyn, New York) is a sportscaster, best known as host of NASCAR Live on the Motor Racing Network since 1982, and as the radio voice of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team from 1988 to 2024. Gold also anchors NBC Sports' Arena Football League coverage and provides radio play-by-play for the National Football League.
Gold's father was the director of the Brooklyn Jewish Center and his mother worked for Chase Manhattan Bank. He graduated from Midwood High School and sold peanuts in Madison Square Garden as a boy, taking the opportunity to meet athletes and broadcasters. He began his broadcasting career in 1972 as a weekend sports reporter for the Mutual Broadcasting System. His first specialty was hockey and he has announced for teams in the Eastern, North American, Southern, American, Central, and National Hockey Leagues. In the NHL, Gold announced games for the Saint Louis Blues.
He moved to Birmingham in 1977 to broadcast the Birmingham Bulls hockey team of the World Hockey Association. He created Birmingham's first local sports call-in show, Calling All Sports on WERC which became a staple of Birmingham sports radio for 20 years. He eventually rose to the position of Sports Director for that station's television affiliate, WBRC 6, where he anchored evening news sports segments and hosted "Sports Talk with Eli", a weekly call-in show. From 2002 to 2004, he hosted a daily sports talk show also called Calling All Sports on WJOX-AM.
Gold has also performed announcing duties for the Birmingham Barons and the UAB Blazers basketball team. He has been voted "Alabama Sportscaster of the Year" four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He has also won the same honor from the Associated Press and United Press International.
In addition, Gold has worked with MRN Radio and TNN Motorsports as a lap-by-lap announcer of NASCAR races. He still, from time to time, can be heard on MRN's NASCAR broadcasts.
In 2009, Gold and Walter Caron opened Nino's Italian Restaurant in Pelham. The two met around 2003 when Gold and his wife frequented Salvatore's in Vestavia Hills where Caron was the manager. As a favor to Caron and Salvatore Bambinelli, around 2005 Gold recorded radio commercials for Salvatore's in exchange for food credit. As late as 2013, the Bambinelli family were still airing the spots on Birmingham radio stations, during Paul Finebaum's show and during Gold's own sportscasts. Gold came out publicly against the spots since Salvatore's and Nino's compete for some of the same customers, but had no legal recourse as he does not own the spots.
Gold was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. He was hired to provide play-by-play for the Birmingham Bulls hockey team in 2017.
During the 2020 football season Gold continued to call games despite having undergone two surgical procedures to replace shoulder joints. An assistant helped him with his spotting charts.
Gold missed the start of the 2022 football season due to health issues. Chris Stewart took his place calling those games and hosting the Nick Saban Radio Show. He returned to the booth for home games only during the 2023 season. In February 2024 he was informed that his contract would not be renewed after it ran out in June. Stewart succeeded him as full-time announcer, beginning with the 2024 A-Day game on April 13.
Books
- Gold, Eli (2005) Crimson Nation: The Shaping of the South's Most Dominant Football Team. Rutledge Hill Press. ISBN 1401601901
References
- Bio at Footballspeakers.com
- capsule bio at RollTide.com
- Carlton, Bob (April 24, 2009) "Eli Gold, voice of the Crimson Tide, to open Pelham restaurant." The Birmingham News
- Torenli, John (January 7, 2010) "Brooklyn Native Eli Gold To Call National Title Game Tonight." Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- Carlton, Bob (December 11, 2013) "Alabama's Eli Gold responds to radio ads: 'I DO NOT ENDORSE Salvatore’s restaurant'." The Birmingham News
- Wray, Cheryl (June 23, 2017) "Eli Gold hired as Birmingham Bulls hockey play-by-play broadcaster." The Birmingham News
- Goodman, Joseph (November 24, 2020) "Eli Gold endures pain, surgeries to broadcast Alabama games." The Birmingham News
- Casagrande, Michael (August 2, 2022) "Eli Gold to miss start of 2022 Alabama season with health issues, replacement named." The Birmingham News
- Casagrande, Michael (February 21, 2024) "Eli Gold ‘not retiring,’ speaks out after Alabama opts to not retain broadcast legend." AL.com
- Heim, Mark (February 22, 2024) "Eli Gold on Nick Saban’s call, what Alabama offered, when he knew ‘something was up’ and more." AL.com