Carolina Quotes

Howard Cosell

North Carolina · born or raised1918–1995

American sportscaster (1918-1995)

  • Born in Winston-Salem

sports journalist, lawyer, journalist, military personnel, presenter, sports commentator

Quotations with a citation

Look at that little monkey run!
During the Halftime Highlights segment of Monday Night Football on September 24, 1973 when describing a 97-yard kickoff return by Washington Redskins player Herb Mul-Key against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.
Neither Howard Cosell nor Keith Jackson uttered this quote during their telecast of the 1977 World Series. The phrase "the Bronx is burning" originated five years earlier in an episode of Man Alive describing fiscal shortfalls at fire stations in the Bronx, then later misattributed to Cosell and Jackson after the World Series telecast, which featured footage of a school building burning in-between game action.
This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead … on … arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which in duty bound, we had to take.
Monday Night Football, December 8, 1980.
That little monkey gets loose, doesn't he?
September 1983, referring to wide receiver Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins; the statement was denounced as racist, but it was pointed out that Cosell had regularly used the same term to describe small players of all races.

Recorded without a firm citation

Kept here, labelled, rather than mixed in above.