Southeastern Conference fans like to call the CBS play-by-play man one of their own, but life in the SEC has been an acquired taste for Lundquist, 70, who was born far, far away in Duluth, Minn.
College football fans outside the SEC have criticized Lundquist for being an apologist for the league. He broadcast Olympic figure skating events with Scott Hamilton back in the day, and perhaps that helps explain why he recently called Auburn's Cam Newton a "delightful young man."
Besides CBS, Lundquist has worked for ABC and TNT on the network level.
He first big break came as a commentator on "Bowling For Dollars" for Dallas station WFAA-TV. The Sun Bowl inducted Lundquist into its Hall of Fame in 2005.
Do you like Verne Lundquist? Do you not like Verne Lundquist? Hit it up.
Speaking as a "Southeastern Conference fan," I'm happy to stand up and say that Verne sucks, and so does Gary Danielson. Verne is a clueless spout of hyperbole who doesn't deserve to be mentioned on the same page as either Keith Jackson or Ron Franklin. Continually mistaking volume for insight, Verne missed out on his real calling: infomercial pitch man--where he'd be much easier to ignore.
Besides the incessant commercials and pitches for bad TV shows, he's the worst thing about the SEC's ill-considered long-term contract with Can't Broadcast Sports.
Verne, you suck.
Posted by: Will Collier | October 25, 2010 at 06:57 AM
As an SEC fan, I was going to weigh in with my complete annoyance with the senile fool, but Will beat me to it and there's hardly anything I can add except that his unbounded Tebow-love was nausea-inducing. Even now, he can barely overcome his Tebow-Tourette's which caused him to mention Timmy every broadcast regardless of whether Florida was playing or not. That Verne and Gary are the best CBS can come up with for the SEC GotW is a sad statement on the network's sports capabilities.
Posted by: Jay G. | October 25, 2010 at 10:08 AM
Verne, before he became a mouthpiece for the SEC and network sports, was the radio voice for the Dallas Cowboys. He was also the sports director for Channel 8 in Dallas (pre Dale Hanson) and was not nearly the over-the -top shrill he has become. I liked him a great deal in those days, now not so much.
Posted by: Mike M | October 25, 2010 at 11:20 AM
I just realized why I dislike Lundquist & Danielson's broadcasts so much. It's not that they're biased - I can deal with hometown commentators, and actually they're more enjoyable than most. It's that Lundquist & Danielson are conference biased and are always trying to hype BOTH teams. Yes, Cam Newton and Auburn are spectacular on offense, but you can't claim LSU has a spectacular defense in the next sentence. This happens every play every Saturday, and it's just ridiculous.
Posted by: Tom | October 25, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Can't we clone ron franklin and have him call all college football games on tv??
Posted by: binoba | October 25, 2010 at 07:30 PM
Wikipedia couldn't have said it better
Posted by: Craig James | October 26, 2010 at 04:21 PM
Verne sucks; Danielson is okay...
Posted by: Pointer | November 01, 2010 at 05:31 PM
Verne is anti SEC. How can one person be ignorant and have a high profile job like that. Ron Franklin please come to CBS!!
Posted by: Jeff | December 04, 2010 at 01:10 PM
Verne is soooo bad. I tired of his unprofessional delivery. He spends so much time belittling the losing players. Give me a Chris Collingswoth type announcer. Thre has tobe some better.
Posted by: Murray Kesten | September 24, 2011 at 02:54 PM
I have listened to Verne for several years and have noticed over the last couple of years that he is missing more calls than he gets right. He constantly calls out wrong players and even called a play in Saturday's Bama/LSU game an interception when every person watching knew it wasn't. He has lost his ability to effectively do his job and should be replaced ASAP.
Posted by: Roger | November 07, 2011 at 08:21 AM