Jim Nantz: Life Lessons from My Dad

[MUSIC PLAYING] My father taught me so many different lessons. I think the one that maybe stands out the most is just be kind to others. My father had a philosophy that in a lot of ways maybe was a little naive, but it’s the way he lived his life. And that’s the prism with which I was raised and the way I look at the world. 

My father gave everyone a chance. He was kind, and he was open hearted to everyone. Maybe sometimes that trust and that hope and optimism for the other person was betrayed. But it kept him happy. It kept him positive. And that’s the way he looked at the world. 

My father really believed as far as advice goes that anything you wanted to do was attainable, if you were willing to work hard enough to achieve it. And it applied to me specifically because when I was a little boy, I told my parents when I was 11 years old one day I want to work for CBS. CBS broadcast the Masters tournament. To me, that was as good as it gets. And my father said we can make that happen. You got to figure out every possible angle. You got to work for it. And follow your dream. Dream big. And that was really the advice was just if it’s something you wanted badly enough, work for it. Believe in it. You can make it happen. 

For my family and friends, I’ve always been Jimmy. See, I’m the third. My father was Jr. And my grandfather was Jim Nantz Sr. But my dad was known professionally. He was known privately. His friends knew him as Jim. I was Jimmy. 

So Jimmy is what all of my loved ones call me and all my closest friends. The only time I’m ever known as Jim is when I’m on the air. So every time I say “Jim Nantz” on the air, I always think that’s my father. That’s not me. I mean, that might be the professional name you know me as. 

And there’s one other thing that’s attached to that, and that’s the opening slogan that I say now in every broadcast. “Hello, friends.” That is a direct line to my father, because my father had so many friends in his lifetime. He was a very wealthy man. Not monetarily, but wealthy as far as friends. He had nothing but friends. No one could ever walk away and have a bad word to say about my dad. People loved him. 

So I was thinking early in the onset of Alzheimer’s in the late ’90s. I wanted to say something that maybe would trigger something for my father to know that I was thinking of him. So I opened up a broadcast– this is years ago– by saying “Hello, friends. Jim Nantz here.” Wherever the event might be, some football game or basketball or golf tournament. 

And that really– every time I say that on the air, “Hello, friends,” that originated as a tribute to my father. And then, of course, I say “Jim Nantz here with Nick Faldo or Phil Simms or Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr.” I mean, that’s my father’s name that’s on the air. 

[MUSIC PLAYING]