HISTORY's Moment in Media: Bill White Breaks the Color Barrier for Play-by-Play Sports Announcers

But Bill White might be best known as the first Black person to serve as a regular play-by-play announcer for an American pro sports team. He made history on February 10, 1971-- 53 years ago this month -- when the New York Yankees said he'd be joining their broadcast booth. Covering the announcement, a writer for the New York Post dubbed the groundbreaking White "the Jackie Robinson of the broadcast booth."

He joined co-broadcasters Phil Rizzuto, a former Yankee, and Frank Messer, an announcing pro. He'd go on to do the job for 18 seasons, including building a legendary rapport with Rizzuto, a Hall of Fame shortstop known for his big and eccentric personality, excited cries of "holy cow" and not infrequently leaving games early in order to beat the traffic home to New Jersey.

By contrast, White -- and that's what Rizzuto always called him, never Bill -- was a direct, plainspoken and deeply knowledgeable presence in the booth. In fact, he even occasionally displeased Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for being too honest and analytical in his role, and not enough of a Yankees booster.

Since his playing days, White was known to be a decent and honorable guy. In 1964, when his St. Louis Cardinals beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series, he still showed up on the night of that final win to speak at a church banquet, a commitment he'd made much earlier in the season.

White was also willing to stand up vocally for civil rights. He joined the majors in 1956, nine years after Jackie Robinson's Major League debut but before the March on Washington in 1963 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- and at a time when during spring training in Florida Black players weren't allowed to stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as their white teammates.

White had grown up in Ohio. He'd been exposed to racism, but not like the pernicious Jim Crow system in the South. The first time he experienced real segregation was when he was recruited to the minor leagues in 1953. During spring training with the New York Giants in Phoenix, he tried to go to a movie but wasn't allowed because the theater didn't have a balcony -- and, in Arizona then, Black patrons weren't permitted to sit anywhere but in theater balconies.

Later, with the Cardinals, he grew increasingly frustrated with the way he was treated as compared to his white teammates, especially during spring training. In 1961, the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce held a "Salute to Baseball" breakfast and invited only white players. White freely shared his complaints with a reporter. "When will we be made to feel like humans?" he asked. He gained support from media outlets and the Cardinals organization. By the next year, a local businessman had purchased motels for all the Cardinals players to stay at, Black and white. And by the time of the Civil Rights Act, all spring training facilities were integrated.

White's broadcast career started with the Cardinals, too. Harry Caray, the legendary announcer, was calling games for St. Louis when White played there. When White kidded Caray about how easy his job was, Caray challenged the ballplayer to try it. White did -- and took to it. He became a part-time sportscaster for St. Louis radio station KMOX. Later, when he played for the Phillies, he moved over to television and in the off-season called both basketball and hockey. An inveterate baseballer, he was known to refer to the puck as a ball.

With the Yankees, Rizzuto's antics gave White the chance to hone his skills as a solid, reliable announcer. In White's very first game for the Yankees, at spring training, Rizzuto spotted Joe DiMaggio in the stands and ran off to catch up with the legend, his old teammate. The rookie White was left to handle the broadcast alone.

He pulled it off, of course -- and went on to the long and successful career with WPIX, the Yankees' local TV channel. For a few years in the '70s, he covered the World Series for CBS Radio. He had a brief stint on the Today show. He only left the Yankees booth when the team had moved most of its games to cable, leaving less for him to do on WPIX.

A half-century after White broke the play-by-play color barrier, the number of Black pro sports play-by-play announcers is still small. Dave Sims, who calls games for the Seattle Mariners, and the biracial John Schriffen, play-by-play man for the Chicago White Sox, are the only two Black announcers calling Major League baseball. In the NBA, the Washington Wizards made history in 2022 with the first all-Black broadcast team, including Drew Gooden and Chris Miller in the booth and Meghan McPeak on the sidelines. But many more Black sportscasters are working as color commentators. And there's a scholarship fund dedicated to helping further diversify the play-by-play ranks.

As for White, today he's living in the Philadelphia suburbs and a member of the Cardinals Hall of Fame. This year, he was a nominee for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the category that considers executives, umpires and managers. He lost out to Jim Leyland, the beloved former manager, but if White's long and varied career proved anything, he'll be back as a nominee again -- and he'll win.

Photo credit: MLB.

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