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Howard W. Cosell 1918 - 1995

Howard William Cosell of New York, New York County, NY was born on March 25, 1918 in Winston-Salem, NC, and died at age 77 years old on April 23, 1995. Howard Cosell was buried on April 25, 1918 at Westhampton Cemetery, Westhampton, NY.

Howard William Cosell

William Howard Cohen at birth. He changed his name in college.

New York, New York County, NY 10021

March 25, 1918

Winston-Salem, NC

April 23, 1995

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Howard W. Cosell Howard Cosell (1918 - 1995)

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Howard William Cosell's History: 1918 - 1995

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Introduction

Howard Cosell Famous memorial Original Name William Howard Cohen Birth 25 Mar 1918 Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, USA Death 23 Apr 1995 (aged 77) New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA Burial Westhampton Cemetery Westhampton, Suffolk County, New York, USA Show Map Plot Row I (just before the cemetery house) approx. 200 feet on the right in the row with a bench. Memorial ID 7960 · View Source Memorial Photos 4 Flowers 964 Television Sportscaster. He gained wide fame and acclaim during his tenure as a football commentator on ABC's "Monday Night Football". Born Howard William Cohen in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he attended New York University, where he received a degree in law and was admitted to the New York State Bar at the age of 23. He served in the Army during World War II, and opened a law office in Manhattan upon his release, which counted several actors and athletes among his clients, including baseball legend Willie Mays. He also represented the Little League of New York, and this led to his hosting a Saturday morning radio show in which Little Leaguers interviewed major league baseball players. He did the show for three years, and finally retired from practicing law to work as a broadcaster full-time. His greatest fame came in the form of ABC's "Monday Night Football", when ABC decided to take a chance by putting a sports event on in prime time. It was wildly popular, and for thirteen years Cosell brought his style of "telling it like it is" to football fans every Monday night. He also appeared in the movie "Bananas", directed by Woody Allen, and appeared twice on the television series "The Odd Couple". These two episodes were the highest rated in the program's entire run. In 1978, he was voted as both the most hated sportscaster of all time, and the most loved sportscaster of all time. He was also famous for his friendship with boxing legend Muhammad Ali and defended Ali when he refused to be inducted into the Army during the Viet Nam war. Cosell retired from ringside broadcasting at boxing games in 1982, which he had done beginning in the 1960s, and left "Monday Night Football" in 1983. He also authored four best-selling books and hosted a weekly radio program for ABC radio until 1992. In poor health since being diagnosed with cancer in 1991, he died of a heart embolism at New York University's Hospital for Joint Diseases at age 77. Raised marker: COSELL We Thank Whatever Gods May Be For Your Unconquerable Souls In Loving Memory Ground marker: IN LOVING MEMORY HOWARD WILLIAM COSELL 1918 - 1995 Family Members Parents Isidore Martin Cohen 1889–1957 Spouse Mary Edith Abrams Cosell 1921–1990 (m. 1944)
03/25

1918

Birthday

March 25, 1918

Birthdate

Winston-Salem, NC

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Polish Jews.
Nationality & Locations

Born in Winston-Salem and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
Early Life & Education

New York University and he excelled in law school.
Religious Beliefs

Jewish. His wife and daughters were Jewish too.
Military Service

He served as a MAJOR in the Army during World War II.
Professional Career

The Most Famous Sportscaster of the 20th Century.
04/23

1995

Death

April 23, 1995

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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04/25

1918

Gravesite & Burial

April 25, 1918

Funeral date
Westhampton Cemetery, Westhampton, NY
Burial location
Obituary

Howard Cosell, Outspoken Sportscaster On Television and Radio, Is Dead at 77 By Robert Mcg. Thomas Jr. April 24, 1995 Howard Cosell, who delighted and infuriated listeners during a 30-year career as the nation's best-known and most outspoken sports broadcaster, died yesterday at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in Manhattan. He was 77. Mr. Cosell, who had been in failing health, died of a heart embolism, said his grandson, Justin Cohane. He had undergone surgery in June 1991 for the removal of a cancerous chest tumor. From his first days on radio in the 1950s to the peak of his fame during his 14 years on "Monday Night Football," Cosell -- once simultaneously voted the most popular and the most disliked sportscaster in America -- tended to be loved and loathed for the same undisputed characteristics: his cocksure manner and his ebullient, unqualified immodesty. "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff," Cosell once said. "I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." Partly because he entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, Mr. Cosell offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became a dominant note of sports broadcasting. "I tell it like it is," was the way he put it in a signature remark that was often challenged but never to the point where Cosell would back down. When the tape of a football game established that Cosell had referred to a black player as "that little monkey," Cosell, whose civil rights credentials were secure in any event, simply denied it. And if there were those who were shocked when he likened the autocratic International Olympic Committee chairman Avery Brundage to "William of Orange" or offended when he suggested that most baseball players were "afflicted with tobacco-chewing mind," their complaints were music to Mr. Cosell's ears. To Mr. Cosell, criticism was just another form of homage. If the criticism came from other broadcasters. he always considered the source: "There's one thing about this business," he once said, "there is no place for talent. That's why I don't belong. I lack mediocrity." Mr. Cosell had radio shows on the ABC network, made many cameo appearances in movies and on television, testified before Congress, covered the Olympics, and became so closely associated with Muhammad Ali that he was widely regarded as the boxer's alter ego. But he achieved his greatest fame and reached his largest audience from 1970-1983, when he was an analyst for ABC's "Monday Night Football." Mr. Cosell owed his position on "Monday Night Football" to his outspoken ways. Roone Arledge, the ABC executive who hired him in 1969, had made it a point that the broadcasters on his new program would be independent of the National Football League. Hiring Mr. Cosell drove the point home. Although Mr. Cosell was known for his knack for making the most straightforward observation sound as if it were being translated from Latin, he was rarely as sesquipedalian as newspaper and magazine writers inevitably became when they described him. He spoke in a clutched-throat, high-pitched Brooklyn twang with a stately staccato that tended to put equal stress on each syllable of every word, infusing even the most mundane event with high drama. Howard William Cohen (birth name) was born on March 25, 1918, in Winston-Salem, N.C., to Isadore and Nellie Cohen. His father was an accountant for a chain of clothing stores and eventually moved the family to Brooklyn, where Mr. Cosell played varsity basketball at Alexander Hamilton High School before attending New York University. During his college years, he changed his name to Cosell, which gave rise to a famous put-down later: "Howard Cosell, a man who changed his name, wears a toupee and tells it like it is." Mr. Cosell had so little vanity that he used to hang his toupee on a hatrack when he was off camera. But he was stung by the implication that he had changed his name from Cohen to disguise his Jewish heritage. He chose Cosell, he said, because it was close to the original spelling of the family's Polish name. With his older brother, Hilton, following their father's profession, Mr. Cosell was steered to the law. "I was just another Jewish boy," he said, "who became a lawyer because his parents wanted him to be one." Even so, he excelled at New York University Law School, where he was editor of the law review. His law practice included entertainment and sports clients, including Willie Mays. After helping a client organize Little League in the New York area, Mr. Cosell came up with the idea of a radio program in which Little Leaguers would interview major league stars. ABC bought the idea in 1953. The twice-a-week series -- once described by Mr. Cosell as a "combination of 'Juvenile Jury' and 'Meet the Press' " -- became something of a hit, largely because the questions the Little Leaguers asked were Mr. Cosell's. "I give the youngsters leading questions," he explained at the time. "Like, 'Coach, you once called your team a load of garbage. Now what did you mean by that?' " In 1956, he quit his law practice and began doing sports reporting and commentary for ABC. Mr. Cosell, who tended to regard his colleagues as cheerleaders, did not endear himself when he let it be known that he was not overly impressed with the world they covered, either. "Let's face it," he said, "this is the toy department of life." But Mr. Cosell's very irreverence tended to infuse the toy department with an aura of importance. As Larry Merchant, then of The New York Post, once said, Mr. Cosell made "the world of fun and games sound like the Nuremberg trials." That's what Mr. Cosell, a penetrating interviewer with a penchant for asking athletes trenchant questions, had in mind. "I speak my mind," he said. "I don't think it's controversial to ask them the same sort of questions asked of Dean Rusk," then the Secretary of State. Mr. Cosell also freely shared his opinions, most famously his staunch defense of Ali after the boxer, claiming religious objections, refused to be drafted and was convicted of draft evasion and stripped of his championship. "I enjoyed interviews with Howard the best," Ali told The Associated Press yesterday. "We always put on a good show. I hope to meet him one day in the hereafter. I can hear Howard now, saying, 'Muhammad, you're not the man you used to be.' " Although he was a quick study who could not help achieving a certain mastery of the strategies and tactics of the sports he covered, Mr. Cosell was often derided by competitors for his comparative ignorance. "I don't regard myself as a rabid fan at all," he said. "I couldn't care less who wins what game. To me, it's the people, the way men react under pressure, the quality of courage." The focus on personalities was successful, especially after he joined ABC's "Wide World of Sports" as a boxing commentator, frequently interviewing Ali who was at the peak of his fame, some of which rubbed off on Mr. Cosell. Even after beginning his stint on "Monday Night Football" he was a fixture at virtually every major ABC television broadcast. In December 1982, after watching an especially brutal beating, he announced he would do no more boxing commentary because, he said, "I am tired of the hypocrisy and sleaziness of the boxing scene." He left "Monday Night Football" after the 1983 season (and the end of a four-year, $6 million contract) saying that pro football had become "a stagnant bore." Two years later, after his book "I Never Played the Game" (Morrow), written with Peter Bonventre, was deemed overly critical of his former "Monday Night Football" colleagues, ABC Television dropped Mr. Cosell's "SportsBeat" program, ending his run on television. In January 1992, six months after his surgery for cancer, he cut his last ties to broadcasting, retiring from two ABC radio programs. Mr. Cosell, whose wife, Emmy, the former Mary Edith Abrams, died in November 1990, is survived by two daughters, Hilary Salomon and Jill Cohane, and six grandchildren.

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Howard W. Cosell lived 2 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 77.

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7 Memories, Stories & Photos about Howard

Amanda S. Stevenson

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01/12/2023

Howard Cosell in a NUTSHELL!

Howard Cosell
Howard cosell 1975.JPG
Cosell in 1975
Born Howard William Cohen

March 25, 1918
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Died April 23, 1995 (aged 77)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater New York University
Occupations

Journalist author radio personality columnist sports commentator lawyer television personality

Years active 1953–1993
Spouse Mary Edith Abrams "Emmy" Cosell

(m. 1944; died 1990)
Children 2
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1941–1945
Rank Major
Unit United States Army Transportation Corps
Battles/wars World War II

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