Sports world remembers Irv Cross, former NFL player turned sports TV pioneer

Tom Gatto

Sports world remembers Irv Cross, former NFL player turned sports TV pioneer image

Irv Cross was a leading figure in making sports television more inclusive. His work on the groundbreaking "The NFL Today" helped to bring many more Black faces to screens.

Cross died Sunday at age 81. His death was announced by the Eagles, for whom Cross played as a defensive back from 1961-65 and 1969. (He also played for the Rams from 1966-68.) No cause of death was given. 

Cross made history in 1971, just over a year after he retired from football, when he became the first Black full-time network TV sports analyst, working NFL games for CBS and hosting studio shows. His broadcasting career began several years earlier while he was still playing; he did radio and TV sports in Philadelphia.

In 1975, he was cast with Phyllis George, Brent Musburger and Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder for the premiere of CBS's live NFL pregame show, "The NFL Today." George was the first woman to report full time on the NFL on network television. She died in May 2020.

MORE: Women in TV sports hailed Phyllis George

Cross worked on "The NFL Today" through 1989 and was with CBS through 1994.

"He was a true gentleman and a trailblazer in the sports television industry and will be remembered for his accomplishments and the paths he paved for those who followed," CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said in a prepared statement.

Musburger hailed Cross as his "go-to mainstay" on "The NFL Today."

Several of those followed acknowledged Cross' influence.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Cross in 2009 with the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.