FILE – Greg Gumbel (left) watches as Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun talks with Butler head coach Brad Stevens (right) before a television interview for the NCAA Final Four men’s college basketball championship game on April 3, 2011 in Houston records.

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Eric Gay/AP

NEW YORK – Greg Gumbel, a longtime CBS Sports anchor, has died of cancer, according to a statement from his family released by CBS on Friday. He was 78.

“He leaves a legacy of love, inspiration and dedication for over 50 extraordinary years in the sports broadcasting industry; and his iconic voice will never be forgotten,” his wife Marcy Gumbel and daughter Michelle Gumbel said in a statement.

In March, Gumbel missed his first NCAA Tournament since 1997 for health reasons, he said at the time. Gumbel has been the studio anchor for CBS since returning to the network from NBC in 1998. Gumbel signed an extension with CBS last year that allowed him to continue hosting college basketball while stepping away from his NFL announcing duties.

In 2001, he announced Super Bowl XXXV for CBS, becoming the first black announcer in the United States to call play-by-play of a major sports championship.

David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports, described Gumbel as a person who broke barriers and set the standard for others during his years as the voice of fans in sports, including the NFL and March Madness.

“Greg was an outstanding broadcaster and gifted storyteller and led one of the most remarkable and groundbreaking sportswriting careers of all time,” Berson said.

Gumbel had two stints at CBS, leaving the network for NBC when it lost football in 1994 and returning when he won the contract back in 1998.

He anchored CBS’ coverage of the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics and anchored Major League Baseball games during the national pastime’s four-year broadcast. In 1995, he hosted the World Figure Skating Championships and the following year he anchored NBC’s daytime coverage of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders (left) and running back Michael Irvin (88) share the Vince Lombardi Trophy as NBC commentator Greg Gumbel interviews the two after Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Arizona, January 28, 1996.

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But it was football and basketball where he was best known and had the greatest influence. Gumbel hosted CBS’s NFL studio show “The NFL Today” from 1990 to 1993 and again in 2004.

He was also the network’s lead play-by-play announcer for NFL games from 1998 to 2003, including Super Bowl XXXV and XXXVIII. He returned to the NFL booth in 2005 and left that role after the 2022 season.

“Like everyone who knew and loved him, I am saddened by his passing but also so grateful to have known him in my life,” CBS Sports college basketball game and studio analyst Clark Kellogg said in a statement. “What a gift to be touched by such a good man and partner.”

Gumbel, the older brother of sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, grew up in Chicago and graduated from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1967 with a degree in English. During his long career, he won local Emmy Awards and received the 2007 Pat Summerall Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting.

Outside of his career as a sportscaster, he was associated with the March of Dimes for three decades, including as a member of the Board of Trustees. He also served on the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Athletic Council for 16 years.