Dick Enberg is one of the most famous sports broadcasters in the history of television. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ll know the voice of the man who’s covered the World Series, Super Bowls and Wimbledon. With signature calls such as “Touch ’em all” and “Oh, my!” Enberg has endeared himself to the nation in his 50-plus years of narrating American sports history.

On his way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Enberg made a four-year stop at California State University, Northridge — or as it was known at the time, San Fernando Valley State College — in the early 1960s. He had been the play-by-play announcer for the Indiana University Hoosiers football and basketball games, but arrived in 1961 at Northridge with a different title: health sciences professor and Valley State head junior varsity baseball coach, then assistant coach for the baseball team under legendary coach Stan Charnofsky.

Enberg would spend five years in Northridge, a span that would see him just missing Valley State/CSUN’s first championship — the 1965 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship in baseball. Enberg, now announcing San Diego Padres baseball games, came back to campus recently for a reunion of the 1965 championship team, and he talked about some of his memories of San Fernando Valley State College.

Dick Enberg on… the 1965 Valley State team:

“It’s a special camaraderie, a team that won its first title for this university, San Fernando Valley State College then. I’m a little saddened that my timing was off. I was the assistant coach with Stan Charnofsky in 1963-64, and then Ralph Prator, the president of the college, asked me to be his assistant, so I left the baseball program. And then they win the championship!

“But I knew all the players … and for a non-scholarship program — ’SC, UCLA had their pick, and then Valley State took what was left here in the Valley — they were really good players. I mean, we really had good teams, good talent without having any of the financial reward for those who played.”

… what he got from his time at Valley State:

“It launched my continued love for the game of baseball, and it’s the best game … and to be able to come to a school and be paired with someone I didn’t know — Stan Charnofsky, who in today’s world would’ve made it to the Major Leagues … and to be able to work next to him and watch how he taught baseball to the kids. I learned more in one week about baseball — and I thought I knew a little bit — working with Charnofsky than I had in my life. And I still use it as a broadcaster. There’ll be times within a game, there’ll be an incident and it will take me all the way back to the early ’60s and Charnofsky and the way he coached. I’ll use that myself and sound a lot brighter than I really am, and I’m thankful for that.”

… on how teaching prepared him for broadcasting the Super Bowl:

“[Today] I look into a camera, and all I see is a cold, hard camera and a cameraperson. But I also imagine there to be a classroom for the Super Bowl full of 140 million people. And as I do my work, I’m thinking to myself — are they getting the message clearly and am I doing my job? Are those hands being raised as if to say, ‘Hey Enberg, I didn’t quite get that, explain it a different way.’ So, the experience as an educator is the one great asset I have over those that are in my profession, so thank you CSUN … SFVS College too!”

Watch the full interview, with video of Enberg reminiscing about his time at San Fernando Valley State College, below.

CSUN Baseball, Dick Enberg