Barry Tompkins
Encyclopedia
Barry Tompkins is a well-known American sportscaster. He is better known for his work as a boxing
commentator, but he has covered football
and another number of sports as well.
radio station KCBS
in 1965, before being hired as sports director at the local CBS
television affiliate, KPIX-TV
. Since then he has spent five years at NBC, ten years at HBO, eight years at ESPN, and the past fourteen years at Fox Sports.
In 1974, he moved to New York
to join WNBC-TV as a sports anchor and feature reporter, before moving to NBC Sports
in 1975 to host weekly radio shows as well as television play-by-play for basketball and football.
Tompkins returned to San Francisco in 1978 and joined then-NBC affiliate KRON-TV
as sports director, while continuing to cover Pac-10 basketball for NBC as well as feature stories for its NFL pre-game show. He left KRON in 1980 to join the then-fledgling cable channel HBO
.
and Sugar Ray Leonard
as a member of the HBO Boxing
show's team. He called fights at HBO for many years and some of his commentaries became famous, such as his call when Alexis Argüello
was hurt by Aaron Pryor
in round fourteen of their Battle of the Champions
(Arguello...oh! Arguello is hurt!!), when Héctor Camacho
was buckled by Edwin Rosario
in round five of their fight (Camacho had never been hurt before!) and when Mike Tyson
won the WBC
world Heavyweight title with a second round knockout of Trevor Berbick
(And we have a new era in boxing.). In 1992, he won the Sam Taub Award
for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism. Tompkins also co-hosted HBO's baseball program, Race for the Pennant
.
, when he portrayed a USA Network
sportscaster during the Rocky Balboa
-Ivan Drago
fight in Rocky IV
. Later he moved to the ESPN
network, where he covered mostly ten round bouts alongside Al Bernstein
on Thursday Night Fights for a number of years.
Huskies football team. Former Husky football great Don Heinrich
provided color commentary.
. Most recently, he has ventured into the sport of mixed martial arts
as commentator for the newly revamped World Fighting Alliance
.
Tompkins covered Pacific-10 Conference college football
with Petros Papadakis
from 2005-2010. Tompkins has also announced Pac-10 basketball games for Fox Sports Net alongside Dan Belluomini or Marques Johnson. Tompkins broadcasts San Jose State, Stanford, and California football and basketball games for Comcast Sports Net California and Comcast Sports Net Bay Area.
, going into its second season. Tompkins fight duties with FSN are expected to continue. Tompkins will call nine broadcasts with Joe Glenn
during the 2011 season.
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
commentator, but he has covered football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and another number of sports as well.
San Francisco, New York City and NBC
Barry Tompkins was born and raised in San Francisco,he began his broadcasting career as a writer and producer for San FranciscoSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
radio station KCBS
KCBS (AM)
KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
in 1965, before being hired as sports director at the local CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television affiliate, KPIX-TV
KPIX-TV
KPIX-TV is the CBS owned and operated television station in San Francisco, California. Through its parent company CBS Corporation, KPIX is co-owned with The CW affiliate KBCW-TV ....
. Since then he has spent five years at NBC, ten years at HBO, eight years at ESPN, and the past fourteen years at Fox Sports.
In 1974, he moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to join WNBC-TV as a sports anchor and feature reporter, before moving to NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
in 1975 to host weekly radio shows as well as television play-by-play for basketball and football.
Tompkins returned to San Francisco in 1978 and joined then-NBC affiliate KRON-TV
KRON-TV
KRON-TV, virtual channel 4 , is a television station in San Francisco, California, serving as the Bay Area affiliate of the MyNetworkTV programming service; the station is owned by Young Broadcasting...
as sports director, while continuing to cover Pac-10 basketball for NBC as well as feature stories for its NFL pre-game show. He left KRON in 1980 to join the then-fledgling cable channel HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
.
HBO
At HBO, Tompkins came into much greater national prominence alongside Larry MerchantLarry Merchant
Larry Merchant is an American former sportswriter, a longtime commentator for HBO Sports presentations of HBO World Championship Boxing, Boxing After Dark and HBO pay-per-view telecasts, and is considered "the greatest television boxing analyst of all time" by ESPN Boxing analyst Dan Rafael.-Life...
and Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles...
as a member of the HBO Boxing
HBO Boxing
HBO World Championship Boxing is a sports television series, premiering in January 1973 that has shown a number of significant boxing events in the last three decades....
show's team. He called fights at HBO for many years and some of his commentaries became famous, such as his call when Alexis Argüello
Alexis Argüello
Alexis Argüello , also known by the stage name El Flaco Explosivo , was a Nicaraguan professional boxer and politician...
was hurt by Aaron Pryor
Aaron Pryor
Aaron Pryor is a former boxer from Cincinnati, Ohio, and member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He is the former world Junior Welterweight champion, and regarded as one of the greatest fighters in the history of the weight class.-Amateur career:Pryor, nicknamed The Hawk, had a record of...
in round fourteen of their Battle of the Champions
The Battle of the Champions
The Battle of the Champions, was a term used by promoter Bob Arum regarding the November 12, 1982 boxing match between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Argüello.-The Fighters:...
(Arguello...oh! Arguello is hurt!!), when Héctor Camacho
Héctor Camacho
Héctor Camacho , nicknamed "Macho Camacho", is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. His son, Héctor Camacho Jr., is also a boxer.- Early life and amateur career :...
was buckled by Edwin Rosario
Edwin Rosario
Edwin "El Chapo" Rosario was a Puerto Rican boxer. He was the WBC world lightweight champion from 1983–84 and the WBA world champion in 1986–87 and again in 1989–90...
in round five of their fight (Camacho had never been hurt before!) and when Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
won the WBC
World Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
world Heavyweight title with a second round knockout of Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican-Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought as a professional from 1976 until 2000. Berbick briefly held the WBC heavyweight championship in 1986 , before losing it to 20-year old Mike Tyson, via 2nd-round TKO...
(And we have a new era in boxing.). In 1992, he won the Sam Taub Award
Sam Taub Award
The Sam Taub Award is a yearly award presented by the International Boxing Hall of Fame for Excellence in Broadcasting Journalism. The award is named after Sam Taub, a journalist and radio broadcaster who is best known for his work covering boxing. It is similar to Major League Baseball's Ford C....
for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism. Tompkins also co-hosted HBO's baseball program, Race for the Pennant
Race for the Pennant
Race for the Pennant is a weekly sports show that focused on Major League Baseball and premiered on Home Box Office in 1978. It was hosted by Len Berman, Tim McCarver, Barry Tompkins, Bob Gibson, Maury Wills and others....
.
Acting career and ESPN
Tompkins made his acting debut in 19851985 in film
-Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...
, when he portrayed a USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
sportscaster during the Rocky Balboa
Rocky Balboa (character)
Robert "Rocky" Balboa, Sr. is a fictional character and the main protagonist portrayed by Sylvester Stallone who has appeared in the Rocky series from 1976 to 2006. During the series, he wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World twice....
-Ivan Drago
Ivan Drago
Ivan Drago is a fictional character that appeared as Rocky Balboa's rival in the 1985 film Rocky IV. He is portrayed by Dolph Lundgren. The character and his catchphrases have gone on to inspire multiple mentions in popular culture like Clubber Lang , including in the Family Guy episode "Brian...
fight in Rocky IV
Rocky IV
Rocky IV is a 1985 American film written by, directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the fourth and most financially successful entry in the Rocky franchise...
. Later he moved to the ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
network, where he covered mostly ten round bouts alongside Al Bernstein
Al Bernstein
Al Michael Bernstein is an American sportscaster, writer, stage performer, recording artist, and speaker.-1970s:In the 1970s, he was a newspaperman, working at Lerner Newspapers in Chicago. He eventually became a managing editor at that newspaper....
on Thursday Night Fights for a number of years.
KIRO Radio
From 1986-88, Tompkins served as play-by-play announcer for the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
Huskies football team. Former Husky football great Don Heinrich
Don Heinrich
Donald Alan Heinrich was an American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback. He played college football at the University of Washington, and also played professionally for the NFL's New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, and in the American Football League for the Oakland Raiders in...
provided color commentary.
Fox Sports Net
Currently, Tompkins is the play-by-play announcer of the Fox Sports Network's Sunday Night Fights, and he travels through the United States alongside Sean O' Grady and Amy Hayes each two weeks to tape the Fox fight show. Tompkins commentates much of FSN's poker coverage, including the Aussie Millions and Poker Dome ChallengePoker Dome Challenge
The MANSIONPoker.net Poker Dome Challenge was a 43-week series of speed poker tournaments offering a grand prize of $1,000,000 USD. The tournament aired in the United States on Fox Sports Network from May 2006 to March 2007. The tournament featured a number of technological gimmicks in an effort to...
. Most recently, he has ventured into the sport of mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
as commentator for the newly revamped World Fighting Alliance
World Fighting Alliance
The World Fighting Alliance was a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States.Originally owned and organized by MMA Legend and trainer John Lewis and nightclub operator and "Club Rubber" promoter John Huntington along with Lawyer Louis Palazzo , the WFA began promoting events after...
.
Tompkins covered Pacific-10 Conference college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
with Petros Papadakis
Petros Papadakis
Petros Papadakis is an American television personality and radio co-host of the Petros and Money Show on Fox Sports Radio. He is a former tailback and American football team captain for the University of Southern California Trojans football team. He is also known as "The P."Papadakis's family...
from 2005-2010. Tompkins has also announced Pac-10 basketball games for Fox Sports Net alongside Dan Belluomini or Marques Johnson. Tompkins broadcasts San Jose State, Stanford, and California football and basketball games for Comcast Sports Net California and Comcast Sports Net Bay Area.
WAC Sports Network
In July 2011 it was announced that Tompkins would leave Pac-12 football broadcasts and instead be the new play-by-play man for the WAC Sports NetworkWestern Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
, going into its second season. Tompkins fight duties with FSN are expected to continue. Tompkins will call nine broadcasts with Joe Glenn
Joe Glenn (American Football)
Joe Glenn was the 30th head coach at the University of Wyoming since the school began playing football in 1893. Glenn took over Wyoming's football program in December 2002 after Wyoming fired the previous coach, Vic Koenning...
during the 2011 season.