After 589 football games in the radio booth, iconic voice of the Washington State Cougars, Bob Robertson announced his retirement effective immediately.
“I’ve been with the Cougars a lot of years, more than half a century, calling basketball, football for the fans around the Northwest and elsewhere around the country and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s been great to be with you Cougars at your meetings and get-togethers, and I hope we can do it again and I’m sure we will,” said Robertson in a statement released by the university.
“But as of this moment, I’ve now asked the athletic department at Washington State University to list me as a retired, former sportscaster for the Cougars,” Robertson continued. “It is a matter of getting old is what it is. Everything seems to move a lot faster around me, I move more slowly. I hope to see you soon, I’m not going to go away. I like Washington State people and the school itself too much to do that. But I am going to be on the retired list, starting immediately.”
The 89-year old Robertson called WSU games for 52 years, working as their radio play-by-play voice for football from 1964–2011, minus three years from 1969-71 and most recently as an analyst during the past seven seasons. Robertson also spent 23 years as the play-by-play announcer for WSU basketball.
During Robertson’s hall-of-fame broadcasting career, he called Pacific Coast League baseball for three decades, Seattle Mariner games in the late 1990s, hockey, boxing, wrestling, as well as Notre Dame football and basketball. In 2009 WSU honored their legendary sportscaster by renaming the university’s radio booth the Bob Robertson Broadcast Suite.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.