Among Keith Jackson's many broadcasting skills lived that Sinatra-like sense of timing. If he had to leave us, which he did Friday night at age 89, four days after the end of the college football season seems about right.
Few telecasters have become as identified with a single sport to a national audience as Jackson with college football. The reason might be that he began in an era when every game wasn't televised, and we had only a few channels from which to choose. It may be that he served as the play-by-play man of the top games as college football soared to new heights in American popularity.