Television personality Hank Goldberg dead at 82

Hank Goldberg, a longtime sports announcer in Miami who rose to national fame as a handicapper and reporter for horse racing and professional football on ABC and ESPN, died on Monday, his 82nd birthday, in Las Vegas, where he had resided for the past four years, after suffering from a prolonged, chronic illness.

Goldberg, nicknamed “Hammer,” continued working right through the most recent Triple Crown, making selections for both ESPN2 and CBS Sportsline.

A natural storyteller, Goldberg was first exposed to sports journalism via his father, Hy, a columnist for the Newark Evening News. But it took awhile for Goldberg to finally choose that as his profession, too.

After graduating from Duke University, Goldberg worked in advertising, first in New York, then in Florida, where his old friend Larry King recommended Goldberg for a radio hosting gig. He supplemented his income ghost-writing a betting column for Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, back when Snyder was a regular on pre-game studio shows for CBS telecasts of NFL football.

Goldberg literally found his voice in broadcasting. He eventually became a regular drive-time radio host, and also was on local sports television in Miami. He was the radio color commentator of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins for 14 years, through 1992. While in Florida, he became close friends with such important television contributors as director Bob Fishman and producer Mike Pearl, both in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Goldberg subsequently was hired by ESPN for NFL coverage, appearing regularly on the flagship show “SportsCenter,” and he developed sources with every team. He widened his sphere to horse racing, too. He worked on racing shows, such as the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup, for ABC and ESPN for more than 20 years.

As a more than 40-year resident of Miami, Goldberg became a well-known celebrity there, his cachet coming in handy when he would arrive at Joe’s Stone Crab, where the two-hour wait would magically disappear and Goldberg would barely break stride heading to his table, similar to the pull the late Daily Racing Form columnist Joe Hirsch had there.

In the summer, though he lived on the East Coast, Goldberg beginning in the mid-1990s made annual pilgrimages to Del Mar, where he would stay for nearly two weeks, golfing in the mornings and playing the horses in the afternoon. Friends there would fete him for more than 20 years via a barbecue, known as the “Hank Goldberg Burger Bash.” So determined was Goldberg to attend Del Mar that even after he had to have dialysis treatment, he found a place that could accommodate him for two weeks in Southern California.

Goldberg was longtime friends with a number of prominent sports personalities, beginning with Joe DiMaggio, whom Goldberg first met as a youth through his father. While in Miami, he became close with many members of the Dolphins, most notably coach Don Shula. One of his best friends was the late NFL owner Al Davis, whose son Mark, now the owner of the Raiders, remained close to Goldberg, especially so after both wound up in Las Vegas.

He had similar interactions with racing personalities. Even this past spring, while ill and confined to Las Vegas, Goldberg reached out to a number of trainers of Kentucky Derby prospects to get insights. Through the years, he was particularly close with Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, with whom Goldberg was a co-owner of several runners before he moved to Nevada.

Goldberg in 2010 was one of six sports journalists cast as extras who played reporters in the feature film “Secretariat.”

Goldberg is survived by his younger sister Liz, who helped oversee Goldberg’s care after he moved to Las Vegas, where she already resided.