Greg Papa

Gregory Charles Papa (born October 10, 1962)[1] is an American sportscaster, currently employed as the radio play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco 49ers. He has also broadcast for the Indiana Pacers, Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, San Antonio Spurs, Oakland Raiders and San Francisco Giants during his career.[2]

Greg Papa
Born
Gregory Charles Papa

(1962-10-10) October 10, 1962
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Alma materSyracuse University
Sports commentary career
Team(s)Indiana Pacers (1984–86)
Golden State Warriors (1986–97)
Oakland Athletics (1991–2003)
San Antonio Spurs (1997–2000)
Oakland Raiders (1997–2018)
San Francisco Giants (2004–08)
San Francisco 49ers (2019–present)
Genre(s)Play-by-play
SportsNational Basketball Association
Major League Baseball
National Football League

He is best known as the radio play-by-play caller for the Raiders and the host of Chronicle Live on NBC Sports Bay Area.[3] He, Garry St. Jean, and Kelenna Azubuike do the in-studio analysis for all the Golden State Warriors regular season games on NBC Sports Bay Area. He is the younger brother of deceased Philadelphia sportscaster Gary Papa. Papa is a three-time California Sportscaster of the Year Award winner.[4] He also currently cohosts a radio program with John Lund weekdays from 10am-2pm.

Career highlights

After graduating from Syracuse University, Papa was a member of the Indiana Pacers' television and radio broadcasting team from 1984 to 1986.[5] Then, he moved west and from 1986 to 1997, he was the radio announcer for the Golden State Warriors (including the famous "Sleepy Floyd Game," where Warrior Sleepy Floyd scored 51 points against the Lakers in a playoff game).[6] From 1997 to 2000, Papa became the lead announcer on the San Antonio Spurs' telecasts. During this span, he was also the television play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics with Ray Fosse from 1991 to 2003.[2]

Oakland Raiders

Until his dismissal prior to the 2018 season, Papa was play-by-play announcer for the Raiders, alongside his color commentator, former Raider coach Tom Flores.[7] The Raiders hired Papa for the 1997 season, replacing Joel Meyers, who had himself replaced King. His work was very much in the tradition of his predecessor, Bill King. Like King, his touchdown calls were punctuated by "TOUCHDOWN, RRRRAID-ERS!!!" Papa's best calls arguably were: Tyrone Wheatley's 26-yard run in the Raiders 1999 finale against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium ("Wheatley won't go down!!!")[8] along with describing the events during the Tuck Rule game,[9] when the Raiders seemingly had won a 2001 playoff game during a snow storm at New England after forcing a late fumble, only to see referee Walt Coleman reverse the call after consulting instant replay. The Patriots went on to win the historic, controversial contest in overtime.

Oakland Athletics

Greg Papa was also the television play-by-play announcer for the Oakland A's with Ray Fosse from 1991 to 2003.[10]

San Francisco Giants

From 2004 to 2008, Papa called play-by-play for San Francisco Giants broadcasts on KTVU television and KNBR radio. In 2008, Papa hosted 35 of the 50 scheduled editions of "Giants Pregame Live" and all 65 of the "Giants Postgame Live" shows on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He occasionally announced several of the Giants' games on TV and radio when Jon Miller was on assignment at ESPN.[2]

When Dave Flemming's microphone went dead when the ball was in the air for what turned out to be Barry Bonds' 715th career home run on May 28, 2006, Papa took over the broadcast, apologized to listeners, and explained what happened on the field.[11]

Golden State Warriors

Since the 2011-12 season, along with Garry St. Jean, Greg Papa has hosted both "Warriors Pregame Live" and "Warriors Postgame Live" on NBC Sports Bay Area.[12] The duo also provide in studio analysis at half-time for the station's coverage of Warriors regular season games.

San Francisco 49ers

In 2018, Papa hosted 49ers pre- and postgame live on NBC Sports Bay Area, alongside Donte Whitner, Ian Williams, and Jeff Garcia.[13]

Beginning with the 2019 season, Papa took over as the radio voice of the 49ers, handling the play-by-play duties for the team on KNBR 680 with analyst Tim Ryan.[14] His touchdown calls are variations of Bill King. He punctuates a score with, “TOUCHDOWN, SAN-FRAN-CISCO!”

Other

Papa also does work for NBC Sports California, notably for broadcasts of the California Golden Bears football and basketball teams.[15] He has also done San Jose Stealth and San Francisco Dragons lacrosse games. Papa is also formerly host of Chronicle Live, a nightly Bay Area sports talk show covering all Bay Area sports. He was also the play-by-play announcer for Hardball 6: 2000 Edition and some of his Oakland A's broadcast audio was in the 2011 film Moneyball.

In 2017, Papa began co-hosting The Happy Hour, a conversational discussion sports program on NBC Sports Bay Area, with sports anchor Kelli Johnson and media personality Ray Ratto.[16] The Happy Hour was cancelled by NBC Sports Bay Area in 2018 with the last airing on December 21, 2018.[17]

Personal

Papa resides in Danville, California with his wife, the former Angela Garay. They have four children: Alexandra, Danielle, Erika and Nicolas.[2] Papa has a son, Derek, from his first marriage. His brother, the late Gary Papa, was a long time sportscaster for WPVI in Philadelphia. His other family members are associated with National Fire Adjustment Co., Inc; his grandfather Bernard founded the company in 1922 and father Frank (1926-2019) served as its longtime chairman.[18]

References
  1. Slusser, Susan (December 20, 1996). "AIRWAVES -- Papa's the Talk of the Town". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 16, 2015. Greg Papa came to the Bay Area 10 years ago.
  2. Official Site of The San Francisco Giants: Team: Broadcasters
  3. "Mullin opens up on Chronicle Live -- tonight at 8:30 p.m." nbcsports.com. Comcast SportsNet California, LLC. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  4. "GREG PAPA". compassmedianetworks.com. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  5. Slusser, Susan. "AIRWAVES -- Papa's the Talk of the Town / Announcer has earned respect". sfgate.com. Hearst Communications. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  6. Slusser, Susan. "SUSAN SLUSSER ON THE AIR -- Papa Out, Fitzgerald In on Warriors TV". sfgate.com. Hearst. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  7. Matt Kawahara (2018-07-17). "Raiders: Musburger in, Papa out as announcer". sfgate.com. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  8. "Ten key Raider moments since return to Oakland". eastbaytimes.com. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  9. Patriots Snow Bowl
  10. Kroner, Steve. "Papa's done as A's telecaster / Team wants 'a different type of energy'". sfgate.com. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  11. Smith, Michelle. "Not heard 'round the world / Flemming's microphone goes dead during call". sfgate.com. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  12. Cruz, Jay Dela. "WARRIORS-CLIPPERS FIRST ROUND PLAYOFF COVERAGE ON NBC SPORTS BAY AREA AND STREAMING ON THE MYTEAMS APP". sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  13. NBC Sports Bay Area staff (August 17, 2018). "Greg Papa, Donte Whitner and Ian Williams join 49ers coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area". NBC Sports Bay Area. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  14. "Greg Papa takes over as 49ers play-by-play broadcaster". knbr.com. Cumulus Media. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  15. "Greg Papa". nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com. NBC Universal. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  16. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/press/nbc-sports-bay-area-serves-happy-hour-greg-papa-ray-ratto-and-kelli-johnson
  17. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/13/the-happy-hour-axed-by-nbc-sports-bay-area/
  18. https://buffalonews.com/2019/08/01/frank-papa-93-led-national-fire-adjustment-co-to-national-prominence/
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