Longtime college sportscaster Keith Jackson dies

Sportscaster Keith Jackson, remembered for his signature call “Whoa, Nelly,” died Friday. He was 89. Jackson’s career spanned more than 50 years and multiple sports, but he was best known for his folksy play-by-play coverage of college football. The vernacular of western Georgia, where he grew up, peppered his verbiage as he called plays. In 2013, Jackson explained he got the phrase “Whoa, Nelly” from his great-grandfather: “He was a farmer. He would drop something or whatever, and often times you’d hear him say, Whoa, Nelly! Whoa, Nelly! And it just kind of stuck to the little old scruffy kid following him around.” Jackson was the first play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football when it debuted in 1970. His final game was the 2006 Rose Bowl, when he called the University of Texas’ upset of the University of Southern California on Texas quarterback Vince Young’s last-minute touchdown scramble.