Ross U. Porter Jr. (born November 29, 1938) is an American sportscaster, known for his 28-year tenure (1977–2004) as a play-by-play announcer for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball. Early life Porter was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1955, then went on to earn a radio journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma. His broadcasting career began in 1953 at age 14, when he broadcast a few innings of several baseball games involving the Class D Shawnee Hawks, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm club, over KGFF. At age 15, Porter was elevated to play-by-play man of the Shawnee Wolves' football and basketball broadcasts and the Hawks when their regular announcer resigned. At a high school football game one night, Ross was introduced by his father to the legendary Jim Thorpe. Broadcasting career After earning his college degree, Porter was hired by WKY radio in Oklahoma City as a newscaster. He also was a sports anchor for WKY-TV, and at age 24 became the youngest recipient of the Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year award, and the youngest state winner ever in the nation. Ross repeated the next year. Between 1960 and 1966, he did the play-by-play of the previous day's University of Oklahoma football game on channel 4's one-hour "Sunday Playback Show." In 1966, at age 27, he left for Los Angeles and subsequently spent 10 years as a sportscaster for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. He worked alongside Tom Snyder on the 6 PM news and Tom Brokaw on the 11PM news. Porter won two local Emmys. Porter worked for NBC Sports in the early 1970s, calling NFL football from 1970 to 1976 and Pacific-8 college basketball from 1972 to 1976. He also served as the halftime host of the 1974 Final Four, the sideline reporter for the 1975 Rose Bowl, and a hole announcer for the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am golf tournament. Porter had to give up his NBC assignments when he joined the Dodgers in 1977, due to an overlap in seasons. He later was the radio and television voice of UNLV Rebels football and basketball from 1978 to 1992. During the 1970s, Porter had been the television play-by-play announcer for the high school basketball Game of The Week on KNBC showing matchups between Los Angeles area teams. Former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax worked as a game analyst with Ross the first year. One of their