last word
EAGLES ANNOUNCER
Merrill Reese
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
J im Gardner just retired after 46
years as Philadelphia’s anchorman
on 6abc. Angelo Cataldi is on the
verge of stepping away after 33 years as
the region’s top-rated sports talk radio
host on WIP-FM. And earlier in 2022,
Ray Didinger retired after a five-de-
cade run as Philadelphia’s most trusted
sportswriter and voice.

But amid this wave of Philly media
retirements, Merrill Reese soldiers on.

The voice of the Philadelphia Eagles on
94.1 WIP is in his 46th season of call-
ing games every Sunday (and occasion-
ally, on Thursday, Saturday or Monday)
in the fall and winter. And at the age of
80, he has no plan to end his career. He
re-signed with WIP in March to call
games through the 2024 season.

“I want to do it forever,” said the
Jewish announcer and longtime mem-
ber of Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. “I float for the three hours we’re
on the air, and I love the preparation
during the week.”
Reese enjoys his job every year,
regardless of how good or bad the
Eagles may be. But he acknowledged
that 2022 has been particularly excit-
ing. The Birds are 13-2 and a win away
from clinching the top seed in the NFC
for the upcoming playoffs.

A second Super Bowl within a five-
year span seems possible. And that
means Reese may get to relive the day
he calls the highlight of his career:
Feb. 4, 2018, when the Nick Foles-
led Eagles defeated the Tom Brady-led
New England Patriots 41-33 in Super
Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium in
Minneapolis. The announcer has seen a lot of
Eagles teams. He noted that this one
compares to the 2017 club and the
other great Eagles squads that he’s cov-
ered. Philadelphia’s quarterback, Jalen
Hurts, is an MVP candidate. And the
2022 roster just sent eight players —
28 Hurts, running back Miles Sanders,
wide receiver A.J. Brown, offensive
linemen Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson and
Landon Dickerson, linebacker Haason
Reddick and cornerback Darius Slay —
to the Pro Bowl.

“I think this is one of the most tal-
ented teams I’ve been around,” Reese
said. “I can’t think of a weakness.”
It is ultimately the success of the
Eagles that makes the difference in
Reese’s year. That’s because nothing
else really changes for him. He listens
back to games from the previous sea-
son before training camp every year
to find out what he can do better, like
using certain words less or speeding up
DECEMBER 29, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
during parts of the game more. Then,
he goes to training camp every day to,
as he describes it, “immerse myself in
NFL football.”
Once the season starts, the
announcer devotes his days, and even
three hours each night, to memorizing
jersey numbers, statistics and other
relevant information. His wife, Cindy
Reese, a former educator in Horsham,
will walk around the house and call out
jersey numbers. She said “88” last week,
for instance, and Reese responded by
saying, “CeeDee Lamb,” the Dallas
Cowboys receiver who wears that num-
ber. (The Eagles played Dallas on Dec.

24.) On the day of his interview with
the Jewish Exponent, Reese asked to
do it at 3 p.m., after he attended press
conferences with Eagles coordinators
Shane Steichen (offense) and Jonathan
Gannon (defense).

“He hasn’t changed as he’s had more
years or gotten more popular,” Cindy
Reese said.

From the time Reese turned 3 years
old, he has been transfixed by football,
baseball and other sports on the radio.

He used to attend Eagles games as a kid
in the 1950s at Connie Mack Stadium
and Franklin Field and use binoculars
to stare up at Bill Campbell, the team’s
announcer at the time, in the broadcast
booth. As a student at Temple University,
Reese called football, baseball and bas-
ketball games for the student station.

After graduating, he worked for local
stations in Pottstown and Levittown
doing sports updates and a news show.

Then, in the early 1970s, he audi-
tioned to do sports updates for WIP
in Philadelphia while sports director
Charlie Swift was on summer vacation
for a month. His first update was so
good that the station signed him up to
host Eagles pre- and postgame shows
before he left the studio.

By 1977, Reese had joined Swift in
the booth as his color commentator.

And then, in December, Reese got a
call at 2:30 a.m. from a friend of Swift’s:
The announcer’s mentor had taken his
own life.

“A chill went through my body,”
Reese said.

The 35-year-old took over play-by-
play duties that Sunday. Before the
game, the players on each sideline
turned to face the broadcast booth for a
moment of silence for Swift. Reese just
hoped that “something would come out
of my mouth,” he recalled.

But then it did.

“And I’ve been doing it ever since,”
he said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Merrill Reese
MAY CALL GAMES FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE