Marty Glickman

Marty Glickman was one of the greatest sportscasters of all time, a true pioneer in the industry. He was instrumental in guiding me in my career, and he was equally generous in providing advice to young sportscasters throughout the country. His is a unique life story, all captured beautifully by Jeffrey Gurock. ~Marv Albert, Basketball Hall of Fame and inductee of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame

In the years when college basketball light up Madison Square Garden, Marty Glickman was one of the brightest stars. Coach Lapchick and I knew our St. John’s games were special when we saw the great announcer perched in his broadcast booth. Jeffrey Gurock’s book brings back wonderful memories of a marvelous era in New York sports and will be enjoyed by fans young and old. ~Hall of Fame Coach Lou Carnesecca, St. John’s University

Going beyond the story of an American Jewish athlete kept out of Hitler’s Olympics, this book speaks to the wider world of American sports and culture. It is the story of a kid whose dreams eventually led him all the way up to the announcer’s booth at Madison Square Garden. This is Marty Glickman’s story, but also, in Jeffrey S. Gurock’s superb work, a tale of pride and prejudice, of joy and anger—and the impact that one man has had on the world of sports announcing. His voice is still heard. ~Gerald Eskenazi, former New York Times sports reporter

Gurock presents the first detailed biography of Marty Glickman, the undisputed voice of New York City sports during the second half of the 20th century. The author manages to fit an amazing amount of detail into a relatively short book, and he is particularly adept at describing the atmosphere of the New York and Jewish culture in which Glickman was raised and excelled as a multisport star in Brooklyn. He also deftly explains the lasting significance of Glickman's broadcasting career and his influence on his legions of New York listeners ... A fascinating portrait of an important voice in American sports history. ~Kirkus Reviews

Glickman's story, meticulously conveyed by Gurock, will find resonance with readers far beyond New York ... Gurock offers both a fine portrait of an America roiled in contradictions over race and also a modern-day cautionary tale to those who would abide antisemitism in their midst. ~Booklist

This engrossing, vibrant biography of Marty Glickman also explores the evolving identity of Jewish people in twentieth-century America. ~Foreword Reviews

Marty Glickman was an extraordinary person in so many ways — both as a world-class athlete and as a broadcasting legend. But as Jeffrey Gurock reveals in this book, Glickman’s life — notably his exclusion from the 1936 Berlin Olympics — is significant also for what it teaches us about American Jews in the twentieth century. Immigration, anti-Semitism, assimilation — it’s all here, and told with a power, snap, and verve that befits its remarkable subject. ~Matthew Goodman, author of The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team

Jeffrey Gurock belongs on the short list of the most accomplished and prolific historians of American Jewry. Marty Glickman is exhaustively researched and wonderfully written, and brings its subject alive. This book is warmly recommended -- and not to only sports fans. ~Stephen Whitfield, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, Brandeis University

Gurock’s brief biog­ra­phy of Glick­man is out for big­ger game than mere­ly recount­ing the 1936 Olympics inci­dent and Glickman’s ath­let­ic and broad­cast­ing achieve­ments. He also argues that Glick­man was a sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Amer­i­can Jew­ish every­man, and his life was ​'arche­typ­al of the life sto­ry of a whole gen­er­a­tion of Jew­ish chil­dren of immi­grants who came of age begin­ning in the 1920s.' ~Jewish Book Council

To this day, many fans who grew up listening to his coverage of Knicks basketball and Giants football games, among the myriad of events that Glickman covered, recall fondly, and can still recite, his descriptions of actions in arenas and stadiums. In Marty Glickman, Jeffrey S. Gurock showcases the life of this important contributor to American popular culture. ~New York Almanack