Jim Nantz Reflects on His Late Father’s Influence Behind Iconic ‘Hello, Friends’ Opening
If you’ve watched CBS coverage of the Masters, the Super Bowl, or the Final Four, you’ve heard Jim Nantz open with the same two words: “Hello, friends.”
It sounds like a polished catchphrase. Something a network marketing team might workshop over lunch.
It wasn’t.
On the Vanity Index Podcast, released Feb. 25, the CBS Sports play-by-play announcer revealed the phrase began as something deeply personal — a private message to his father, who was battling Alzheimer’s disease.
A Promise Made (and Kept) Two Decades Ago
Nantz first said the words in 2002, just before his broadcast for the PGA Championship in Hazeltine, Minnesota.
His father, also named Jim Nantz, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1995 and was seven years into his fight with the disease.
“I’m by his bedside, and I mentioned to him that, hey, I’m in Minnesota this weekend for the PGH Championship,” he said on the podcast, which is hosted by Chad Mumm (creator of Netflix’s Full Swing) and Wells Adams (former contestant on The Bachelorette).
“And when I come on the air, I’m gonna look into that camera, and I’m gonna say, ‘Hello, friends,’ and that’s for you, Dad, ‘cause you have nothing but friends,” he added. “That’s going to be my little trigger line that lets you know at that very moment I’m thinking of you.”
The plan was simple: say it once, for his dad, and move on. A “one-and-done” opening line, as Nantz described it. But one of his CBS colleagues encouraged him to use it again. He did the next day. And it stuck.
It Was Never Meant to be a Trademark
That origin reshapes how you hear those two words. What sounds like a broadcaster’s signature was born from a son trying to reach his father through the fog of a degenerative disease.
Nantz addressed the assumption directly during the podcast conversation.
“Some people, I think, think it’s some sort of attempt, lame attempt to try to have a signature phrase or line – had nothing to do with that,” Nantz said. “It all had to do with trying to communicate with my father.”
Nearly 25 years later, the greeting hasn’t changed.
Jim Nantz Jr., sometimes referred to as Jim Nantz II, died in 2008 after a 13-year battle with Alzheimer’s, according to his obituary. He was 79.
Now, when Nantz opens a broadcast, the words carry the same weight — just directed somewhere different.
“I say, ‘Hello, friends,’ and I think of my dad watching down on me, and it relaxes me, and I fall into the flow of the show,” he added. “So that’s the story.”
What Jim Nantz Built After His Father’s Death
The phrase wasn’t the only way Nantz channeled his family’s experience with Alzheimer’s.
In 2011, he founded the Nantz National Alzheimer Center (NNAC) in partnership with Houston Methodist. The center honors his father and serves as a tribute to his mother, Doris, and his sister, Nancy, for their dedication to caregiving.
Doris Nantz passed away peacefully in 2022, according to her obituary. She was 91.
The full arc of the Nantz family’s experience with Alzheimer’s spans decades: a diagnosis in 1995, a son’s quiet promise in 2002, a father’s death in 2008, the founding of a research center in 2011, a mother’s passing in 2022.
Through all of it, two words have remained constant at the top of every broadcast.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
