Frank Gifford

Frank Gifford was a professional football player and television sportscaster best known for his Hall of Fame career with the New York Giants and his decades as a commentator on Monday Night Football. Gifford spent his childhood moving around California, where he attended Bakersfield High School and later enrolled at the University of Southern California. He played Division I football for the USC Trojans and emerged as one of the program’s standout players.

Gifford was selected by the New York Giants in the first round of the 1952 NFL Draft. During his 12-season career with the team, he became one of the league’s most versatile players, lining up as a running back and wide receiver while also contributing on defense. Gifford helped lead the Giants to an NFL Championship victory in 1956 and was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player that same year. He earned eight Pro Bowl selections before retiring from professional football in 1964. After leaving the field, he transitioned to broadcasting and became a longtime analyst and play-by-play announcer on Monday Night Football from 1971 to 1997 alongside Howard Cosell and Don Meredith.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

Gifford married Maxine Avis Ewart in 1952, and the couple divorced in 1976. He later married fitness trainer Astrid Lindley in 1978 before their divorce in 1986. That same year, he wed television host Kathie Lee Gifford, and they remained married until his death in 2015. He had five children: Jeff Gifford, Kyle Gifford, Victoria Denise Gifford, Cody Newton Gifford and Cassidy Erin Gifford.

Gifford died on August 9, 2015, of natural causes.