Marc Zumoff: Looking Beyond the Bouncing Ball and Giving Back

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the Sept. 25, 2025, edition of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent:

Marc Zumoff
(Courtesy of Marc Zumoff)

Sports broadcasting is not merely about using your voice. It’s about how you use your voice — what you say, when you say it and how you say it. It is that innate understanding of how to use your voice that helped propel Marc Zumoff to the top of the sports broadcasting world.

For Zumoff, the longtime television voice of the Philadelphia 76ers, the dream of becoming a sports broadcaster began long before he became a household name.

Zumoff, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and has fond memories of coming home from Hebrew school and thumbing through his mother’s copy of Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, began “broadcasting” at a young age.

“My parents were hard workers. My mother was a homemaker; my father was a salesman. We didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t get to go to a lot of camps, or Jewish camps, or down the shore or anything like that. So, I stayed home a lot, and a lot of my free time, especially my summers, were filled with amusing myself, and that included literally going outside and playing basketball by myself with a trash can or just pitching the ball against the garage. And I started to announce to myself, and that’s part of how I got started,” he said. “When I was outside in the sweltering heat, I would announce myself as a Phillies pitcher or a 76ers basketball player, and that’s kind of how the seeds were planted. And it all ended up being a career.”

As a youngster, Zumoff and his family went to Beth Chaim in Feasterville. He has memories of attending Hebrew school at the synagogue on weekends “from aleph through hey” and noted that he had his bar mitzvah there. “We weren’t all that religious, but it was important, especially to my mother, that I became a bar mitzvah,” he said.

Zumoff lives in Margate at the Jersey Shore, where he noted there is a high concentration of Jewish families and two Chabads — one in Margate and one in Ventnor — and several other synagogues.

“It’s a much different life than I experienced growing up in Northeast Philly or raising my family in the suburbs. … It makes for some long commutes, but I’m all good with it. It’s well worth it,” he said.

Much of Zumoff’s Jewish identity manifests itself through his Zionism, which has increased since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, though that horrific day was certainly not the beginning of his pro-Israel journey.

“Even before that fateful day, I was starting to shift and become a little bit more conservative. I was brought up in a Democratic family, I had a lot of left-leaning views, and … I maintain a fair amount of that. But when it comes to Israel, I am an ardent supporter, and while I am open to compromise with whoever has an idea about how to settle things and move on and live side by side with the Palestinians, I don’t budge a quarter-inch when it comes to Israel, it’s right to be there, it’s need to survive and do whatever it can to survive,” he said.

A member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, there is no shortage of accolades for Zumoff, who was thrice voted Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year and won the Mid-Atlantic region’s Emmy Award for best play-by-play announcer 19 times.

In addition to his work with the Sixers, Zumoff has also done play-by-play for the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia Union, and he was part of NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, where he did play-by-play of the U.S. women’s basketball team.

Although the seeds of his future career were planted during Zumoff’s childhood while playing outdoors and “announcing himself,” his official entry into the world of broadcasting came a bit later.

“My father had a lot of different jobs, and because of that, when I told my mother I wanted to be a broadcaster, it did not go over well,” he said with a chuckle.

While working his way through school at a scrap iron and steel yard, Zumoff began sending out tapes to radio stations. Through Temple University he had done a lot of news, and he got a job as a news broadcaster at a radio station in Trenton, New Jersey. Reflecting on his experience, he recalled that they were off the air at least once or twice a day, the place was ramshackle and they were trying to sell the station. “It was just not a good place to work,” Zumoff said. “Plus, they were six weeks behind in my pay.” When he finally got his paycheck for $90, he said to himself, “Oh, my goodness, they’re paying me close to $100 to talk on the radio.’ That was it. I was going to make a career of it. … And by golly, somehow I did.”

In August 1994, Zumoff learned that he was getting the job he had dreamed about since his childhood: He was named the television voice of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Zumoff coined some memorable phrases during his time as a broadcaster: “Turning garbage into gold” (when a player scores a basket off an offensive rebound); “Hold on, we’re coming in for a landing” (when a close game is coming to a close); and “Locking all windows and doors” (when there is a strong defensive stop). Generating those trademark phrases (Zumoff actually did trademark “Turning garbage into gold,” which he first said spontaneously when the Sixers’ George Lynch grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball back up and into the basket) came naturally to him.

“I became comfortable with the English language, alliterations, rhyming, the whole rhythm of speech, and composing different phrases became something that I became pretty proficient at. That’s the first thing.

“The second thing is, when people are watching a game on TV, they can already see what’s going on. So, the challenge for TV announcers, as opposed to radio announcers, is, what can you add that will enhance what people can already see? As a TV announcer, you’re not just necessarily calling the game. You’re interacting with a color announcer and the sideline person. Your producer and director are giving you directions. Your stat guy is handing you things. There are replays, ticket announcements, whatever, and you’re doing a lot to facilitate the broadcast, but not necessarily to describe the action. And so, what I tried to do was come up with phrases that I thought would be interesting and fun,” Zumoff said.

“I would say the vast majority of them were spur of the moment. … It wasn’t like I had a pad of paper with all my sayings saying, ‘OK, here’s a good time to use this. I’m going to drop this in there.’ It was something that happened spontaneously. I think for the most part, people seem to like it. So, I’m glad I could leave something behind in terms of these phrases,” he added.

(Courtesy of Marc Zumoff)

In June 2021, Zumoff announced his retirement after having served as the television voice of the Sixers for 27 seasons, after having covered the team for 39 years, and after 44 years in broadcasting. By all accounts, Zumoff was still at the top of his game, yet he chose that moment to step away. That monumental decision took into account several factors.

“It was a combination of things. First and foremost, I think I felt a calling just to explore what else life had to offer. Because certainly during the season, and really year-round, it becomes an all-encompassing career. You’re always paying attention to the NBA, to the Sixers. There’s a lot of preparation, a lot of travel, the performance aspect. Once they tip off the ball in October, and then [until] sometime in the spring, you are locked in, and that is a huge commitment,” he said.

“As much as I loved it, and as much as it was a dream for me, I said to myself, what else is there beyond the bouncing ball? That and the fact that I had a wonderful wife who also had a lot of responsibility as a major executive, and she also, with one hand tied behind her back, did a great job raising our two kids and keeping the home fires burning while I was off being sportscaster boy. And so, I felt in equal measure that I owed that to her, to jump off the merry-go-round and be with her more,” Zumoff added.

When asked about a few of his favorite moments and memories from his career in broadcasting, Zumoff jokingly replied that, “There are certainly a lot of funny and amusing stories, some of which I simply can’t share in a family Jewish publication,” before turning serious.

“I will tell you that the ability to be on the inside of a professional sports team is something that few people ever get the chance to do. So instead of being just a fan and going to a game and enjoying that aspect of it, you are the one behind the curtain, helping to put on the show. And I enjoyed that challenge. I loved being live on the air, because for two and a half hours, you’re operating on a high wire without a net,” he said.

Some of Zumoff’s fondest memories from his time with the Sixers relate to his colleagues.

“I love the people that I had a chance to work with, because to put on a television show requires 35 or 40 people to be on the same page at the same time, and that sense of teamwork that you get is just like a professional sports team, and you can understand why, when teams win championships, that there’s such a great feeling, because there’s a lot of sacrifice and coordination that goes on,” he said.

“But I will say that I’m now not retired but rewired. That’s my new saying that I picked up from a friend of mine. And I have filled my days with great causes and wonderful things that I get to do. And I’ll be quite honest with you, except for the people that I worked with, I don’t miss it at all. I am good; I’m good to go,” he added.

In his post-76ers life, one of the projects that Zumoff is most passionate about is his work with Maccabi USA, where he serves as chairman of Maccabi Media, which sends aspiring sports media professionals to cover the quadrennial games in Israel.

Zumoff’s involvement with Maccabi USA began after the late Bob Spivak, a Sixers season ticket holder who was the longest-serving president and team chairman of Maccabi USA, met with Zumoff and convinced him “to join the cause.”

“It covered so many things that are near and dear to me. It covered sports, it covered youth, it covered Judaism, it covered Israel. So, I felt the fit was really good,” Zumoff said.

As for the birth of Maccabi Media, it primarily came about from a conversation Zumoff had several years ago with Maccabi USA’s Dan Kurtz, who mentioned that he had a high school student who was embedded with the American basketball team during the European games in Budapest.

Recalling a situation about 10 years prior to his conversation with Kurtz, Zumoff told him about watching coverage of the Maccabi Games on Comcast. “The coverage was so bad, it was barely recognizable. You couldn’t even tell what sport it was.”

Zumoff told Kurtz that he would love to have a program where they could bring what the Maccabi Games are about to people everywhere.

So, they developed this program, and Zumoff, together with Maccabi USA’s Neal Slotkin, “recruit what we think are some of the best and brightest Jewish aspiring sports media professionals from the leading communications schools and elsewhere around the country. We bring them to Israel. We brought them to Buenos Aires for the Pan Am Games. We brought them to London for the European Games.”

Zumoff proudly declared that, “We bring you the Maccabi Games like NBC would bring you the Olympics, whether it’s streaming live events or social media, reporter packages, print, media, whatever it happens to be, and it’s just been so fulfilling in so many different ways.”

“The most important thing, which is kind of a residual effect, is we get to bring the message of what Maccabi and the Maccabi Games do to the outside world,” he added. “We always say it’s Birthright with sports, and now, more than ever, it’s so important for young people to get the message that, hey, it’s cool to be a Jewish athlete and it’s cool to be a Jewish athlete while performing in Israel.”

(Courtesy of Marc Zumoff)

Zumoff has certainly not been resting on his laurels since he left the Sixers. In addition to his work with Maccabi USA and Maccabi Media, he is also the associate director of the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media at Temple, and he’s a media coach for current and aspiring sports and news professionals. While most people might take the opportunity to focus on getting rest and relaxation, Zumoff has taken a different path.

“So that was the original intent,” Zumoff said, referring to the notion of getting some well-deserved rest. “I was going to learn a foreign language. I was going to take up the flute, which is something I dropped in high school, and I just found myself with still more to give from a professional sense, and it’s become very fulfilling. Maccabi USA certainly, Temple is my alma mater — Dean David Boardman [of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University] has been great to me. … I’m in a good space. I think what all this is, if you look at it at its barest essence, it’s my best way to do tikkun olam. It’s the best way for me to give back.

“So, if I’m bringing awareness of Judaism and Israel to young people, if I’m educating young people and trying to do things through Temple for the community, those are two great vessels for me,” he added.

Despite all that he does to give back to the community, Zumoff still finds time to golf and do what he can to “try to keep in reasonably good shape.”

For Zumoff, family is paramount, and he makes sure to count his many blessings.

“I’m a grandparent, which is really at the top of it,” he said. “I have a three-year-old granddaughter. And for anybody who has become a grandparent, they know what I’m talking about. It evokes emotions that are just emotions you’ve never experienced before, and it can’t be properly appreciated until it happens to you.

“So, all of that leaves my cup running over. … Really, it’s the Lou Gehrig thing. I’m one of the luckiest men on the face of the Earth. I’m a Jewish kid from Northeast Philly who grew up broadcasting the games for the team that I grew up rooting for, and now I get the chance to parlay that into so many things that allow me to help repair the world. And I’ve got a wonderful wife and family to be around to support me in it.”