Jim Nantz Opens Up on His Kids’ UH Love, His Strong Willie Fritz Belief, His Sampson Awe and the Joys of Returning as He’s Immortalized With a Houston Banner

Jim Nantz did not know what to expect when getting honored at halftime of No. 1 Houston’s game with storied Kansas on Saturday. “I’ve just been told there’ll be something at halftime,” Nantz told PaperCity the night before. The voice of CBS Sports is just happy to be back on the University of Houston campus where it all started for him. Back watching Kelvin Sampson and the UH basketball team he loves. Getting to show his family what makes his university, the place that helped make him, so special.

“It’s a thrill for me to be able to go to a game as a fan,” Nantz says. “I had a game there in 2020 (as a broadcaster). We played Memphis, it was the last game before COVID, and I’ve never been so embraced in my life. . .

“To go back and have all three of my kids with me. My oldest Caroline. My Finley who turns 10 this week. She’s all excited. My little boy Jamo. We’re all in on the Cougars. To be able to sit back and watch Senior Day and be able to salute our seniors like Jamal (Shead) and J’Wan (Robert) and their families, it’s terrific.”

It turns out that the UH honor Nantz receives is greater than even he can imagine. A special new banner for Nantz is revealed in the Fertitta Center rafters. That puts Nantz right up there with all the University of Houston basketball playing greats, including Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. In fact, Nantz’s new banner is one spot over from Elvin Hayes’ banner. Both Hakeem and Hayes are in the building for this one and Nantz is visibly moved and tearful during the special halftime ceremony.

Jim Nantz, who retired from calling college basketball games after doing the Final Four in Houston last April (though he still travels 40 weeks out of the year as CBS’ lead voice on the NFL and golf), is all dressed in Cougar red for this Kansas game, wearing a red UH sweatshirt with a UH golf polo underneath it. Which he figures catches Kansas coach Bill Self off guard a little.

“I know Bill so well,” Nantz says. “I’ve told his story to the world. I’ve covered his championships. I’ve known his family, his father and everything. I look forward to shaking his hand and wishing him well. It’s probably going be a little bizarre for him to look over and see a guy that has covered his career is decked out in some Houston colors and is sitting there as a fan.”

Nantz will be sitting in his own season tickets at the Fertitta Center, the season tickets he happily pays for every season but has not sat in once. Until now. Nantz would be the first to tell you that this day isn’t about him. It’s about Kelvin Sampson, players like Jamal Shead, J’Wan Roberts, Ryan Elvin and LJ Cryer, and the program that continues to put the University of Houston in the national spotlight again and again. The undisputed Big 12 champions in the Cougars’ very first year in the league.

And it’s about something even bigger than that too. It’s about an entire university and taking a moment to recognize what is happening at UH as a whole.

“As just one of a legion of fans who love this program, love this university, it’s a great day to be a Cougar,” Nantz says. “It’s a great time to be a Cougar. (This game) is a culmination of a lot of things for all us.”

On the night that Nantz arrives in Houston at his sister’s house, UH’s softball team upsets No. 1 Texas in its very first game in the Big 12. Nantz had already talked to new Houston football coach Willie Fritz early that morning. Nantz — who forecast DeMeco Ryans’ success with the Houston Texans before almost anyone — is already a big Willie Fritz believer.

“Our football program is going to be right behind this (basketball success),” Nantz tells PaperCity. “It’s going to be special. Soon with Willie.”

Nantz is sticking with his plan of using his “spring break” to follow Kelvin Sampson’s basketball game around the country throughout the NCAA Tournament, watching as many games as possible in person. From the stands as a Cougar fan. Nantz first told PaperCity about this plan in October. And with this No. 1 ranked 28-3 Houston team already a lock for a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance (this Kansas game and next week’s Big 12 Tournament will have little to no impact on the seeding of a UH team that’s already proven everything it needs to) and set for a likely Memphis (first and second round) and Dallas South Regional path, Nantz is already all but locking in his probable itinerary.

“I’ve watched every single game,” Nantz says of tracking this season on TV as he works and prepares for colossal events (like the Super Bowl he just called and the Masters, set for the week after the Final Four). “I haven’t missed a game, I have not missed a game. I’ve lived and died on every single possession. The grit. The determination. The camaraderie with the players. It’s just a tremendous vibe around this team.

“I’ve been so impressed with what we’ve been able to do through a lot of adversities. In Kelvin, we trust. It’s amazing. We have the best coach in America.”

“They certainty don’t need to do anything as far as I’m concerned. But I’m honored they’re going to have some sort of moment. And it’s my life kind of coming full circle. And to be able to have my family surrounding me — and my Cougar family — it runs deep.” — Jim Nantz on getting honored by the University of Houston

Jim Nantz and a True UH Devotion

Nantz loves talking about this team and his university. That’s why he returns a reporter’s call after 9 pm on a Friday night and spends more time on the phone than anyone would expect (only taking one brief momentary pause to sweetly tell his daughter something). You can’t fake this kind of enthusiasm. Or muster up this kind of heartfelt emotion on command.

For Jim Nantz with the University of Houston, the love is real. And beyond meaningful.

“Our football program is going to be right behind this (basketball success). It’s going to be special. Soon with Willie.” — Jim Nantz on UH’s new football coach Willie Fritz

A number of old classmates and Houston friends have reached out to Nantz since the university announced it would be honoring him at halftime of this Kansas game. Including local sports media legend Mark Berman, who preceded the 64-year-old Nantz at UH by several years. Nantz has been touched by them all, another outpouring he didn’t quite expect.

Just happy to be back in the place where it all started for him.

“That arena,” Nantz says. “You heard me a minute ago almost call it Hofheinz. It’s still. . . It’s incredible what we have now thanks to (Houston billionaire) Tilman (Fertitta). But that was the site of Hofheinz. And that’s where my career started. A timid 19-year-old on a microphone entrusted to handle the public address position.

“First time I ever heard my voice bounce off the walls. My voice project. It was inside that very building. And that microphone court side at the Fertitta Center (then Hofheinz), it gave me a life. It took me around the world. And I’m forever grateful.”

Now Jim Nantz is being honored by the school that he will tell you made him. Forever put up in the rafters. At arguably the biggest event on campus in years and years, a game with blue blood Kansas for a Houston team that’s already won the outright Big 12 championship.

“They certainty don’t need to do anything as far as I’m concerned,” Nantz says of the halftime ceremony plans. “But I’m honored they’re going to have some sort of moment. And it’s my life kind of coming full circle. And to be able to have my family surrounding me — and my Cougar family — it runs deep.

“You know me well. You know much these things strike a cord with me. . .

Jim Nantz’s voice is catching now, and you can hear the emotion of it getting to him over the phone. Back in his sister’s house. Back in the city where he has a lot of memories with his beloved mom Doris and dad Jim Nantz Jr., whose photo he hung up at his broadcast position for that final Final Four. Heading back to UH.

“This is a big one for me personally,” Nantz continues. “And as a Cougar.”

The University of Houston set itself for one special Saturday in so many ways. But it wouldn’t have been the same without having Jim Nantz there too.