Famed American sports commentator Greg Gumbel has died from cancer at the age of 78, his family announced on Friday.

Gumbel, who for decades worked for CBS Sports, was considered a fixture in US sports, particularly American football and basketball.

In 2001, he became the first black sports commentator to give play-by-play announcements of the Super Bowl.

In a statement, his family said that “he leaves behind a legacy of love, inspiration and dedication to 50 extraordinary years in the sports broadcasting industry; and his iconic voice will never be forgotten”.

The statement added that Gumbel “passed away peacefully surrounded by much love after a courageous battle with cancer”.

“Greg approached his illness like one would expect he would, with stoicism, grace and positivity.”

Originally from New Orleans, Gumbel grew up in Chicago and first joined CBS in 1989 after having spent years working at New York Knicks basketball and Yankees baseball games for the Madison Square Garden Network.

His start, however, came in the early 1970s, when an executive at a local NBC affiliate in Chicago asked him to broadcast a high school basketball game every weekend.

“He said, ‘I have this idea and I want you to take it and run with it’,” Gumbel recalled in a 2021 interview. “We introduced our audience to a lot of guys who went on to become famous.”

Jim Nantz, a veteran of CBS Sports and another prominent sports anchor, referred to Gumbel as “broadcasting royalty.”

“He was as selfless a broadcaster as anyone in the industry has ever known,” he said. “Our careers interesected for nearly 35 years, and he was a consumate teammate and friend.”

“He really was one of the greats,” another long-time colleague Lesley Visser told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. “He just had a light touch, he had a wit about him and everyone loved working with him.”

“Greg had an innate dignity that he brought to the table,” she added.

At CBS Sports, Gumbel had two stints as the host of the popular “NFL Today” pre-game, halftime and post-game show, including three Super Bowls in 1992, 2013 and 2016.

Gumbel also spent four years at NBC Sports, where he hosted the “NFL on NBC” show and several other Super Bowl pre-game shows.

He briefly stepped away from NFL coverage in 2003, before returning in 2005 and continued in that role until 2022.

The longtime sportscaster also served as the primetime anchor for CBS Sports during the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, as well as co-anchor during weekday broadcasts of the 1992 Winter Games.

Additionally, he was a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball and became a fixture of college football broadcasts.

In March of this year, he missed his first National Collegiate Athletic Association – or NCAA – basketball tournament since 1997 due to unspecified health issues.

He had signed an extension with CBS in 2023 that allowed him to return to covering college basketball while stepping away from his work covering the NFL.

Gumbel is survived by his wife Marcy, daughter Michelle and younger brother Bryant, who is also a prominent broadcaster and a former host of the “Today” show.