Mississippi State University will host a public memorial 6 p.m. Thursday at Humphrey Coliseum for longtime “Voice of the Bulldogs” Jack Cristil, who died Sunday.
Cristil, the play-by-play voice for MSU football and basketball known for ending victories with, “Wrap it in maroon and white,” died in Tupelo from an extended illness after suffering from cancer and kidney disease. He was 88.
Funeral services for the famous announcer were also set, the university announced Monday. Visitations in Tupelo are scheduled from 4-8 p.m. today and again from 9-11 a.m. Wednesday. Services will follow Wednesday’s visitation at Holland Funeral Directors in Tupelo, and interment will proceed afterward at Lee Memorial Park in Verona.
MSU President Mark Keenum is expected to give the funeral’s welcome, while former athletic director Larry Templeton will deliver the eulogy.
Marc Perler, of Temple B’Nai Israel, will officiate the ceremony.
“Jack’s deep love of this university was always evident in his words and in his deeds. He was a tireless ambassador for Mississippi State and he brought great honor and distinction to our university as one of the most revered radio announcers in American history,” Keenum said in a release Sunday. “I join every member of the Bulldog family in extending our sincere respects and deepest sympathies to his daughters, Kay and Rebecca, and to his grandchildren, Jake and Lindsey. Surely, Jack’s remarkable life and work is now forever wrapped in Maroon and White.”
Cristil, a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame, was named Mississippi’s sportscaster of the year 21 times and the Southeastern Conference’s Broadcaster of the Year in 1988.
He called nearly 60 percent of every MSU football game on record, in addition to about half of the university’s basketball games.
Before manning the radio booth for MSU sporting events, he served in World War II and worked in advertising at WELO Radio and WTVA-TV in Tupelo.
“Jack Cristil was a courageous, tenacious man possessed of a great love for Mississippi State University,” said MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter in Sunday’s release. “His tired body finally failed Jack, but his keen mind and that great staccato baritone voice never failed him. I count his friendship as a tremendous gift to me and to my family. We all loved him.”
Cristil is survived by daughters Kay Cristil Clouatre, of Baton Rouge, La.; Rebecca Cristil Nelson (Andrew), of Tupelo; and grandchildren Jake Clouatre, of Baton Rouge, La., and Lindsey Newhall of Tupelo. He is also survived by two sisters, Zelda Cristil Esgro, of St Louis, Mo., and Miriam “Mimi” Cristil Lapides, of West Palm Beach, Fla., and a number of nieces and nephews.
Cristil was preceded in death by his wife of 33 years, Mavis Kelly Cristil, in 1988. He was also preceded in death by his parents, Mollie Kabakoff Cristil and Benjamin Herman Cristil, of Memphis; by a sister, Charlotte Cristil Hiller; and by brothers Harold Cristil and Stanley Cristil.
In lieu of flowers, the Cristil family requests donations to either of the Cristil scholarships at MSU, the Girl Scouts Heart of the South, Tupelo’s Temple B’Nai Israel or Sanctuary Hospice House.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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