UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Slates Nicklaus, Nantz 'Conversation'

MD Anderson News Release October 12, 2010

Golden Bear, Voice of CBS Sports Lend Support for Institution's Children's Cancer Hospital

MD Anderson News Release 10/12/10

Since its inception in 2007, A Conversation With a Living Legend® in Houston has raised almost $2 million for research and patient care initiatives at MD Anderson. Katie and Harry Cullen Jr., Rose and Harry Cullen Sr. and Kathy and Jody McCord chair this year's event. Honorary chairs are Ginger and Jack Blanton, Kelli and Eddy Blanton and Leslie and Jack Blanton Jr.

Jack Nicklaus has changed the face of golf during a career spanning six decades, with 118 professional tournament victories worldwide and a record 18 major championship titles, and now as a successful golf course designer, businessman and philanthropist. Nicklaus is the only person to have won each major championship at least three times, with six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens and three British Opens. In 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed on any U.S. civilian. Among Nicklaus' other numerous honors are the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship and the first-ever ESPY Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, he was the first golfer - and third athlete - to receive the Vince Lombardi Award of Excellence. For six years in a row, Nicklaus has been named by Golf Inc. magazine as "The Most Powerful Person in Golf." Nicklaus and wife Barbara guide the Nicklaus Children's Heath Care Foundation, which supports pediatric health care services across the nation.

Jim Nantz marks 25 years with CBS, where he is anchor of golf coverage, lead play-by-play announcer for The NFL on CBS and lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball. He has two consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Sports Personality-Play-By-Play and is a five-time recipient of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's National Sportscaster of the Year award. Nantz is a 1981 graduate of the University of Houston, which recruited him for the Cougars golf team. He received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from UH in 2001 for contributions to his alma mater and to his profession. Nantz is co-author of the New York Times best-seller Always by My Side, a collection of football, basketball and golf memories reflecting virtues instilled by his father, with a foreword by former President George H.W. Bush.

More than 850 attendees are expected for the luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in the Hilton Americas-Houston Lanier Grand Ballroom. For information, call 866-262-9029. 10/12/10