Nicknamed “Mr. Radio Baseball,” Helfer was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for Excellence in Baseball Broadcasting from the Baseball Hall of Fame, December 12, 2018 and inducted in August 2019
Mr. Helfer was born in Elrama (September 26, 1911), Washington County, and played football and basketball at Washington and Jefferson College and worked as a sports reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
He called football games for the Pittsburgh Pirates (as they were called then) and Pittsburgh Panthers. He began broadcasting recreations of Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games in 1933.
He worked for the Cincinnati Reds and then joined CBS in 1937, working football and baseball. Mr. Helfer was reunited with Red Barber, whom he worked with in Cincinnati, when he started broadcasting Brooklyn Dodgers games in 1937.
Mr. Helfer joined the Navy during World War II before doing “Game of the Day broadcasts for Mutual.
He rejoined the Dodgers and also called games for the New Yrk Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Colt .45s, Denver Broncos and Oakland Athletics.
Mr. Helfer broadcast the MLB All-Star game (1939, 1950-1958; the World Series (1945, 1951-1955 and 1957) and Jim “Catfish’ Hunter’s 1968 perfect game.
He broadcast the Army-Navy game during the 1940s and 1950s, and several Rose Bowl games.
