Report: Eli Gold Not Returning to Call Alabama Football Games in 2024
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Eli Gold, the radio voice of Alabama football on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, will not be returning to call games next year, per a report from The Tuscaloosa News.
Gold has been the play-by-play voice of the Crimson Tide for 35 years, and has become synonymous with Alabama football in the eyes of many fans as he's tied to a plethora of iconic plays in Crimson Tide history.
"Eli has been an invaluable member of our broadcast team," Jim Carabin, Vice President and General Manager of the Crimson Tide Sports Network, said in a statement. "We are grateful for his years of service and wish him all the best in this next chapter. CTSN is fortunate to have someone as part of our existing broadcast team in Chris to step up and seamlessly transition into this role."
Chris Stewart is the likely candidate to take Gold's place as the permanent radio voice of Alabama football. Stewart is the current play-by-play voice for the Alabama men's basketball team, and filled in for Gold during the 2022 season while he battled a treatable form of cancer.
During a conversation with AL.com, Gold implied that his departure from CTSN was not a mutual decision.
“Well, the university has chosen not to bring me back,” Gold said. “This is not, with a capital N-O-T, not at all health-related. I am very healthy. Everything is wonderful. I am healthy as a horse.”
“The university has chosen, as they say, go in a different direction. And that’s certainly their right.”
During the 2023 season, Gold called all of Alabama's home games as well as the Iron Bowl, while Stewart called Crimson Tide road games.
Gold has called a variety of sports during his award-winning broadcasting career, including ice hockey and NASCAR before beginning in Tuscaloosa in 1988. Gold has also spent time covering the NFL, as well as the Arena Football League during his lengthy and accomplished career.
Gold is a four-time winner of the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year award, as voted on by the National Sportscaster and Sportswriter Association. He was also named the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year by the Associated Press twice in his career.
Gold told both WBRC-TV and AL.com that he is not retiring, and he is expected to call games for the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football League this spring.
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