Howard William Cosell (; born Howard William Cohen; March 25, 1918 – April 23, 1995) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. There's no question that I'm all of those things." In its obituary for Cosell, The New York Times described Cosell's impact on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."

In 1993, TV Guide named Howard Cosell The All-Time Best Sportscaster in its issue Celebrating 40 years of television.

In 1996, Howard Cosell was ranked #47 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

Biography

Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to accountant Isidore Cohen and his wife Nellie Cohen. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from New York University, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi. He then earned a degree at New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the law review.