National Football Foundation

Almost as synonymous with the University of Colorado as Ralphie the buffalo, Larry Zimmer has spent 35 years in the booth at Folsom Field, broadcasting some of the Buffalos' greatest moments.

A graduate of the University of Missouri, Zimmer got his start broadcasting high school football and basketball games in Columbia, Mo. and Lawton, Okla. (1957-58, 1960-66) while also serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Missouri Tigers baseball team.  The following year, he moved to Michigan and began broadcasting for the Wolverine football and basketball teams.

In 1971, KOA in Denver hired Zimmer to broadcast Denver Broncos' games, a post he would retain for the next 26 years, and to fulfill play-by-play duties for the University of Colorado football team.  In his downtime, Zimmer spent time as the voice of the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association and the Colorado Caribous of the North American Soccer League. 

In 1982, CU strayed away from its flagship station KOA and signed a three-year deal with a different network. The Buffs later returned to KOA in 1985 and Zimmer was back "home" after spending three years handling the play-by-play chores for Colorado State.   Since 1985, he has remained with Colorado, working for both the football and basketball programs through 2004 and will work his 36th year on football broadcasts this fall.

The highlight of his broadcasting career took place in 1980, as Zimmer joined the CBS crew that broadcast the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid.  Although he was not in the booth, Zimmer attended the USA vs. Soviet Union hockey game that would come to be known as the "Miracle on Ice."

A five-time winner of both the White Stagg Award for Excellence in Ski Journalism and the Colorado Sportscaster of the Year award, Zimmer works as an adjunct sports journalism professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communications.