Biography

He became the narrator for NFL Films by accident. It happened in 1965 when he and a friend dropped into a club. To boost business that night, the tavern owner was showing some pro football game action assembled by NFL Films, which had recently set up shop as a producer for the National Football League. Fascinated by the slow-motion sequences, Facenda said, "I started to rhapsodize about how beautiful it was. Ed Sabol, the man who founded NFL Films, happened to be at the bar. He came up to me and asked, 'If I give you a script, could you repeat what you just did?' I said I would try." Facenda went on from there to narrate NFL Films' game footage and highlight reels for two decades, his rich, dramatic voice a perfect complement to the long passes, thrilling runs and violent line play. Always the perfectionist, he marked his NFL Film scripts with musical notations for his guidance: lento (slow down), presto (speed up), glissando (glide through it).

Twelve days before he died, Facenda was presented the Governors Award for lifetime achievement by the Philadelphia chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

Last nightly news broadcast was 23 March 1973, six months shy of a quarter century.

In 1954, was voted "The Local Personality Most Worthy of Network Recognition" by TV Guide readers.

He was very nervous avout being on the air. His mother told him to imagine he was speaking only to her, and for years, he kept her picture in front of him as he was on the air.