Veteran TV & Radio Sports Reporter Retiring From CT Station

Bob Rumbold, the veteran Connecticut radio and television sports reporter, is retiring after nearly 50 years on the air, CT Insider and The Laurel reported.

Rumbold is retiring from WTNH-TV, where he has been a sportscaster since 2018, but he has been a fixture on the Connecticut sports scene for decades.

His last day is Thursday, July 3, and he joins Tina Detelj as the latest veteran television reporters to sign off from News 8.

"Rummer was so good at making sports fun at FOX61 and WTNH News 8," longtime sports anchor Joe D'Ambrosio wrote on Facebook. "He didn’t have an enemy in the world (maybe Jerry Lewis) and his enthusiasm was infectious. Have a grrrrrreat retirement, Bobby, you’ve earned it."

According to his WTNH bio, Rumbold began his career on radio in the late 1970s at WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts, covering UMass basketball, the New England Patriots, and calling college football games, among others.

He has won numerous awards for his reporting and play-by-play announcing, and had a stint as SportsCenter anchor at ESPN International.

Rumbold also spent the bulk of his career, 23 years, at Fox61 from 1995 to 2018.

"When I was 13 years old I asked Bob for his autograph while standing outside the Basketball Hall of Fame induction dinner in Agawam, Mass," wrote Shawn Courchesne on Facebook. "Twenty-five years later, my work cubical was right next to Bob’s in the Hartford Courant/Fox 61 sports department office. What an amazing career. One of the legends of Connecticut broadcasting."

Besides college and professional sports, Rumbold has also spent years covering high school sports in the state, for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference is grateful.

"Bob - thank you for all the coverage you’ve given to CIAC athletes over the decades," conference officials wrote on X. "Your enthusiasm, energy and warmth were a great fit for coverage of high school sports."

Rumbold, 72, told CT Insider that he enjoyed every minute of his career.

"This is fun, not a job," he told the publication.

Read the CT Insider story; read The Laurel story.