Professional Football Player, Television Sportscaster. For nine seasons (1961 to 1969), he played at the right cornerback position in the National Football League with the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams. Born Irvin Acie Cross, he was the eighth of fifteen children, his mother died when Irv was in grade school. He made his initial impression on the football field during his years at Hammond High School in Indiana. He received a scholarship from Northwestern University where he played collegiate football and excelled at track and field, prior to being selected by the Philadelphia Eagles during the 7th round of the 1961 NFL Draft. While at Northwestern, he achieved All Big-Ten honors under the guidance of legendary coach Ara Parseghian. During this period, he met and became friends with Brent Musburger who he would go on to form a highly memorable collaboration at CBS. Cross took over at right cornerback for Tom Brookshier who suffered a career ending injury and during the course of his career, he distinguished himself as he achieved Pro-Bowl honors twice (1964 and 1965). Along with Timmy Brown, Cross was one of the earliest star African American players with Philadelphia. While playing, he began his broadcasting career on radio and television in Philadelphia serving as sports director for KYW. After three seasons (1966 to 1968) with the Los Angeles Rams, he returned to Philadelphia for his final season (1969) as a player and coach. In 1970, he remained with the Eagles as a secondary coach and in 1971 he joined CBS, initially as a football analyst. In 1975, CBS restructured the format of "NFL Today" which consisted of Irv Cross, Brent Musburger, Phyllis George and veteran sportscaster Jack Whitaker who contributed to segments. Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder was added to the cast in 1976. The groundbreaking series was of historic note for featuring Cross as the first regular African American national television sportscaster and George who was a pioneering figure for women sportscasters. He remained on "NFL Today" until 1989 and continued with CBS for another five years as he covered such sports as basketball, gymnastics and track and field. From 1996 until 1998, he served as athletic director at Idaho State University and from 1999 until 2005, he served as athletic director at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2009, he was honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award for his work as an analyst. Cross, who suffered numerous concussions during the course of his career, died of complications from dementia.