About Barry Tompkins biography
Barry was born and raised in San Francisco and began his career in local television there at KPIX-TV in 1968. Since then he has spent five years at NBC, ten years at HBO, eight years at ESPN, and the past fourteen years at Fox Sports.
His credits include play-by-play commentary of The Super Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, eight Olympic Games, The Tour de France, Wimbledon, the French Open and the U.S. Open Tennis, the World Gymnastics Championships, World Swimming and Diving Championships, World Figure Skating Championships, and horse racing’s Triple Crown, World Cup Skiing, San Francisco Giants baseball, and over 100 World Championship fights.
In addition he has covered the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA golf events, The Indy 500, Baseball World Series, hockey’s Stanley Cup, and the Soccer World Cup.
Barry is in his 30th year as the voice of Pac-10 Conference Football and Basketball for Fox Sports Net and continues to broadcast a wide variety of events on national television.
In addition to his broadcasting work, Barry writes a humor column for the Marin Independent Journal and is a contributing columnist for Comcast Sports News Bay Area.
He is married to author Joan Ryan. They live in Marin County, California with their son Ryan, 21.
Marin Independent Journal columns
- 05/13/12
- Mother's Day memories of one tough woman
- My mother's been gone for a few years now, and there are two times during the year when I think of her most. Mother's Day, and during the World Series of Poker.…more (Marin IJ)
- 05/06/12
- The gray areas of a silver state of mind
- I READ WITH some interest this week of the exhibit by photographer Vicki Topaz called "Silver: A State of Mind." It celebrates women in their 50s and 60s with gray hair. Nice. …more (Marin IJ)
- 04/22/12
- Fussy foodies often out of luck when flying
- MY FRIEND AND editor Vicki Larson wrote a yarn in this paper earlier this week asking your — and I suppose that would include my — thoughts on fussy eaters. …more (Marin IJ)
- 04/15/12
- Dying -- I'm against it
- I'VE BEEN DOING some thinking about dying. Not any time soon, mind you, but more how much I don't really want to do it. Maybe ever. I've gotten to the point that I kind of like being on this side of the lawn. …more (Marin IJ)
- 04/08/12
- Mining Marin's own cop files
- I believe I have hit the OD point on cop shows. "CSI," in all its variances, has now discovered the cause of death of victims who aren't even dead yet. "NCIS" has turned Mark Harmon's hair gray. I now feel as though I have a personal attachment with all gang leaders in every major market — all of whom have a cop show of their very own it seems. "Law and Order" has gone through so many district attorneys that the part is now on the resume of virtually every member of the Screen Actors Guild. And "Dexter" — in an ode to fine police work — is a serial killer who works for the Miami PD when he's not taking a coffee break and eviscerating another victim.…more (Marin IJ)
- 04/01/12
- Golden Gate Bridge's aging better than some people
- SO THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE is about to be 75? Quite frankly, it looks better than I do, although it's got me by a few years.…more (Marin IJ)
- 03/25/12
- When sickness descends, the doctor is in
- When I was a kid my mother desperately wanted me to be a doctor. It was really more about bragging rights around the canasta table than it was realistic thinking for my mom. It just seemed to be the thing that Jewish mothers wanted their sons to be. A lawyer maybe, a mogul of some sort perhaps, and, under no circumstances, a rabbi ("What kind of a job is that for a Jewish boy?").…more (Marin IJ)
- 03/18/12
- Dodging every leaking drop when winter arrives
- THE MAYANS were right. They had it all along. The world is coming to an end. I figure by next Tuesday – Thursday the latest. I'm on the road right now trying to get back to Marin before it floats off into the abyss so that I can pack up all my earthly belongings and take them wherever the Mayans said we were all going this year.…more (Marin IJ)
- 03/11/12
- Global village united around Starbucks
- I – AS COULD clearly be evident by last week's yarn – am not a travel writer.…more (Marin IJ)
Read earlier columns at marinij.com and csnbayarea.com.