It must be difficult to enter the same profession as your world-renowned grandfather. Add in the fact that 18-year-old Pat Summerall shares the same name as his grandfather and, well, those are big shoes to fill. The young Summerall hails from Philadelphia and will be a freshman at Baylor University this fall. He will study communications and marketing in Waco, Texas, less than a two-hour drive from the Southlake, Texas, home of his grandfather and his grandfather’s wife, Cheri.
“When I was on my college search, they suggested that I check out TCU and Baylor,” young Pat Summerall said of the elder Summeralls. “They kind of always wanted to have one of the grandchildren go to school near them. I applied to both of those schools, and when I took a visit, I ended up loving Baylor. And having family that close by was a major pull factor to go to Baylor.”
“I’m glad he picked Baylor because it’s close to where we live,” elder Summerall, 80, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“If he weren’t a broadcaster,” the teen said, “I probably wouldn’t look into it. A lot of that world is how you can get started. Any kind of help you can get is good in that world, because it’s really hard to get started.
“I thought: Why not give it a shot? I like sports, and people have told me I have a good skill set for it.”