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08/04/2014

Legendary Tennis Announcer Set To Retire

WASHINGTON -- The Citi Open Finals took place Sunday afternoon at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Northwest. It was also the last time that Charlie Brotman, the legendary voice that announced the event for the last 46 years, is retiring.

Brotman, 85, is also known as the "presidential announcer" who's provided "play- by-play" of the inaugural parade since President Dwight Eisenhower's was reelected back in 1956. Two years later, Brotman started announcing the Washington tournament -- now known as the Citi Open -- during its first year.

The versatile broadcaster was an on-air radio/TV personality in the ‘50s and ‘60s, as well as a marketing/promotions/publicity director. In the late 1960s, he started Charles J. Brotman & Associates in Washington D.C. to specialize in sports entertainment.

Charlie was the former stadium announcer for the Washington Senators Baseball Club; when the Montreal Expos moved to D.C. in 2005, Brotman performed the same duties during the Washington Nationals' first season in the District.

He's been inducted into several Halls of Fame, including the Washington Hall of Fame, the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Jock's Hall of Fame, the Public Relations Society of America Hall of Fame, the Advertising Club of Washington Hall of Fame and the Greater Washington Fastpitch Hall of Fame.

Brotman, the son of Russian immigrants, grew up in northeast D.C. and graduated from McKinley Technology High School. He studied at the University of Maryland and served in the U.S. Navy from 1946-1948 before he attended the National Academy of Broadcasting.

There, he became one of the academy's students selected to broadcast the first ever televised presidential inaugurations for Harry S. Truman in 1949.

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