This past Sunday was “Selection Sunday” which, for college basketball fans everywhere, means the madness is beginning. Whether you are an avid college basketball fan or you only watch/listen during this NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament time, the craziness that surrounds it is hard to ignore.
To say that people feel strongly about their favorite (or least favorite) college basketball team would be an understatement. This month ESPN has been running their 30 for 30 documentaries on legendary college basketball teams. One documentary was on the Michigan Fab 5 and another is on Duke’s team that had Christian Laettner and Grant Hill. In watching these you see that sales for Michigan merchandise during the Fab 5 went from something like 2 million to 10 million dollars. Someone actually wrote a book called “Duke sucks” because of how much they despise Christian Laettner and Duke basketball. This basketball fever is intense.
No matter if it’s because it’s your alma mater, it’s your family’s team or you just fell in love with the school, people just can’t get enough and the rivalries run deep. I was once told the reason people are so interested in basketball at this time of year is you just never know what’s going to happen. Single elimination. The upsets. The overtimes. The suspense. This is one of the most watched and wagered on annual sporting events in the United States and its continually growing. The crazy things are the odds. Check out this article on the odds of a perfect bracket – mind blowing but doesn’t stop us from filling one out!
If you’re like many of us and can’t watch because you work and your boss wouldn’t be thrilled at the prospect of you using all the company bandwidth on watching college basketball (not to mention the work you’re not doing….), you can still listen on the radio. It appears Westwood One has most of the rights to the actual games. ESPN Radio has a lot of coverage about the tournament but we didn’t find any games. I’m sure the local stations for the various participating (68) teams will have coverage of their games so find a bracket to see if your team is playing (better yet, fill one out in the many, many bracket contests and maybe win something :)) and tune in to listen.
In the spirit of competition, we are hosting our own competition. Tell us your favorite sports radio moment (it doesn’t have to be basketball related) and you’ll be entered to win a CC Pocket Radio. The more detail the better. Limited to one entry per person. The winner will be announced April 7th.
Also if you find any additional resources for listening to the games – let us know.
I listened to many a Muncie (Indiana) Central High School game back in the late ’50s and early ’60s on a “console” radio phono, (I think) by Motorola. We took our basketball very seriously in a basketball state, which had an open tournament until 1997. Muncie Central won more of those open State Tourneys than any other school, a total of 8. The radio had a huge, spiral-wound antenna on the back that made it an amazing signal pump on AM radio, capable of bringing in stations from all over the country at night, and an amazing array of local stations during the day. It also had a huge speaker in the front with great bass, and, of course, tubes to make that unique, rich sound.
The most startling thing I remember hearing during tourney season, in December and January, was LIGHTNING static. We had a record-breaking snowstorm, complete with “thundersnow.” That storm turned into a blizzard, and a lot of people who were not lucky enough to be listening on the radio, at home, spent the night in the Indianapolis arena or nearby shelters while the mid-state dug out. That was my first experience with thundersnow, and I have known ever since to expect the worst if a winter storm ever included lightning.
I used to spend summer evenings listening to Ernie Harwell broadcasting Detroit Tigers games. His gentle Georgia drawl was a comforting sound as I enjoyed baseball
ONE OF THE GREAT BASEBALL RADIO VOICES ! USED TO LISTEN TO TIGER NITE GAMES HERE IN WESTERN NY. WJR-am. (I THINK) ………
Grounded as a kid with my TV taken away Listening to Dodger games (and other stuff) on AM radio
Back in the early to mid 70s, I would listen to Harry Kalas and Ritchie Ashburn on 1150 am wdel broadcast the Phillies games. Me and my pop-pop listening to his sears Silverstone am/FM portable. Man, what memories!
They were the best and sadly missed by many Phillies fans
and they still play “High Hopes” sung by Harry Kalas
in the early 80’s I moved to Atlanta and from my balcony I could catch reds games it was great
as far as “March Madness” I just don’t care
When Willie Mays hit that game winning home run in the world series
Basketball is better suited tor TV, but a baseball game on the my CC pocket radio while working out in the yard is one of my favorite things. It is the only thing that helps while I wait for the NFL season to start. I get something accomplished and am entertained at the same time!
When I listened to Moon Dog Mayne wrestle Pat Patterson in 1975. I was unable to go to the match as I was only 7, but was able to listen to it on KGO in Sacramento, CA. My imagination did the rest. Nice memories with that little transistor radio.
In the early 70’s listened to the Chicago Cubs with my grandfather Red. I remembered Ernie Banks and Jack Brickhouse commentating the game “HeyHey way back its another home run for (such & such)
My wife and I married in the early 80s and didn’t even own a TV for the better part of a year. Didn’t miss much I don’t think. We always had radios though, and still do. If I had to do without one or the other, I’d chuck my TV in a second. As a teen in the 60’s I used to listen to Reds baseball on the porch with my father.
I don’t know what radio I listened on, I just remember my cheers of joy and tears of admiration as baseball pitcher Dennis Eckersley made his Hall of Fame Induction speech in 2004. Many times I had watched The Eck pitch at the Oakland Coliseum. In his speech he started out acknowledging his debt to Frank Robinson; he ended with thanking those who helped him in his major battle with alcohol as he achieved sobriety.
While my childhood was shaped and sculpted by the tag team play-by-play and color commentary of the Mets’ broadcasters Lindsay Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner (RIP, all), for single moments, nothing will ever surpass Marv Albert calling the 7th game of the 1969-1970 Knicks-Lakers NBA championship game in May, 1970.
When Willis Reed and his cortisone-injected left knee came on to the court, the sky opened, the roof parted and we all, the faithful brethren gathered around our radios shortly after the Kent State killings and the moratorium and the invasion of Cambodia and a country riven mad — all of us ascended to the heavens that night.
And Albert was magnetic, a force of nature, and fandom. It was so electric that there’s a generation of souls who to this day, 45 years later, know it as a perfect moment, the one Spalding Gray described.
Down through the years, the Captain’s appearance on the court that night, injured, hurt, in pain and agony and ecstasy. Just the memory of it raises goosebumps on our flesh and lifts our face and gaze to some eternal rafter.
Today, there’s number 19. Retired, but only a little.
My favorite sports moment is when football announcer Larry Munsen got so excited when Georgia scored the winning touchdown against Florida that he broke his chair and fell on the floor! Larry was the Bulldog’s announcer from back in the 1960s or ’70s until just four years ago, and he was an institution for hundreds or thousands of Georgia fans. RIP Larry!
I remember working at a camp in the Rocky Mountains in October of 1977. There was no power in the area and TV was definitely not available. However, we were able to rely on portable radios for our outside information & entertainment. The 1977 World Series broadcast was very faint at times but luckily came in amazingly clear for most of the game. Reggie Jackson had walked on 4 pitches in the second inning. He then hit a 2 run homer in the 4th on a pitch from Burt Hooton to give the Yankees the lead. Once again, in the 5th, he connected on a pitch from Elías Sosa to make the score 7–3. In the 8th, Jackson drove a knuckleball from Charlie Hough almost 500 feet into the stands, becoming the first player to hit three home runs in a World Series game since Babe Ruth! Each of these home runs was made off a different Dodger pitcher. Excitement plus! The only thing better would have been being there in the stands…but with a little imagination…which was easy to come by when listening to the radio…we just about felt that we were there!
I love sitting on the patio at night, in the summer, drinking a cool one and listening to Bob Uecker call a Brewers game. Sometimes he is more entertaining than the game!
We love to listen to Nebraska Husker football every fall.
I Love listening to Baseball on the radio, in the summer while out in the yard. It brings back memory’s of me and my Dad listening to the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series. All us kids were jumping around him and cheering. (Good Memory’s of days gone by)
At age 8, 1959 going to the LA Coliseum with my Dad for a Dodgers baseball game, the year before they moved to Dodger stadium. I will never-ever forget, even that long ago, hearing on the announcer and radios around us, when Roy Campanella was wheeled out in a wheel chair to home plate and 90some thousand fans lit lights as the lights went down. And yes, Vin Scully was announcing. Even at 8 the energy of love and admiration sits with me today as strong as that day
Thanks Vin
My favorite memory of radio sports were the sports news broadcasts by Jim Healy on Los Angeles radio stations I think from the early 1960’s to the 90’s complete with audio clips and sound effects. When he was absent they could run a program from weeks before and it was still humorous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Healy
My fondest sports radio memories involve the great voice of the Kentucky Wildcats, Cawood Ledford. Growing up, seeing a basketball game on TV was a real treat, but we had become so used to hearing Cawood, that when a game was on television, we would watch the TV and listen to Cawood on the radio. We even bought a nice radio to leave on top of the TV just for UK games. Cawood was so great at creating a picture in your mind of what was happening on the floor, that if you wanted to go off and do something away from the TV, you never felt like you missed a single thing and that little pocket radio stayed with you during basketball season just like your purse or wallet did. I think the most memorable moment listening to Cawood on the radio was the Laettner shot in the 1992 NCAA East Regionals. Cawood’s call of that moment is replayed often this time of year and no one expresses the feelings of a Wildcat Fan at that moment better than Cawood. And even more, that night was Cawood’s final game as the voice of the Wildcats (Cawood did call the NCAA final in 1992, but the UK/Duke regional was his last as the voice of the Cats). At first he felt cheated because the Cats lost to Duke, but in the end, and as history named it, Cawood’s last UK game was the greatest basketball game of all time. There has never been a greater, or more beloved, sports announcer. Cawood could have gone as far as any announcer in history, but he stayed here at home and called for the team he loved, the school he loved, for the people he loved. And we loved him back! Cawood gave me a great love for radio, long before rock n’ roll or any other radio genre caught my interest. I miss him so very much!
In 1966, when I was 15, I was over 300 miles away in Wisconsin when my hometown high school team (Michigan City IN) was playing for the Indiana State Basketball Championship–1 class, 1 champion, just like in “Hoosiers.” I had a tiny Philco transistor radio that I took high up inside the bell tower of a church in an attempt to listen to the game. It worked! I was able to hear the game–although it faded in and out–on WOWO radio out of Ft. Wayne. And we won!!!
The K. U. Jayhawks recently came from 18 points behind at the half and ended up winning over West Va. in overtime.
Cawood Ledford calling Kentucky basketball on WHAS.
Listening to Harry Karry singing take me out to the ballgame! I used to love listening to that on my little transistor.
I remember when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a row in a World
Series Game…I think it was the 7th game that won the series. I think it was the most entertaining, exciting baseball game I have ever experienced. It was in the late 70’s or maybe 1980.
When I was a teen, my neighbor gave me a transistor radio. Ever since then I love listening, imaging the scene the announcer describes. A few years ago I was listening to my college football game. Our team was trying to come back with a Hail Mary pass and the announcer says “Calling Mary and she answers the phone”!! Gave us the win!!
I remember as a kid in Ohio sitting on the back stoop in the summer with my father as he would tune into a ballgame and we would sit there and listen. He worked 3 shifts, so I didn’t see him much and these were special moments.
I remember listening to the radio and cheering the Phillies on to win the World Series back in the 80s, what fun it was, there is nothing like a radio to make it better
Best moment? The current one; SDSU upset of Colorado in NIT March 18, 2015.
SDSU upset of #1 seed Colorado last night. Best is always the latest!
Minnesota Twins win World Series in 1991 with Gene Larkins hit in the bottom of the tenth. Jack Morris pitching 10 shutout innings
We recently had a High School basket ball tournament in our school district. Our school district is about the size of Ohio. In our area in rural Alaska we do not have local TV but we have one radio station. Since we do not have good reception in all areas on the AM frequency, there are FM repeaters in several places. I travel for my work and every where I went, there were people sitting around radios. It didn’t matter who won, because the winner was going to represent our School District. And now during the State Championships every one is again listening to the radio!
The BEST sports radio was always Chick Hearn announcing Laker’s games. Turn the TV sound off and listen to Chick. After a short while you didn’t even watch the TV. Chick’s commentary was so much richer than anything the tube had to offer.
Since we do not have T.V. we have RADIO , they are all C. Crane and they came through on 2015 Superbowl.
What a treat to hear every play by play on nearly any station. We would have never had that experience were it not for C.Crane. Oh, The SeaHawks were awesome, no matter what.
The Detroit Tigers clinching the pennant in 1968. Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey. McClain last 30 game winner. Lolich 3 wins in the World Series! Took the Cardinals in seven. What memories.
When I was a kid you rarely got to watch your favorite college football team on TV. I spent my autumn and winter Saturday’s in front of the radio listening to the Alabama Crimson Tide play football. I remember the announcer would tell you the offense was moving from your left to right, or vice versa, and I would visualize that in my mind. In 1967 I was 14 and Alabama was playing Auburn, our biggest
rival, it was poring ran. It’s called the Iron Bowl and it was the first time they played it at night. The play by play was John Forney and the color man was Doug Layton. The field was very muddy and Auburn really had out played Bama. In the fourth quarter Auburn had a 3 to 0 lead. Alabama’s quarter back, Kenny Stabler, ran a quarter back option play 47 yard for a touchdown. We won 7 to 3! The field was very muddy and the play became known as The Run In The Mud, you can Google it and watch a video of it.
Listened to San Francisco Giants games with my Grandfather Ben in Alameda CA. He had a speaker rigged up on a pole in the middle of his yard. I would watch him tend his vegetables while we listened to the games. 1960s. I now live in the gold country foothills of CA. No TV due to forest and satellite issues. Still listen to Giants Baseball on the radio. Favorite moment, Travis Ishikawa’s HR last year’s post season.
My favorite sports moment is Mickey Mantle breaking the then home run record back in the 60s (shows my age). Also I loved to listen to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater….
As a diehard Cincinnati Reds fan growing up in New Jersey in the late ’50’s, early ’60’s, I was certainly outnumbered by Yankee fans. Nevertheless, many nights I was able to pick up the Reds games on the 50,000 watt blowtorch WLW in Cincinnati using my top of the line EIGHT transistor Emerson radio. Waite Hoyt, a Hall Of Fame pitcher with the Yankees (ironically enough) broadcast the Reds games in those days, and he would regale the listening audience with tales of his teammate (and roommate), the mighty Babe Ruth. So fascinating were Hoyt’s stories that we fans would actually long for rain delays, so that Waite could spin another yarn about the Sultan Of Swat.
vince scully in 1965 calling the Dodgers. everyone on the block had their radio tuned to it so you could here it outside as we played
I went to Lake Placid, NY during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Everyone & I mean everyone had their radio on & was listening to the Hockey Finals, USA vs Russia. By the end of the best hockey game in history, no matter what country or language one spoke, the streets, bars, coffee shops etc…were all ringing with the chant USA, USA, USA !! The radio, like music is universal & certainly helped make many a friend that one very special day in hockey history.
The best sports were the ones I broadcast in Alaska. And the ones I am creating as a team member for a new community.
When I was young, I listened to the Cincinnati Red’s games with my dad on the radio. Now I live in Silver Spring, Md. and watch my Dayton Flyers Basketball . Especially the women’s basketball team!! Go Flyers!!!.
Ray Spieler
Well, I hate to disappoint. I’m not a hard core sports fan. I can listen to a football game that we might care about while driving in the car, to a point. For the most part, not terribly interested. You see, my dad worked hard all week long. When he came home from work, he’d work in the yard, water, garden, build something…my playhouse, my dresser, etc. He even took a refrigeration course and built little compressors, etc. I was an only child. I liked cartoons. On the weekend, my dad would lay on the couch or sit in his chair and sleep, the TV was on, (back then we only had 3 stations), every kind of sports imaginable would be on. Football, baseball, basketball, if none of those were on, it was bowling, golf, or some other equally boring “sport”, or there would be westerns, war movies and the like, but the entire weekend was consumed with this. Dare I try to change the channel, he’d wake up just as sure as I’d touch the knob (no remotes back then). No other activities, as far as I could see, were even considered. We wouldn’t go for a drive, take a picnic lunch to the park, do anything as a family like my friend’s families did. No trips to grandma’s house, because none were still alive. There might be a rare trip to an aunt’s house for a holiday. It was torture. So, I am not a hard core fan of anything sports. But, this thing does pick up Talk Radio, doesn’t it? I would listen to that often were I to win it. Thanks much!
I still remember the 1986 World Series against San Francisco and Oakland, the the earthquake hit, I was listening on the radio, and stayed on the radio for the next couple of hours to listen how bad the quake was, and the amount of damage.
I always enjoyed New York Yankees sportscaster say ” it’s a Ballantine Blast ” when one of the players hit a home run .
When Pete Rose broke the all time hit record.
when the Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed the field goal
in superbowl XXV
The Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl last year, after decades of “almost” good enough, and one losing effort against the Steelers. It was an electrifying moment in Seattle sports history when it all game together and the ‘Hawks STOMPED the Denver Broncos.
(Let’s not talk about the outcome of THIS year’s return trip to the Super Bowl, shall we? :^)