Gate 21 » 21 Things http://gate21.net Life, the Universe, and the Bounce of the Ball Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:21:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Remembering John Ward: Ten years since “Give Him Six!” http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/ http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:43:15 +0000 lawvol http://gate21.net/?p=3441 Regardless of how things turn out for the Tennessee Volunteers this fall, the 2009 season represents so very many milestones—it really isn’t even worth the trouble to try and count them all.  There has been so much change lately and so very many new looks and faces that everything seems as if it is in flux.  Some feel this near c-change is long overdue, others decry it as a loss of tradition, others still reserve judgments and simply point to the inevitable movement of the hands of time.  Still, no matter how great the changes may be, the echoes of years gone by still ring in the air around Neyland Stadium.  Thankfully, this will never change. Vol Network In addition to all of the “obvious” landmark events that have or will occur as part of the 2009 football season, there is one more that may go unnoticed by many.  Though it hardly seems possible, the 2009 season marks Bob Kesling’s tenth year as the “Voice of the Vols.” Since the kickoff of the 1999 football opener against the Wyoming Cowboys, Kesling along with color-commentator Tim Priest, and sideline reporter Mike Stowell (who succeeded Jeff Francis in 2007), have brought the sounds of Big Orange football into our homes via the “Statewide Stadium” that is the Vol Network. As have I pointed out in previous posts, since I was a child, I have always been a dedicated fan of live sports radio broadcasts.  I learned at an early age that television broadcasters, no matter how good they may be, simply cannot match the style, flair, color, or excitement that a gifted radio sportscaster can bring to a game.  There are few on television that come close—Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried being pretty much the best—but even they cannot quite stay in step with the great radio broadcasters of the game.  Of course, for every Franklin and Gottfried, there are a bevy of lackluster talking suits which do little more than get in the way of the game rather than actually improving your understanding of what is taking place. Thus is the curse of television…

It is one thing to verbally recount what viewers just saw on their screen; it is an entirely different thing to narrate—paint a word picture—that which listeners depend on the broadcaster to pluck from the ether and make real.  It is remarkably easy to be sloppy and boring when broadcasting a game on television—the images speak for themselves.  With radio, however, the broadcaster creates those images and the world in which they exist. That is why I will always be a fan of radio play-by-play broadcasters… Thus, for the past ten years, we in Orange Nation have depended upon Bob Kesling to paint those pictures and to create those images—he has been the one to guide us through every play of every game.  On the whole, I have to say that Kesling has done a good job.  While I will be the first to admit that Kesling’s early broadcasts seemed to me a bit “sterile” and deadpan, over the past decade he and his gameday cohorts have steadily improved and I think they do a fine job of broadcasting Tennessee Football.  Suffice it to say that I listen each week, even if the game is on television or even if I am in Section Y7 watching it for myself. This decennial milestone, however, is less about the ten years that Kesling has served as the chief broadcaster for Tennessee, and more about the man he replaced.  I still can hardly believe that it has been ten years since last we heard the inviting and familiar baritone sounds of John Ward as the “Voice of the Vols.” Though Bob Kesling does a fine job, I still miss John Ward. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="148" caption="John Ward & Lowell Blanchard"]John and Lowell[/caption] John Ward served as the Voice of the Vols in some capacity from 1963 until 1998, starting out as the host of the Tennessee coaches shows and as the PA announcer in Neyland Stadium.  Ward first began Vols play-by-play announcing when he began broadcasting Tennessee basketball games, along with the late Lowell Blanchard, in 1965.  Then, in 1968 veteran Vol Network broadcasters George Mooney (who started the Vol Navy) and Bob Fox decided to pursue other endeavors, paving the way for Ward and color-commentator Bill Anderson to assume their position behind the microphone. I first heard Ward when he broadcast the now legendary 1985-86 Sugar Bowl—where an underdog Tennessee Volunteers squad bested the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes by 28 points.  That game was, and remains, one of the most significant Tennessee football games of all time.  Ward, however, made it even better.  After hearing just one broadcast by John Ward it is fair to say that I was hooked. After that first experience, I could be found crowded around a radio whenever the Big Orange took the field.  I longed to hear John Ward and Bill Anderson relay the plays to me and the thousands of others out there in their own distinctive style.  To this day, I am a religious believer that if I am watching Tennessee play on TV, the sound goes off and the radio turns on.  However, in the era before satellite radio and internet webcasts, tuning in the Vol Network from my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was not always an easy proposition.  There was no Vol Network affiliate serving my area.  Still, I found that if I was lucky, and if the game was at night (when the ionosphere makes radio signals carry farther) I could pick up the scratchy signal of the broadcast emanating from a station near Murphy, North Carolina.  Though my mother thought I was crazy constantly trying to tweak the radio to get just a bit more clarity, I always tried to find the broadcast.  She also thought I was about half-cracked when, as a student at Tennessee, I figured out a way to mount a tiny radio inside my marching band hat while I was in the Pride of the Southland, thus enabling me to listen while in the stands.  John Ward made it worth my while. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="John Ward & Bill Anderson host the "Kickoff Call-in Show" in 1997"]ward_hands[/caption] To this day, I am still a dedicated Vol Network listener and always have my earphones with me when sitting in Neyland Stadium. From 1986 to 1998, I listened to as many broadcasts as possible.  I learned a lot about the game of football, about Tennessee, and about communicating an image.  I learned that often I could see the game better with my eyes closed and my ears open.  John Ward’s words became my eyes, and they never saw things as clearly as they did when he was painting the picture word by word.  I learned that Tennessee football was as much John Ward as John Ward was Tennessee football.  I learned that a true professional needs no introduction, no pomp, and no showy entrance.  I learned that class is a commodity not often found among broadcasters.  I learned that mistakes in public are not a bad thing if you can have a good laugh about it. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Cartoon of Ward from 1998"]number1[/caption] Both prior to his retirement at the end of the 1998-99 basketball season and since that time, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with John Ward on several occasions, and found him to be every bit as genuine and every bit the gentleman he was on the radio.  For me he truly was—and remains—the voice of Tennessee.  He told us the story and let it unfold across the airwaves.  He not only told us what was happening, but he managed to make it real, to make the excitement palpable. Now, it has been ten years since he last sat behind the microphone in the communications center which bears his name inside the pressbox of Neyland Stadium.  Though this is difficult for me to imagine, I am sure there are many Tennessee fans today who have never heard Ward’s broadcasts and some who may not even know who he is.  On some level, that is very sad for me.  Yet, traditions are made over time, and each generation has a hand in forming and re-forming those traditions.  They are not static.  For me as a child and a young man, John Ward was a tradition.  Over the past ten years, however, Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, Bert Bertelkamp, and  Mike Stowell have started a new tradition for the Vol Network, one which I am sure in years to come will be remembered just as fondly as I remember Ward’s. Still, as we prepare for the 2009 football season, on the cusp of a great undiscovered country, the hopes of the future, it seems only appropriate that we look back ten years and remember the man who came into our ears, into our homes, into our lives to bring us the story of Tennessee.  That past is prologue for the future to which we all look. In recognition of this little reminiscent look back, I have put together a little soundboard of a few of John Ward’s memorable calls and catchphrases.  I plan on finding a permanent home for this soundboard here at the Gate, but for now, here are “21 Things” from the John Ward Era that still make me smile. Rest assured, I’ll be listening this fall from my perch in the North Endzone, from my home in North Carolina, or wherever else I might find myself on a gameday.  That is the primary reason why I own an XM Satellite Radio.  Yes, I still listen to the Vol Network every chance I get. So here’s to all the folks at the Vol Network for giving me and countless other Vol fans across the globe a reason to tune in.  Thank you for giving that experience to all of us who wear the orange.  Thank you for building and maintaining that wonderful tradition… …and a special thanks to the man who started that tradition for me: John Ward. -- So it goes …Email lawvol No McAlisters
**Disclaimer and Notice: All Audio Clips remain the property of the licensing authority and their respective universities and/or institutions. Gate 21 makes no claim of ownership to these clips, and they are displayed on this website for the sole purpose of public commentary, discussion, and discourse, and are, in good faith, believed to be a Fair Use. Any questions or concerns regarding the display of such audio should be directed to the publisher of this site.
Image(s) Courtesy of:    UT Sports.com / the Vol Network •  Unofficial John Ward Page •  Knoxville News Sentinel ||  Statement on Fair Use
Gate 21 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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]]> http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/feed/ 15 21 Things … That Make it Great to be a Tennessee Volunteer http://gate21.net Life, the Universe, and the Bounce of the Ball Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:21:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Gate 21 » 21 Things http://gate21.net Life, the Universe, and the Bounce of the Ball Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:21:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Remembering John Ward: Ten years since “Give Him Six!” http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/ http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:43:15 +0000 lawvol http://gate21.net/?p=3441 Regardless of how things turn out for the Tennessee Volunteers this fall, the 2009 season represents so very many milestones—it really isn’t even worth the trouble to try and count them all.  There has been so much change lately and so very many new looks and faces that everything seems as if it is in flux.  Some feel this near c-change is long overdue, others decry it as a loss of tradition, others still reserve judgments and simply point to the inevitable movement of the hands of time.  Still, no matter how great the changes may be, the echoes of years gone by still ring in the air around Neyland Stadium.  Thankfully, this will never change. Vol Network In addition to all of the “obvious” landmark events that have or will occur as part of the 2009 football season, there is one more that may go unnoticed by many.  Though it hardly seems possible, the 2009 season marks Bob Kesling’s tenth year as the “Voice of the Vols.” Since the kickoff of the 1999 football opener against the Wyoming Cowboys, Kesling along with color-commentator Tim Priest, and sideline reporter Mike Stowell (who succeeded Jeff Francis in 2007), have brought the sounds of Big Orange football into our homes via the “Statewide Stadium” that is the Vol Network. As have I pointed out in previous posts, since I was a child, I have always been a dedicated fan of live sports radio broadcasts.  I learned at an early age that television broadcasters, no matter how good they may be, simply cannot match the style, flair, color, or excitement that a gifted radio sportscaster can bring to a game.  There are few on television that come close—Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried being pretty much the best—but even they cannot quite stay in step with the great radio broadcasters of the game.  Of course, for every Franklin and Gottfried, there are a bevy of lackluster talking suits which do little more than get in the way of the game rather than actually improving your understanding of what is taking place. Thus is the curse of television…

It is one thing to verbally recount what viewers just saw on their screen; it is an entirely different thing to narrate—paint a word picture—that which listeners depend on the broadcaster to pluck from the ether and make real.  It is remarkably easy to be sloppy and boring when broadcasting a game on television—the images speak for themselves.  With radio, however, the broadcaster creates those images and the world in which they exist. That is why I will always be a fan of radio play-by-play broadcasters… Thus, for the past ten years, we in Orange Nation have depended upon Bob Kesling to paint those pictures and to create those images—he has been the one to guide us through every play of every game.  On the whole, I have to say that Kesling has done a good job.  While I will be the first to admit that Kesling’s early broadcasts seemed to me a bit “sterile” and deadpan, over the past decade he and his gameday cohorts have steadily improved and I think they do a fine job of broadcasting Tennessee Football.  Suffice it to say that I listen each week, even if the game is on television or even if I am in Section Y7 watching it for myself. This decennial milestone, however, is less about the ten years that Kesling has served as the chief broadcaster for Tennessee, and more about the man he replaced.  I still can hardly believe that it has been ten years since last we heard the inviting and familiar baritone sounds of John Ward as the “Voice of the Vols.” Though Bob Kesling does a fine job, I still miss John Ward. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="148" caption="John Ward & Lowell Blanchard"]John and Lowell[/caption] John Ward served as the Voice of the Vols in some capacity from 1963 until 1998, starting out as the host of the Tennessee coaches shows and as the PA announcer in Neyland Stadium.  Ward first began Vols play-by-play announcing when he began broadcasting Tennessee basketball games, along with the late Lowell Blanchard, in 1965.  Then, in 1968 veteran Vol Network broadcasters George Mooney (who started the Vol Navy) and Bob Fox decided to pursue other endeavors, paving the way for Ward and color-commentator Bill Anderson to assume their position behind the microphone. I first heard Ward when he broadcast the now legendary 1985-86 Sugar Bowl—where an underdog Tennessee Volunteers squad bested the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes by 28 points.  That game was, and remains, one of the most significant Tennessee football games of all time.  Ward, however, made it even better.  After hearing just one broadcast by John Ward it is fair to say that I was hooked. After that first experience, I could be found crowded around a radio whenever the Big Orange took the field.  I longed to hear John Ward and Bill Anderson relay the plays to me and the thousands of others out there in their own distinctive style.  To this day, I am a religious believer that if I am watching Tennessee play on TV, the sound goes off and the radio turns on.  However, in the era before satellite radio and internet webcasts, tuning in the Vol Network from my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was not always an easy proposition.  There was no Vol Network affiliate serving my area.  Still, I found that if I was lucky, and if the game was at night (when the ionosphere makes radio signals carry farther) I could pick up the scratchy signal of the broadcast emanating from a station near Murphy, North Carolina.  Though my mother thought I was crazy constantly trying to tweak the radio to get just a bit more clarity, I always tried to find the broadcast.  She also thought I was about half-cracked when, as a student at Tennessee, I figured out a way to mount a tiny radio inside my marching band hat while I was in the Pride of the Southland, thus enabling me to listen while in the stands.  John Ward made it worth my while. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="John Ward & Bill Anderson host the "Kickoff Call-in Show" in 1997"]ward_hands[/caption] To this day, I am still a dedicated Vol Network listener and always have my earphones with me when sitting in Neyland Stadium. From 1986 to 1998, I listened to as many broadcasts as possible.  I learned a lot about the game of football, about Tennessee, and about communicating an image.  I learned that often I could see the game better with my eyes closed and my ears open.  John Ward’s words became my eyes, and they never saw things as clearly as they did when he was painting the picture word by word.  I learned that Tennessee football was as much John Ward as John Ward was Tennessee football.  I learned that a true professional needs no introduction, no pomp, and no showy entrance.  I learned that class is a commodity not often found among broadcasters.  I learned that mistakes in public are not a bad thing if you can have a good laugh about it. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Cartoon of Ward from 1998"]number1[/caption] Both prior to his retirement at the end of the 1998-99 basketball season and since that time, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with John Ward on several occasions, and found him to be every bit as genuine and every bit the gentleman he was on the radio.  For me he truly was—and remains—the voice of Tennessee.  He told us the story and let it unfold across the airwaves.  He not only told us what was happening, but he managed to make it real, to make the excitement palpable. Now, it has been ten years since he last sat behind the microphone in the communications center which bears his name inside the pressbox of Neyland Stadium.  Though this is difficult for me to imagine, I am sure there are many Tennessee fans today who have never heard Ward’s broadcasts and some who may not even know who he is.  On some level, that is very sad for me.  Yet, traditions are made over time, and each generation has a hand in forming and re-forming those traditions.  They are not static.  For me as a child and a young man, John Ward was a tradition.  Over the past ten years, however, Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, Bert Bertelkamp, and  Mike Stowell have started a new tradition for the Vol Network, one which I am sure in years to come will be remembered just as fondly as I remember Ward’s. Still, as we prepare for the 2009 football season, on the cusp of a great undiscovered country, the hopes of the future, it seems only appropriate that we look back ten years and remember the man who came into our ears, into our homes, into our lives to bring us the story of Tennessee.  That past is prologue for the future to which we all look. In recognition of this little reminiscent look back, I have put together a little soundboard of a few of John Ward’s memorable calls and catchphrases.  I plan on finding a permanent home for this soundboard here at the Gate, but for now, here are “21 Things” from the John Ward Era that still make me smile. Rest assured, I’ll be listening this fall from my perch in the North Endzone, from my home in North Carolina, or wherever else I might find myself on a gameday.  That is the primary reason why I own an XM Satellite Radio.  Yes, I still listen to the Vol Network every chance I get. So here’s to all the folks at the Vol Network for giving me and countless other Vol fans across the globe a reason to tune in.  Thank you for giving that experience to all of us who wear the orange.  Thank you for building and maintaining that wonderful tradition… …and a special thanks to the man who started that tradition for me: John Ward. -- So it goes …Email lawvol No McAlisters
**Disclaimer and Notice: All Audio Clips remain the property of the licensing authority and their respective universities and/or institutions. Gate 21 makes no claim of ownership to these clips, and they are displayed on this website for the sole purpose of public commentary, discussion, and discourse, and are, in good faith, believed to be a Fair Use. Any questions or concerns regarding the display of such audio should be directed to the publisher of this site.
Image(s) Courtesy of:    UT Sports.com / the Vol Network •  Unofficial John Ward Page •  Knoxville News Sentinel ||  Statement on Fair Use
Gate 21 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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]]> http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/feed/ 15 21 Things … That Make it Great to be a Tennessee Volunteer http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/ http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:43:15 +0000 lawvol http://gate21.net/?p=3441 Regardless of how things turn out for the Tennessee Volunteers this fall, the 2009 season represents so very many milestones—it really isn’t even worth the trouble to try and count them all.  There has been so much change lately and so very many new looks and faces that everything seems as if it is in flux.  Some feel this near c-change is long overdue, others decry it as a loss of tradition, others still reserve judgments and simply point to the inevitable movement of the hands of time.  Still, no matter how great the changes may be, the echoes of years gone by still ring in the air around Neyland Stadium.  Thankfully, this will never change. Vol Network In addition to all of the “obvious” landmark events that have or will occur as part of the 2009 football season, there is one more that may go unnoticed by many.  Though it hardly seems possible, the 2009 season marks Bob Kesling’s tenth year as the “Voice of the Vols.” Since the kickoff of the 1999 football opener against the Wyoming Cowboys, Kesling along with color-commentator Tim Priest, and sideline reporter Mike Stowell (who succeeded Jeff Francis in 2007), have brought the sounds of Big Orange football into our homes via the “Statewide Stadium” that is the Vol Network. As have I pointed out in previous posts, since I was a child, I have always been a dedicated fan of live sports radio broadcasts.  I learned at an early age that television broadcasters, no matter how good they may be, simply cannot match the style, flair, color, or excitement that a gifted radio sportscaster can bring to a game.  There are few on television that come close—Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried being pretty much the best—but even they cannot quite stay in step with the great radio broadcasters of the game.  Of course, for every Franklin and Gottfried, there are a bevy of lackluster talking suits which do little more than get in the way of the game rather than actually improving your understanding of what is taking place. Thus is the curse of television…

It is one thing to verbally recount what viewers just saw on their screen; it is an entirely different thing to narrate—paint a word picture—that which listeners depend on the broadcaster to pluck from the ether and make real.  It is remarkably easy to be sloppy and boring when broadcasting a game on television—the images speak for themselves.  With radio, however, the broadcaster creates those images and the world in which they exist. That is why I will always be a fan of radio play-by-play broadcasters… Thus, for the past ten years, we in Orange Nation have depended upon Bob Kesling to paint those pictures and to create those images—he has been the one to guide us through every play of every game.  On the whole, I have to say that Kesling has done a good job.  While I will be the first to admit that Kesling’s early broadcasts seemed to me a bit “sterile” and deadpan, over the past decade he and his gameday cohorts have steadily improved and I think they do a fine job of broadcasting Tennessee Football.  Suffice it to say that I listen each week, even if the game is on television or even if I am in Section Y7 watching it for myself. This decennial milestone, however, is less about the ten years that Kesling has served as the chief broadcaster for Tennessee, and more about the man he replaced.  I still can hardly believe that it has been ten years since last we heard the inviting and familiar baritone sounds of John Ward as the “Voice of the Vols.” Though Bob Kesling does a fine job, I still miss John Ward. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="148" caption="John Ward & Lowell Blanchard"]John and Lowell[/caption] John Ward served as the Voice of the Vols in some capacity from 1963 until 1998, starting out as the host of the Tennessee coaches shows and as the PA announcer in Neyland Stadium.  Ward first began Vols play-by-play announcing when he began broadcasting Tennessee basketball games, along with the late Lowell Blanchard, in 1965.  Then, in 1968 veteran Vol Network broadcasters George Mooney (who started the Vol Navy) and Bob Fox decided to pursue other endeavors, paving the way for Ward and color-commentator Bill Anderson to assume their position behind the microphone. I first heard Ward when he broadcast the now legendary 1985-86 Sugar Bowl—where an underdog Tennessee Volunteers squad bested the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes by 28 points.  That game was, and remains, one of the most significant Tennessee football games of all time.  Ward, however, made it even better.  After hearing just one broadcast by John Ward it is fair to say that I was hooked. After that first experience, I could be found crowded around a radio whenever the Big Orange took the field.  I longed to hear John Ward and Bill Anderson relay the plays to me and the thousands of others out there in their own distinctive style.  To this day, I am a religious believer that if I am watching Tennessee play on TV, the sound goes off and the radio turns on.  However, in the era before satellite radio and internet webcasts, tuning in the Vol Network from my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was not always an easy proposition.  There was no Vol Network affiliate serving my area.  Still, I found that if I was lucky, and if the game was at night (when the ionosphere makes radio signals carry farther) I could pick up the scratchy signal of the broadcast emanating from a station near Murphy, North Carolina.  Though my mother thought I was crazy constantly trying to tweak the radio to get just a bit more clarity, I always tried to find the broadcast.  She also thought I was about half-cracked when, as a student at Tennessee, I figured out a way to mount a tiny radio inside my marching band hat while I was in the Pride of the Southland, thus enabling me to listen while in the stands.  John Ward made it worth my while. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="John Ward & Bill Anderson host the "Kickoff Call-in Show" in 1997"]ward_hands[/caption] To this day, I am still a dedicated Vol Network listener and always have my earphones with me when sitting in Neyland Stadium. From 1986 to 1998, I listened to as many broadcasts as possible.  I learned a lot about the game of football, about Tennessee, and about communicating an image.  I learned that often I could see the game better with my eyes closed and my ears open.  John Ward’s words became my eyes, and they never saw things as clearly as they did when he was painting the picture word by word.  I learned that Tennessee football was as much John Ward as John Ward was Tennessee football.  I learned that a true professional needs no introduction, no pomp, and no showy entrance.  I learned that class is a commodity not often found among broadcasters.  I learned that mistakes in public are not a bad thing if you can have a good laugh about it. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Cartoon of Ward from 1998"]number1[/caption] Both prior to his retirement at the end of the 1998-99 basketball season and since that time, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with John Ward on several occasions, and found him to be every bit as genuine and every bit the gentleman he was on the radio.  For me he truly was—and remains—the voice of Tennessee.  He told us the story and let it unfold across the airwaves.  He not only told us what was happening, but he managed to make it real, to make the excitement palpable. Now, it has been ten years since he last sat behind the microphone in the communications center which bears his name inside the pressbox of Neyland Stadium.  Though this is difficult for me to imagine, I am sure there are many Tennessee fans today who have never heard Ward’s broadcasts and some who may not even know who he is.  On some level, that is very sad for me.  Yet, traditions are made over time, and each generation has a hand in forming and re-forming those traditions.  They are not static.  For me as a child and a young man, John Ward was a tradition.  Over the past ten years, however, Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, Bert Bertelkamp, and  Mike Stowell have started a new tradition for the Vol Network, one which I am sure in years to come will be remembered just as fondly as I remember Ward’s. Still, as we prepare for the 2009 football season, on the cusp of a great undiscovered country, the hopes of the future, it seems only appropriate that we look back ten years and remember the man who came into our ears, into our homes, into our lives to bring us the story of Tennessee.  That past is prologue for the future to which we all look. In recognition of this little reminiscent look back, I have put together a little soundboard of a few of John Ward’s memorable calls and catchphrases.  I plan on finding a permanent home for this soundboard here at the Gate, but for now, here are “21 Things” from the John Ward Era that still make me smile. Rest assured, I’ll be listening this fall from my perch in the North Endzone, from my home in North Carolina, or wherever else I might find myself on a gameday.  That is the primary reason why I own an XM Satellite Radio.  Yes, I still listen to the Vol Network every chance I get. So here’s to all the folks at the Vol Network for giving me and countless other Vol fans across the globe a reason to tune in.  Thank you for giving that experience to all of us who wear the orange.  Thank you for building and maintaining that wonderful tradition… …and a special thanks to the man who started that tradition for me: John Ward. -- So it goes …Email lawvol No McAlisters
**Disclaimer and Notice: All Audio Clips remain the property of the licensing authority and their respective universities and/or institutions. Gate 21 makes no claim of ownership to these clips, and they are displayed on this website for the sole purpose of public commentary, discussion, and discourse, and are, in good faith, believed to be a Fair Use. Any questions or concerns regarding the display of such audio should be directed to the publisher of this site.
Image(s) Courtesy of:    UT Sports.com / the Vol Network •  Unofficial John Ward Page •  Knoxville News Sentinel ||  Statement on Fair Use
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]]> http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/feed/ 15 Gate 21 » 21 Things http://gate21.net Life, the Universe, and the Bounce of the Ball Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:21:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Remembering John Ward: Ten years since “Give Him Six!” http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/ http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:43:15 +0000 lawvol http://gate21.net/?p=3441 Regardless of how things turn out for the Tennessee Volunteers this fall, the 2009 season represents so very many milestones—it really isn’t even worth the trouble to try and count them all.  There has been so much change lately and so very many new looks and faces that everything seems as if it is in flux.  Some feel this near c-change is long overdue, others decry it as a loss of tradition, others still reserve judgments and simply point to the inevitable movement of the hands of time.  Still, no matter how great the changes may be, the echoes of years gone by still ring in the air around Neyland Stadium.  Thankfully, this will never change. Vol Network In addition to all of the “obvious” landmark events that have or will occur as part of the 2009 football season, there is one more that may go unnoticed by many.  Though it hardly seems possible, the 2009 season marks Bob Kesling’s tenth year as the “Voice of the Vols.” Since the kickoff of the 1999 football opener against the Wyoming Cowboys, Kesling along with color-commentator Tim Priest, and sideline reporter Mike Stowell (who succeeded Jeff Francis in 2007), have brought the sounds of Big Orange football into our homes via the “Statewide Stadium” that is the Vol Network. As have I pointed out in previous posts, since I was a child, I have always been a dedicated fan of live sports radio broadcasts.  I learned at an early age that television broadcasters, no matter how good they may be, simply cannot match the style, flair, color, or excitement that a gifted radio sportscaster can bring to a game.  There are few on television that come close—Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried being pretty much the best—but even they cannot quite stay in step with the great radio broadcasters of the game.  Of course, for every Franklin and Gottfried, there are a bevy of lackluster talking suits which do little more than get in the way of the game rather than actually improving your understanding of what is taking place. Thus is the curse of television…

It is one thing to verbally recount what viewers just saw on their screen; it is an entirely different thing to narrate—paint a word picture—that which listeners depend on the broadcaster to pluck from the ether and make real.  It is remarkably easy to be sloppy and boring when broadcasting a game on television—the images speak for themselves.  With radio, however, the broadcaster creates those images and the world in which they exist. That is why I will always be a fan of radio play-by-play broadcasters… Thus, for the past ten years, we in Orange Nation have depended upon Bob Kesling to paint those pictures and to create those images—he has been the one to guide us through every play of every game.  On the whole, I have to say that Kesling has done a good job.  While I will be the first to admit that Kesling’s early broadcasts seemed to me a bit “sterile” and deadpan, over the past decade he and his gameday cohorts have steadily improved and I think they do a fine job of broadcasting Tennessee Football.  Suffice it to say that I listen each week, even if the game is on television or even if I am in Section Y7 watching it for myself. This decennial milestone, however, is less about the ten years that Kesling has served as the chief broadcaster for Tennessee, and more about the man he replaced.  I still can hardly believe that it has been ten years since last we heard the inviting and familiar baritone sounds of John Ward as the “Voice of the Vols.” Though Bob Kesling does a fine job, I still miss John Ward. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="148" caption="John Ward & Lowell Blanchard"]John and Lowell[/caption] John Ward served as the Voice of the Vols in some capacity from 1963 until 1998, starting out as the host of the Tennessee coaches shows and as the PA announcer in Neyland Stadium.  Ward first began Vols play-by-play announcing when he began broadcasting Tennessee basketball games, along with the late Lowell Blanchard, in 1965.  Then, in 1968 veteran Vol Network broadcasters George Mooney (who started the Vol Navy) and Bob Fox decided to pursue other endeavors, paving the way for Ward and color-commentator Bill Anderson to assume their position behind the microphone. I first heard Ward when he broadcast the now legendary 1985-86 Sugar Bowl—where an underdog Tennessee Volunteers squad bested the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes by 28 points.  That game was, and remains, one of the most significant Tennessee football games of all time.  Ward, however, made it even better.  After hearing just one broadcast by John Ward it is fair to say that I was hooked. After that first experience, I could be found crowded around a radio whenever the Big Orange took the field.  I longed to hear John Ward and Bill Anderson relay the plays to me and the thousands of others out there in their own distinctive style.  To this day, I am a religious believer that if I am watching Tennessee play on TV, the sound goes off and the radio turns on.  However, in the era before satellite radio and internet webcasts, tuning in the Vol Network from my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was not always an easy proposition.  There was no Vol Network affiliate serving my area.  Still, I found that if I was lucky, and if the game was at night (when the ionosphere makes radio signals carry farther) I could pick up the scratchy signal of the broadcast emanating from a station near Murphy, North Carolina.  Though my mother thought I was crazy constantly trying to tweak the radio to get just a bit more clarity, I always tried to find the broadcast.  She also thought I was about half-cracked when, as a student at Tennessee, I figured out a way to mount a tiny radio inside my marching band hat while I was in the Pride of the Southland, thus enabling me to listen while in the stands.  John Ward made it worth my while. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="John Ward & Bill Anderson host the "Kickoff Call-in Show" in 1997"]ward_hands[/caption] To this day, I am still a dedicated Vol Network listener and always have my earphones with me when sitting in Neyland Stadium. From 1986 to 1998, I listened to as many broadcasts as possible.  I learned a lot about the game of football, about Tennessee, and about communicating an image.  I learned that often I could see the game better with my eyes closed and my ears open.  John Ward’s words became my eyes, and they never saw things as clearly as they did when he was painting the picture word by word.  I learned that Tennessee football was as much John Ward as John Ward was Tennessee football.  I learned that a true professional needs no introduction, no pomp, and no showy entrance.  I learned that class is a commodity not often found among broadcasters.  I learned that mistakes in public are not a bad thing if you can have a good laugh about it. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Cartoon of Ward from 1998"]number1[/caption] Both prior to his retirement at the end of the 1998-99 basketball season and since that time, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with John Ward on several occasions, and found him to be every bit as genuine and every bit the gentleman he was on the radio.  For me he truly was—and remains—the voice of Tennessee.  He told us the story and let it unfold across the airwaves.  He not only told us what was happening, but he managed to make it real, to make the excitement palpable. Now, it has been ten years since he last sat behind the microphone in the communications center which bears his name inside the pressbox of Neyland Stadium.  Though this is difficult for me to imagine, I am sure there are many Tennessee fans today who have never heard Ward’s broadcasts and some who may not even know who he is.  On some level, that is very sad for me.  Yet, traditions are made over time, and each generation has a hand in forming and re-forming those traditions.  They are not static.  For me as a child and a young man, John Ward was a tradition.  Over the past ten years, however, Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, Bert Bertelkamp, and  Mike Stowell have started a new tradition for the Vol Network, one which I am sure in years to come will be remembered just as fondly as I remember Ward’s. Still, as we prepare for the 2009 football season, on the cusp of a great undiscovered country, the hopes of the future, it seems only appropriate that we look back ten years and remember the man who came into our ears, into our homes, into our lives to bring us the story of Tennessee.  That past is prologue for the future to which we all look. In recognition of this little reminiscent look back, I have put together a little soundboard of a few of John Ward’s memorable calls and catchphrases.  I plan on finding a permanent home for this soundboard here at the Gate, but for now, here are “21 Things” from the John Ward Era that still make me smile. Rest assured, I’ll be listening this fall from my perch in the North Endzone, from my home in North Carolina, or wherever else I might find myself on a gameday.  That is the primary reason why I own an XM Satellite Radio.  Yes, I still listen to the Vol Network every chance I get. So here’s to all the folks at the Vol Network for giving me and countless other Vol fans across the globe a reason to tune in.  Thank you for giving that experience to all of us who wear the orange.  Thank you for building and maintaining that wonderful tradition… …and a special thanks to the man who started that tradition for me: John Ward. -- So it goes …Email lawvol No McAlisters
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]]> http://gate21.net/2009/07/06/remembering-john-ward-ten-years-since-give-him-six/feed/ 15 21 Things … That Make it Great to be a Tennessee Volunteer http://gate21.net/2008/10/30/21-things-that-make-it-great-to-be-a-tennessee-volunteer/ http://gate21.net/2008/10/30/21-things-that-make-it-great-to-be-a-tennessee-volunteer/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:35:27 +0000 lawvol http://gate21.net/?p=2075

That Make it Great to be a Tennessee Volunteer

Now that I am finally done with my trial, I can begin to get back to things that really matter, namely spending endless hours blogging…

Needless to say, this has been a football season which could drive a Tennessee fan to drink, sniff glue, use leeches, beat up little old ladies on the side of the road, or some similar vice.  Between mounting losses, SEC and BCS irrelevance, the controversy over the legacy of the Great Punkin, and bickering among the fans, the battle for the soul of Big Orange fans has never been more feverishly pitched.

That said, I am still convicted—perhaps even more so—that there is no other team I’d ever follow and that it is truly great to be one of the many Tennessee Volunteers.  Thus, I thought I’d offer up a little list—just to remind the doom and gloom crowd that life really isn’t all that bad (and for reasons which should be fairly obvious, “21” is the top of the list).

Thus, here are 21 Things that make it great to be a Tennessee Volunteer:

>> (Lawvol's first attempt at) Flash (which he couldn't get to resize properly) Version <<

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1. The Great Smoky Mountains

01-sabir265.com 01-www.planetware.com 01-f-8andbethere.com 01-flickr.com

All of nature’s glory for the senses to behold.

2. Fort Sanders

flickr.com-14 02-reevesmaps.com flickr.com-46 02-tnjn.com 02-www.friendsofthefort.4t.com flickr.com-45 flickr.com-47

I mean, it’s pretty cool to have your college be right in the middle of a battlefield—and a super cool neighborhood.

3. The Sea of Orange!

ackaiser3.googlepages.com IMG_0638 bp1.blogger.com bp3.blogger.com-1 SCNCAP064 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_23 flickr.com-42 flickr.com-27 SCNCAP066 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_40 flickr.com-41 SCNCAP070 2008 - 10 - 30, 16_00 flickr.com-28 flickr.com-21 arena-checkers_9535 flickr.com-43

Such a sublime hue, chosen due to the American Daisy which used grow on the Hill.

4. Bobby Denton urging us “to pay these prices, and please pay … NO MORE!”

04-media.knoxnews.com

[audio:/Denton-Pay_These_Prices 02.mp3]

I doubt that I would ever intentionally pay more than the advertised price for a watered-down cup of sort-o-Coke-like-substance, but I appreciate the reminder.  Not sure where is came from, but I like it!

5. The Sunsphere

05-www.pbase.com 05-www.worldsfairphotos.com 05-www.dynamicartphotography.com 2770993640065729227aINuAl_fs sunsphere - 2 flickr.com-44

Sure, Bart Simpson said it was a wig shop, but we know better…

6. Painting the Rock

06-flickr.com 06-MagnoliaJazz 06-web.utk.edu 06-www.thinklia.com 06-flickr(a).com 06-flickr(b).com

The joys of conveying a spirited message, paint fumes, and geology…

7. The Vol Navy

curveballsforjesus.wordpress.com 07-pics4.city-data.com 07-pr.utk.edu 07-www.chotomarinesales.com 07-www.dvidshub.net 07-www.gatortailgating.com 07-1507423471_501a647eef SCNCAP063 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_20

Arrrggh, life on the High Seas of … er… Lake Loudon!

8. Checkerboards

HPIM0781(cx)

08-flickr.com OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 08-tnjn.com 08-flickr(a).com 8416176 08-www.fulmersbelly.com web.utk.edu

Can you guess which of these photos inspired the chekerbaord endzones?  Love ‘em, no ifs, ands, or buts.

9. Counting the sides on Hodges Library

09-63658617_8adcaa5f5a 09-lh5.ggpht.com 09-media-2.web.britannica.com flickr.com-40 bp0.blogger.com

I’ve always lost count after about a million or so…

10. Cumberland Avenue

10-lh4.ggpht.com 10-pr.utk.edu 10-rustytanton(2)-flickr.com 10-rustytanton-flickr.com 10-flickr(a).com 10-flickr.com 10-i.pbase.com

Our ramshackle but welcoming little strip.

11. Rafter Banners

thebruceballblog.com 11-i4.photobucket.com tnjn.com-1 flickr.com-12 Tennessee 072 SCNCAP061 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_16 flickr.com-11 flickr.com-32 flickr.com-8 flickr.com-36

Don’t they look nice?

12. The Pride of the Southland Band

web.utk.edu-1 www.phillipfulmer.com-3 api.ning.com-5 www.govolsxtra.com 41265e8964f746ec-d080 474204003tTSklD_fs web.utk.edu-7 web.utk.edu-2 IMG_0511 103511023_f2f5e69e4f_b web.utk.edu-5

Gotta love those circle drills and that “Pregame tradition unrivaled in college football” which leads to the opening of the “T”!

13. “Vic”

13-web.utk.edu 13-www.pbase.com 303533931ZbiyHl_fs 13-www.utk.edu 13-flickr.com Vic Davis Plaque torcher bp1.blogger.com-2

Also known as “the Torchbearer,” he and I go way back, thus I call him by name (after all, the statue was fashioned in the likeness of Tennessee’s own Victor Davis).

14. Ayres Hall & The Hill

14-flickr.com 14-cessvass-flickr.com www.replayphotos.com www.phys.utk.edu www.replayphotos.com-1 www.replayphotos.com-2 www.replayphotos.com-3 1_Img20 aerial bp3.blogger.com-5 bp1.blogger.com-3

Ahh, the traditions of the Hill and Ayres Hall, not least of which would include me barely passing Calculus…

15. Smokey

happelsmokey smokey-mascot--ix runin_t2 smokeyix14f8659mn3 super_smokey front_on 444541799GWlxPD_fs smy_davey api.ning.com-6 1125smokey6e_e api.ning.com-3 1125smokey001_e

Such a cute pooch, unless you’re an Alabama player, that is…

16. Bruce Almighty

BruceAlmighty-Poster 16-tnjn.com BrucePearl 2.bp.blogspot.com flickr.com-29 pearl Pearl-Painted bruce_pearl 87553

In Bruce we Trust!

17. The Wizard of Knoxville

si022598 BL_Pat Summit 954469 SCNCAP062 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_17 SCNCAP059 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_15

Best in the World—no contest, no discussion, no argument.

18. Rocky Top

flickr.com-10

[audio:/Rocky_Top(Sing).mp3]

Don’t you just love the fact that our “unofficial” fight song is about moonshine … and that opposing fans hate it so much?  Despite having played Rocky Top over 4000 times while in the Pride of the Southland at Tennessee (yes, we did keep track with the hallowed “clicker”), I still never grow tired of hearing it.

19. The Tommy Bowl

knoxville_boling1 SCNCAP057 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_14 2124296708_9cf53121c1_b DSC_0606-750033 Thompson Boling flickr.com-16 SCNCAP060 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_15 SCNCAP065 2008 - 10 - 30, 15_26 flickr.com-37 flickr.com-34 flickr.com-25

flickr.com-33

It used to be simply “the Big Brown Box,”  but thanks to Bruce and the Barbarians, it’s got a whole new name.

20. Neyland Stadium

20-flickr(a).com 20-flickr(b).com api.ning.com-4 20-flickr.com bp2.blogger.com-3 20-artfiles.art.com 15012192_587316b57b_b 293506883_9599d53b2e_o tennesseefootballvsm3.blogspot.com bp1.blogger.com-4

www.knoxkoupons.com www.brendanloy.com

How could you not stand in awe of the fort known as “Neyland” along the banks of the Tennessee?

21. The awe inspiring beauty of Gate 21 (Yeah, I’m biased)

HPIM0746 Gate 21(Real) (3) thelinkery.com HPIM0744 HPIM0742 Gate 21(Real) (5) HPIM0743

Just look at it, makes you want to cry, doesn’t it?

Anyway, now that you’ve had a chance to look at my little list, maybe some of the folks out there will realize that things really aren’t all that bad, and will smile a bit.

Oh and, yes, you guessed correctly—I hope for this to become a new feature here at the Gate.

Now, it’s time to get ready for the ThunderChickens…

-- Go Figure …Email lawvol

Images Courtesy of: (Flickr)  CessVass • Major Vols • Joelk75 • ladyvols1’s • deanna515 • MagnoliaJazz • Merelymere • abthompson • Dr. Reelgood & Co. • Michael Wender • asm.photo • JW Photo • ut9099 • MikkiAllen29 • Grant.Harley • Cesarito85 • DavidCFoster • Cliff Michaels • Rusty Tanton
(Other) Nial in America • SECSportsFan.com • ChotoMarine • pBase • ThinkLia.com • Dynamic Art Photography • Friends of the Fort • Encyclopedia Britannica • GatorTailgating.com • AP • Sports Illustrated • Reeves Maps • Sabir 265 • f8 and be there • Worlds Fair Photos.com • The University of Tennessee • PhillipFulmer.com • TheLinkery.com • The BruceBall Blog.com • BrendenLoy.com •  Replay Photos • Legions of the Miserable • Fulmer's Belly • PlanetWare.com • Pics4.city-data.com • UTSports.com • Pride of the Southland Marching Band • Go Vols Xtra • Knoxville News Sentinel • TNJN.com
Audio Courtesy of: The University of Tennessee / Vol Network / IMG • University of Tennessee / Pride of the Southland Marching Band / House of Bryant Publishing
**Disclaimer and Notice: All Audio Clips remain the property of the licensing authority and their respective universities and/or institutions. Gate 21 makes no claim of ownership to these clips, and they are displayed on this website for the sole purpose of entertainment and social value. Any questions or concerns regarding the display of such audio should be directed to the administrator of this site.
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