Posts Tagged ‘John Ward’

Here’s a little magic from John Ward and the Vol Network to go along with Joel’s post over at Rocky Top Talk this morning discussing Shaun Ellis’ miraculous runback of a recovered fumble versus the Auburn Tigers in 1998.

I would try to describe it, but that would only diminish the call from the legendary “Voice of the Vols Emeritus.“  But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself…

How can you not love the sound of John Ward behind the microphone?

– So it goes

**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.

Obviously, I am a fan of the Tennessee Volunteers.  First and foremost, however, I am a lover of all of the great and grand traditions of college football, of the sport that creates such passion, and of the magical memories it makes for so many regardless of the colors they may wear.

It is for that reason that today is a sad day.  Last night legendary (and there is no word that fits other than “legendary”) college football radio announcer Larry Munson announced his retirement effective immediately.  Munson, who will celebrate his 86th birthday on Sunday, has served as the radio voice of the Georgia Bulldogs for 43 wonderful years.

Due to failing health, Munson began only announcing Georgia home games in 2007.  Then in April of this year Munson was diagnosed with blood clots in his brain and underwent brain surgery.  Some wondered if he would return for football season this fall.  Undeterred, Munson announced Georgia’s the home opener versus Georgia Southern.  Last night, however, Munson decided that it was time.

Larry Munson: Voice of the Dawgs for 43 years

As I wrote in February, I remember all too well, what it felt like to hear John Ward announce his final game as the Voice of the Vols.  I was heartbroken to know that his voice would no longer announce “It’s Football Time in Tennessee!”  I still miss hearing him broadcast the fortunes of the Vols across the radio.  With no disrespect to Bob Kesling and Tim Priest—who do a fine job—it simply is not the same without Ward behind the microphone.  Still, at least the Vol-faithful had a year to honor Ward and color-man Bill Anderson, and one last chance to enjoy their wonderful brand of football announcing.  For the Georgia fans, it is already over.

I sincerely want to send out my personal best wishes to Larry Munson as he enters retirement.  Still, it simply won’t be the same.  There are so few of the grand college announcers  such as Ward and Munson left, and soon they will all fade from the airwaves and into memory.

Good luck, and Godspeed, Larry Munson!  You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten…

• To hear some of Munson’s great (and they are great) calls, visit: Larry Munson.com
• My tribute to the great radio voices of College Football:  The Voice of College Sports…
• Tom Mattingly’s wonderful look back at Tennessee Football on the Radio: For 60 Years, “This is the Vol Network”

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: AJC.com / Curtis Compton

Well, as Joel pointed out, the News Sentinel’s Dave Hooker recently came out with his Top 10 games in Tennessee football history. It is an interesting list, but (like Joel) I’m not so certain I agree with all of the games on Hooker’s list.

Given the fact that I am still making my way through my “Great Games” series, it seems appropriate for me to chime in with my thoughts on this. At the risk of rendering some of my future posts in this series futile (not that they aren’t already), here is my top 10 games in Tennessee football history (with comparison to Dave Hooker’s ranking):

Gate 21’s Top 10 All-Time

Tennessee Football Games

No. 10: 1989 – Tennessee vs. UCLA

The Rose Bowl | Dave Hooker Rank: Unranked

I know that some will question this one, but this game still stands out to me as one of the best. I toyed with ranking the 1985 Auburn win at No. 10, but I have to go with the Vols 1989 trip to Pasadena to take on the Bruins. This game was early in the season, and at that point UCLA was highly touted. Tennessee had been beaten in both their prior trips to the Rose Bowl to play the Bruins (1975 and 1967), and many thought they would repeat that trend as the Vols came off of their worst season in recent memory, and a close call in their season-opener versus Colorado State. The Vols, however, stepped-up to the challenge and proved that their 5 and 6 record for 1988 was only a bump in the road as they came out gunning for the No. 6-ranked Bruins. The Vols completely shutdown the UCLA offense with their own brand of SEC defense, en route to a 24 – 6 victory. That game set the stage for the rest of the season — one which included 10 more wins and only a single loss. The Vols would go on to win an SEC Championship, beat Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl that year, and end with a No 5 ranking.

Still, by my mind, it all started in California…

No. 9: 1999 Fiesta Bowl – Florida State vs. Tennessee

Sun Devil Stadium | Dave Hooker Rank: No. 1

Dave Hooker had this game as No. 1, but I cannot in good conscience give it that distinction. While the 1999 Fiesta Bowl did give Tennessee its first Consensus National Championship since 1951, the game itself was not nearly as spectacular as others that season.

First of all, both Tennessee and Florida State played very sloppily throughout the game as a result of the more than 4-week layoff leading up to the contest. Second — in fairness to Florida State — they were playing with a back-up quarterback, Marcus Outzen, who (to my knowledge) never started another game after the championship, due to the injury to Chris Weinke.

Finally, the game was exciting, but probably only if you were a Tennessee or Florida State fan. The reason for this is that the two teams were extremely closely matched at most positions. All of that said, I have such amazing memories of this game and of finally seeing another championship for the Big Orange, that I have to include it in the Top 10, regardless of its flaws.

After all, a championship is a very special thing…

Read the rest of this entry »

19 September 1998

vs.

(2) Florida 17 • (6) Tennessee 20

Neyland Stadium

Due to exceptionally bad planning on my part, I graduated from the University of Tennessee in four years — making my trip across the stage to collect my diploma in May of 1998…

Cartoon Courtesy of the Detroit News

I say it was bad planning because, as fate would have it — after traveling across the country with the Pride of the Southland for four years, following the Vols to every game — when Tennessee’s 1998 “season of destiny” rolled around, I was living more than six hours away in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I was a student at Tarhead State (UNC) engaged in my “Trade School” studies (I call law school that mainly to annoy all the Tarhead grads who infest the area where I now live) and quite far removed from my passion for Tennessee Volunteers Football.

Thus was my lot…

For what it is worth, I blame all of this on Joel at Rocky Top Talk since, as he and I both realized a few months back, he was my “teacher” in a crib-course on how to do well on law school entrance exams, and thus Joel is totally responsible for my entry into this sordid profession and my departure from East Tennessee exactly one year too early (This all makes perfect, well-reasoned, and orderly sense in my mind, in much the same way that Alabama coach Mike DuBose ultimately concluded that “Jesus wanted us to lose to Tennessee”).

Anyway, Tennessee opened the season versus the Syracuse Orangemen, and managed to hang on to victory by the absolute narrowest of margins — namely, Jeff Hall’s foot. The Gators, on the other hand, had beaten the living hell out of some school whose name eludes me, but I am sure it has “North“, “South“, “Central” “Left“, “Up“, or “Sideways” in its name.

After the 34 to 33 victory in the Syracuse game, I was somewhat less than hopeful about the Vols chances of winning against “Lord Spurrier and his Reptile Renegades.”

Nevertheless, given my incurable and uncontrollable addiction to traveling great distances, at considerable expense, to have your dreams crushed and your soul scarred, I climbed in my Volkswagen and headed back toward Knoxville for the showdown between the Florida Gators and the Vols. This was the first time I drove from Eastern North Carolina to Tennessee for a football game — it was a new experience. Now, however, I have made this journey so many times that I have all but memorized every single exit along Interstate 40 between the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area and Knoxville, and now I can (and on occasion do) drive it while sleeping.

As you might imagine, when I arrived in the Volunteer City, I didn’t have a ticket. After searching up and down Cumberland Avenue for an hour-or-two, I finally managed to find a single ticket, in return for all of the remaining money I had to eat on for the rest of my first semester of law school (making sure not to repeat my 1992 mistake of buying student tickets).

Left to Right: My Ticket to the 1998 game • My friend’s ticket to the same game • My infamous student ticket from the 1992 game when I wasn’t yet a student

Despite the fact that my ticket told me that my butt was supposed to be planted in Section ZZ15 in the North Endzone Upperdeck, I chose Row 18 of Section D — the heart of the student section — as my vantage point for the game, since all of my friends were on the “5-year plan” (or 6, or 7, or …) and that is where they were situated. Considering that there were somewhere between 250 and 5,000 people crammed into that row, and each of those around it, apparently I wasn’t the only one bending the rules — or the bleachers on which we all stood, until they finally gave way and broke off of the concrete risers in the 4th-quarter.

The contest opened with the “Challenger,” the bald eagle soaring his way down from the North endzone across the Pride of the Southland during the National Anthem. How exactly that beautiful bird could find where he was supposed to go amidst the screaming of nearly 108,000 fans with flashbulbs turning the stands into a bank of strobe lights, is beyond me. What a way to start a hot and steamy fistfight.

And boy was it hot and steamy that night…

Read the rest of this entry »

1995-96 CompUSA Citrus Bowl

(1 January 1996)

vs.

Tennessee 20 • Ohio State 14

Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium

Continuing on with 1995, after beating Bama soundly and ending the 10-year drought against the Crimson Tide, the Tennessee Volunteers finished out their regular season at 10-1. Their only loss coming at the hands of the Florida Gators in a 62-37 drubbing which tarnishes the 1995 team’s otherwise exemplary record. Tennessee finished the season ranked 4th, but in the days of the so-called Bowl Alliance, the “premier” bowls were reserved only for conference champions, thus, Tennessee received a bid to the “first outside the money” CompUSA Florida Citrus Bowl to take on the similarly situated Ohio State Buckeyes, who lost their last game of the season against arch-rival Michigan, and with it the Big 11 10 title, and ended the seasons ranked … uhh … 4th also.

Cover from the Official 1996 Citrus Bowl Program. Ohio State later sued the bowl committee for omitting “THE” (in all caps and 72 pt font) from their name — the matter was ultimately resolved in a settlement whereby Ohio State received a case of oranges and an autographed photo of Mickey Mouse.

The fact of the matter remains, no matter what either school would claim publicly, neither Tennessee nor Ohio State wanted to be in Orlando on New Year’s Day. Both had completed 1-loss seasons, and both came within a half of playing for the National Championship or, at a minimum, playing in one of the top-tier Alliance Bowls. Ohio State wanted to be in Pasadena and Tennessee in New Orleans or Tempe. Regardless of what they wanted, they were set to play one another in a game which — in my book — ranks as one of the best bowl games I’ve ever watched in person or on television.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just the other day I realized I was getting older…

The reason for this shocking moment of enlightenment was the fact that this past weekend was the 10th anniversary of my graduation from the University of Tennessee (Hmmm, I suppose it’s time for me to start considering my options for Medicare insurance supplements…).

Anyway, bearing this in mind, I thought I’d start a wandering trip down memory lane re-visiting some of my all-time favorite games played by the Big Orange over the next few days. I welcome any comments from the peanut gallery on my choices, and ones I forgot…

16 November 1991

vs.

Ole Miss 25 • Tennessee 36

Neyland Stadium

You might wonder why this game made my all-time favorites list, however, in my life as a Tennessee fan, this is where it all began.

I have been a Tennessee fan, to some degree, my entire life. My Mom grew up in East Tennessee, and went to school at UT. Thus, I had been aware of that “orange school” over the mountains from my childhood home in Western North Carolina since I was old enough to be aware of much of anything. That said, in those pre-Heath Shuler days, Western North Carolina was still largely dominated by fans of the Tarheads and other members of the ACC. Thus, my exposure to all that is Tennessee was somewhat limited.

Then, in 1991, my Father had been given three tickets to the game between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Tennessee Volunteers by a friend who worked the sideline chain-gang and who — in normal life — worked for a vendor supplying the hospital where my Father worked. It just so happened that we were already planning to visit my Grandmother in Norris, Tennessee that same weekend. Thus, my Dad convinced my Mother that the three of us should go catch the game. Whether this arose because he wanted to see the game, because he wanted to broaden my viewpoint on sports, or just because he didn’t feel like listening to my Mother and Grandmother argue all weekend is open to discussion. Either way, this was to be an auspicious day in the history of my life.

I had been on campus before, but surprisingly, I really had little recollection of the stadium, and amazingly forgot where it was even located. That changed…

Neyland Stadium circa. 1991

We arrived early, and my Dad’s chain-gang friend managed to get us on the field for pre-game warm-ups. This was the first time I’d ever been on the field at any major college sporting event. Standing down on the field the only thing that went through my mind was “This stadium is friggin’ huge!” Now, mind you, this was almost a generation ago, and the stadium looked different than it does now. There was only one pressbox, the field was Tartan Turf as opposed to grass, the North endzone didn’t have an upperdeck, The Vols bench was on the west sidelines, and the scoreboards were … well … less than impressive. Still, the sheer scope and size of the space, wrapped around “the greensward of Shields Watkins Field” (as John Ward would always say) was formidable.

The Kickin’ Scoreboards of 1991

Thus, despite being well into my teenage angst years, I was pretty impressed. I was even more impressed when two Tennessee defenders (whose names I never actually caught) began doing a little hitting practice right in front of me. The “crack” from the impact was much louder at a distance of six feet than it was on television.

From there we exited the Northeast portal of Neyland Stadium and made our way back around to the front. Ticket in hand, I entered the real Gate 21 for the very first time in my life. We took our seats and the rest is history. The only thing I actually remember about the game itself was that Tennessee recorded a safety in the first half and that they beat Ole Miss far more soundly than the score reflected.

My memories about that first game in Neyland Stadium are not so much about the game as they are about the “experience” of the game. That game still resonates with me to this day. I remember being taken aback by all of the orange, I remember watching pre-game and the opening of the “T“, I remember just being overwhelmed with the size of this event called “gameday.“

I was hooked…

If she were honest, however, my Mother would probably have to say that was her least favorite game, because she wanted me to go to Emory University, and on that Fall afternoon in 1991 I pretty much made up my mind about where I would be going to college. The die was cast, and I was bound to be a Volunteer.

In the 17 years since that Ole Miss vs. Tennessee game in 1991, I have attended 107 more Tennessee football games in person and I am sure there are many more to come…

…be that as it may, that first one is still special in my book.

– Go Figure …

Scoreboard Image Courtesy of: The VIB

I recently read a little observational piece over at Get the Picture! about legendary Georgia Bulldogs radio broadcaster Larry Munson. This article mainly referred to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which mentioned that, due to health problems, Munson will not be attending the Atlanta Sports Awards Gala.

That brought back some memories …

Now — obviously — I am not really a Georgia fan, but I have a great deal of respect for Munson, not so much for his style or delivery, but because of what he represents. Munson, along with Mississippi State’s Jack Cristil, the Tarhead U’s Woody Durham, Duke’s Bob Harris, and Gene Deckerhoff of FSU represent the last of the great southern college radio announcers. I’m sure there may be a few more scattered across the country, but there can’t be too many more. They are, sadly, a group which is fading farther and farther into the past every year. I know that time presses on – that is hardly a revelation. The fact that millions of broadband denizens congregate in this place known as the blogsphere — a place which did not even exist a few short years ago — is testament to that. While I embrace the advance of technology and progress, along the way we do lose real tangible pieces of the past which are truly golden.

Read the rest of this entry »