The games matter.
The traditions matter.
One aspect of sports that draws us together is the pageantry involved. I don’t know if this dates all the way back to the Romans and the Coliseum—and no, I wasn’t there to cover the bread and circuses—but there’s something deep inside us humans gathering together to watch a spectacle that pleases us. Whether it’s the opening of an Olympics, the presentation of medals or a championship trophy, but the word ceremony frequently gets used. Most of us love tradition, long standing rivalry, and the rituals involved in games. Maybe its because in an often uncertain world, its nice to know that there are some things we can count on—an umpire saying, “Play ball!” to NHL hockey players shaking hands at the conclusion of a playoff series. From beginning to end, from opening day to a championship being decided, we mark our days as we mark our scorecards. Keeping a tally just somehow feels right.
Family, friends, and those who know me only by my occasional visits into their homes via television will tell you that I’m sentimental. I’m okay with that. More than okay, really, I’m proud of that. That means that I care. My career depended upon being impartial—that didn’t mean that I didn’t understand or feel what was at stake for everybody involved. Some of my favorite shots from various games are when our cameramen found someone in the crowd in the throes of tears or overcome with joy.
If you are not moved by the sight of the Cadets and the Midshipmen marching on before the game then you have no soul. I sensed that from seeing the game on television, but I truly felt that the first time I covered the game in 2000. The precision and the commitment of the students at those two service academies is truly something to behold. I was in awe. If I have one regret it is that I wasn’t always able to do the game. Once it was moved to a stand-alone date to complete the regular season for college football, the second week in December, I was free of SEC commitments and could be in the booth.
That 2000 game says something about the appeal of the game. Army came into it with a record of 1-9; Navy stood at 0-9. Still, the game very much mattered and the Midshipmen pulled out a victory to prevent them from finishing with their worst record in their, to that point, more than 100-year history.
History was always an appeal to me—for that game and in my life. So, during the ceremonies that surround the Army-Navy game, I’m always deeply moved by the recognition of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. The Army-Navy game serves as a reminder also that playing the game for the game’s sake alone is important. The vast majority of those who play in that game have no real shot at playing the game professionally. They play for love of the game and to honor the traditions and put in practice the lessons that competition and teamwork teach and reinforce.
As much as we are entertained by major college football and may think of it as a kind of minor leagues for the NFL the reality is that fewer than two percent of its participants make it to the professional level. So what I said about the love of the game and the traditions above applies to the overwhelming majority of players we see on our screens and in person. That love, that dedication, that sacrifice is there in all games. Knowing, especially at times of war, that many of those involved in the Army-Navy game will serve their country in combat or in other ways has always added poignancy to an already deeply meaningful game. I can’t help but be reminded that service and sacrifice extends beyond the academies as well. Pat Tillman’s decision to forgo his career in the NFL after graduating from Arizona State University and playing for the Arizona Cardinals is only the most well known and dramatic of those stories.
When I think back on some of the players I’ve covered over the years, the number who served in the military in various capacities is another reminder of what sports teaches us and how those skills and character traits translate into other areas in the military and elsewhere. I also can’t forget Texas A&M and its Corps of Cadets and its proud 12th Man tradition.
I was fortunate in my time here in Steamboat Springs to become dear, dear friends with Brigadier General Robin Olds. A West Point grad, he served in the US Air Force as a fighter pilot. A so-called “triple ace,” (becoming an ace usually means confirmation of having downed five enemy aircraft) with sixteen “kills” combined during World War II and the Vietnam War, Robin was a genuine American hero. He recalled fondly his days on the football field playing for Army where he became an All-American in 1942. He is legendary for having lost two of his upper teeth in making a tackle in the ’42 game. He returned to the field, saluted by the Navy midshipmen in attendance. Because travel was restricted in war time, Navy’s Third and Fourth Classes were assigned to cheer for Army in place of the absent Army Corps of Cadets. How’s that for sportsmanship?
Olds flew some of the most iconic aircraft of World War II, served for a time as an assistant football coach at West Point under Earl Blaik when Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, won Heisman Trophies. He flew precision maneuvers as part of the first aerobatic demonstration team to use jets, and later served as Commandant of Cadets at the US Air Force academy and helped restore honor following a major cheating scandal there. I was honored to know him in his later years when he remained a man of great integrity and vigor.
He was very much on my mind as I walked into the stadium in Baltimore for the game. Sadly, he’d passed away in 2007, but he was still very much with me.
In our pregame, we of course had to mention that Army had last won the game in 2001, shortly after the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. The streak had taken on almost mythic proportions, but in 2012, Army seemed on the verge of breaking the spell. Unfortunately, as so often happens, an Army turnover late in the game at the Navy fourteen yard line prevented that from happening. Quarterback Trent Streelman and fullback Larry Dixon got tangled up on a handoff and a fumble ensued. Navy recovered.
End of game. Navy’s streak continued.
Afterward, Streelman was disconsolate. In the most moving scene I’ve ever witnessed at a sporting event, the Army quarterback openly sobbed as he joined his teammates as they walked toward the Navy fans to sing first. “Singing Second,” when the victor’s alma mater is played and sung with the losing team facing the opposition’s fans, is one more stirring tradition.
As I’ve said, I always look to provide viewers with someone to root for. The Army squad was again an underdog in 2016, but they had a special incentive this time around. After the second game of the season, their cornerback Brandon Jackson had been killed in a car accident. His mother, Morna Davis, was in attendance for the first time since the tragic loss of her son. She joined the celebration in the locker room following Army’s 21–17 comeback victory.
I’m not naïve enough to think that on its own a game can heal a mother’s broken heart, help a nation deal with the loss of a president, or make us forget about a terrorist attack. They do matter, though. They do contribute to offering hope and healing. They can inspire us and infuriate us, but more often than not, we keep coming back to them.
I’ve been fortunate to play a part in bringing some great stories to viewers. It’s been an honor and a privilege. I can only hope that I’ve brought some small measure of the enormous pleasure I’ve had in broadcasting them.
Radio and television brought the world to me. Being a part of that world and bringing it to others has meant the world to me.
Thanks for watching. Thanks for reading. Thanks, to borrow a phrase, for the memories.
Acknowledgments
This book is the summation of my professional life. My gratitude is owed to a lot of people.
First to members of my family. Thanks to my brother David and his wife, Meche, of Guadalajara, Mexico. To my brother Dan and his wife, Herbie Kay, of Austin, Texas. To my sister-in-law Clarice Lundquist of Dallas, widow of my late brother, Tom. To my sister, Sharon Zinn, of Lincoln, Nebraska. And to their children and grandchildren, all beloved people in our lives.
Thanks to the members of the SEC on CBS Sports fami
ly. To Craig Silver, the producer and a friend and colleague for more than three decades. To Bob Fishman and Steve Milton, terrific directors during my tenure, and to the remaining members of our seventy-five person production and technical group. We traveled the cities and towns of the south together for seventeen years, the most significant assignment in my more than fifty years in sports television.
To my on-air pals. To Todd Blackledge and Gary Danielson, men with whom I shared three and a half hours in the booth every Saturday in the fall. To Jill Arrington, Tracy Wolfson and Allie La Force, sideline reporters supreme. And thanks to Chuck Gardner, Butch Baird, and David Moulton, indispensable cogs in our on-air production. Their assistance in making our telecasts hum for fifteen weekends each fall was extremely important. And to Pat Haden, the former USC and Los Angeles Ram quarterback, with whom I shared both NFL and NCAA duties. Have I mentioned that he was also a Rhodes Scholar?
My thanks to some of my NFL partners. Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts, Dan Dierdorf, and John Madden.
My gratitude to the late Steve Davis, QB of the Oklahoma Sooners in the early seventies, a team that went 34-1-1 with him under center. Steve and I worked together at ABC Sports and came to CBS together in 1982. He was a great friend and a wonderful broadcaster.
A shout-out to some of the men and women with whom I enjoyed televising both the NCAA college and NBA games. In college, gifted analysts such as Bill Raftery, Jim Spanarkel, Billy Packer, Len Elmore, Al McGuire, and Lesley Visser. In the NBA, Tom Heinsohn, Billy Cunningham, Hubie Brown, Chuck Daly, Danny Ainge, Clark Kellogg, and Doc Rivers. And the folks in the truck, producers Bob Dekas and Mark Wolf, directors Bob Fishman and Suzanne Smith.
Golf television remains an important part of my life, especially the Masters, where I’ve been perched at the 16th hole since 2000. The late producer Frank Chirkinian put me there and Lance Barrow, the current producer, has kept me there.
Scott Hamilton and Tracy Wilson taught me to love figure skating and we worked together through three memorable Winter Olympics in France, Norway, and Japan. And were so ably produced during the last two by my friend David Winner.
Thanks to the presidents of CBS Sports during my time in the saddle: Neal Pilson, Peter Lund, and Sean McManus.
A special shoutout to Kevin O’Malley, executive producer of college sports in the early eighties. He made a decision about my possibilities in October of 1982 and made a phone call to me that changed my life. And to the late Dave Lane, General Manager at WFAA-TV in Dallas, the man who recommended that I succeed him as the sports director at the station in 1967 and whose willingness to accommodate my wishes to be involved in network television made my career possible.
To Bob Rosen, who has been my agent since 1983.
During my life, I’ve had an equal passion for sports television and an appreciation for music, thus I have great memories of singing in the Texas Lutheran University choir and of the more than three decades that Nancy and I have been involved in the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs. Both connections have affected my life in an extremely meaningful way.
To Gary Brozek, whose love of words and whose ability to string them together until they become sentences and paragraphs and chapters has resulted in this book of memories. My thanks.
To Lisa Sharkey and Matt Harper of HarperCollins in New York City. Lisa, thanks for providing me with the opportunity to share my life in broadcasting. Matt, I truly appreciate your guiding vision for the book and handling all phases of what was once a mysterious process. I’m indebted to you both for your faith in me.
It’s been a joyous experience to share these stories of a lifetime in sports television.
There are more.
Let’s do it again sometime.
Verne Lundquist
Illustrations
A publicity photo of me for WOC Radio, my first radio job, in Davenport, Iowa. September 1962.
With the Milwaukee Braves manager Bobby Bragan, in Austin, Texas. 1964.
On active duty, the USAF Reserve, Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas. June 1966.
Frank Glieber and me on the rooftop of the Orange Bowl for KRLD radio broadcast of Superbowl V in Miami, Florida. January, 1971.
Interviewing Howard Cosell in Dallas, Texas, 1972.
Broadcasting my first national football game on Thanksgiving weekend with Frank Broyles in College Station, Texas, 1975.
Talking to Jack Nicklaus at the Byron Nelson Classic in 1976.
At a live telecast for WFAA-TV Dallas with Craig Mortin (Denver Broncos) and Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys), on the Friday night before Superbowl XII in New Orleans, Louisiana.
With soccer superstar Pelé and his interpreter Julio Mazzei. Dallas, 1976.
Laughing with Pelé in Dallas, Texas, 1976.
An offscreen chat with Craig Morton and Roger Staubach in New Orleans, Louisiana. January 1978.
With Ara Parseghian in the Superdome in 1979.
With Igor Rostov our interpreter in Moscow, Russia, for the ABC Sports USA-USSR boxing show. January 1980.
Halftime at Auburn—Alabama with Bear Bryant in Birmingham, Alabama. November 1981.
During a live shot for WFAA-TV in Texas Stadium, August 1982.
With Tom and Alicia Landry celebrating my last day at WFAA-TV in December 1983. Next up —CBS Sports!
Cruising around with Nancy at a charity golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. Summer 1983.
Me with Nancy in autumn of 1985.
Cozying up with Nancy.
Hanging out at the Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, with Terry Bradshaw during our first year together! September 1984.
During my first event with Scott Hamilton, the European Figure Skating Championships in Leningrad, Russia. 1990.
With legendary sportscaster— and my mentor — Ray Scott. Steamboat, Colorado. January 1999.
With Heisman Trophy winners from the military academies at the Doak Walker Awards in Dallas in 2002. From left to right: Joe Bellino (Navy), Roger Staubach (Navy), Pete Dawkins (Army), Glynn Davis (Army), and Doc Blanchard (Army).
Nancy and me with Lamar and Norma Huni at the Doak Walker Awards in 2002.
Celebrating the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, with Todd Blackledge and Tracy Wolfson. December 2004.
At the first Walker-Lundquist golf tournament in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with none other than Doak Walker (1947 Heisman winner). There were fifteen in all, the last held one year after Doak’s death.
With college football analyst Gary Danielson in 2006.
Courtesy of CBS; Craig Blankenhorn/CBS
With Billy Packer, CBS’s lead college basketball analyst for thirty-four years, at the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, at Louisville-Kentucky in 2008.
Courtesy of CBS; Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS
At the 2014 NCAA Basketball Seminar with analysts Grant Hill, Steve Smith, and Bill Raftery. 2014.
Courtesy of CBS; John Paul Filo/CBS
With Bill Raftery at the A-Ten Championships at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. 2014.
Courtesy of CBS; John Paul Filo/CBS
At the 2014 NCAA Final Four in North Texas with Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan (left) and CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz (right).
Courtesy of CBS; John Paul Filo/CBS
Practicing my commencement speech at Texas Lutheran University in Seguim. Texas. May, 2014. The mascot’s name is Lucky.
About the Author
VERNE LUNDQUIST has been at the center of major sporting events in America for more than fifty years. He began his career at KTBCTV in Austin, Texas, a station owned by President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. Lundquist joined CBS Sports in 1982, and during his tenure has broadcast more than twenty sports for the network. Lundquist was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2016 he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports at the 37th annual Sports Emmy Awards. He lives in Colorado.
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Copyright
All photos courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.
PLAY BY PLAY. Copyright © 2018 by Verne Lundquist. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photograph © Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06268446-2
Version 09062018
Print ISBN: 978-0-06268444-8
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