The post summarizing football season radio programming served to remind all of us how for fortunate The University of Tennessee has been when it comes to the outstanding quality of its play-by-play announcers. I recall the booming pipes of George Mooney and the perfectly contrasting tones of John Anderson's analyses. Their timing was beyond perfect..."outstanding" is too weak of a term. But, they were classics. When you heard them, you knew who it was, instantaneously. Ditto for Ward. And Kesling. And Keith.
Gone forever, I suspect, are most of their broadcasts. (I hope I'm wrong). It would be wonderful if the Vol Network folks might dig back in their archives and prepare a "Great Vols Plays" program. Perhaps Mooney's PBP calls and Anderson's analysis could be synced with historical game footage.
A footnote of this reminiscing of great things Big Orange. At WBIR-AM in the late 1960s, Promotion Manager Walt Martin teamed up with WBIR-TV Sports Director Jim Holiday to prepare 60 to 90 second radio drop-ins called "Coach Haddekick Predicts" (pronounced "had-to-kick"). Ten to twelve comedic bits were prepared for each football season weekend. They featured Martin as the coach answering Holiday's questions about, and predicting the winners of, upcoming SEC and national games.
Martin is a major unacknowledged influencer of the 1960s and 1970s Knoxville radio. I'd like to share some memories of his impactful work in another post.
Art Miller
Page 3...101 found an old newspaper article-
