Post by cviller on Jan 16, 2009 10:27:09 GMT -5
West Virginians 'watched' West through Fleming's voice
By Bill Smith
For the Daily Mail
The magic of the imagination is a wonderful thing.
It was a time before the explosion of television, the Internet, mind-numbing PlayStation and computer games, cell phones and iPods. It was a simpler time. At least that's the way I remember it.
Bear with me.
You have to be a certain age to remember when folks sat around and watched the radio. Yes, I said watched the radio. In our house, my brother and I watched the Shadow, the Lone Ranger, Sky King, the Green Hornet, Tom Mix and others that I can't recall.
After nearly 70 years, though, I still remember the sound of the announcer's voice as he said, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows."
Exciting!
On Sunday evenings the entire family sat by the radio and watched Jack Benny, Burns and Allen and Eddie Cantor. We never missed them. And on Tuesdays there were Fibber McGee and Molly, and Red Skelton. We laughed and laughed.
When I say we watched, what I really mean to say is that we listened and through our minds we imagined what the Shadow was like, how magnificent the Lone Ranger looked on his white horse Silver, etc. As for Jack Benny and the others, it was pure comedy.
Years ago my wife and I bought a small wagon full of wooden blocks of all sizes and shapes. There were no batteries, no flashing lights or screaming sounds. But all nine of our grandchildren played with those blocks for hours when they were young and built wonderful things.
If you teach a young child to read, he or she can go anywhere in the world through the pages of a book and their imagination and never leave home.
All of this is my way of going around the barn to get to the wonderful, creative voice of the late Leo W. "Jack" Fleming, who except for an absence of seven years was "Voice of the Mountaineers" from 1947-96.
It was a time long before the explosion of television and Jack's voice was it.
Fleming, who announced NFL games for the Pittsburgh Steelers and NBA games for the Chicago Bulls, flew 23 combat missions in a B-17 in World War II. He began his broadcasting career while recuperating from war wounds at a military hospital.
He did football and basketball at WVU. And while he was very good at football, in my opinion he was the best basketball play-by-play announcer I ever heard. He was so accurate you could keep score of the game and keep individual scoring, shots attempted, free throws, rebounds and assists.
He was the man during the heyday of WVU basketball (1955-63) when the Mountaineers stampeded up and down the floor of the old Field House. In that time they compiled a 318-55 record and advanced to the NCAA championship game in 1959 (losing to California, 71-70). What a time it was!
He made stars like Jerry West, Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn, Lloyd Sharrar, Bobby Joe Smith, Ronnie Retton, Donnie Vincent, Willie Akers and all the rest come to life. He painted pictures with his words.
He would say over the mike, "Let's bring on the Mountaineers" ... "Touchdown West Virginia!" ... "West is knocked to the floor and no call" ... "West comes down with the rebound with a man all over his back."
You could imagine West's greatness, picture the antics of Hundley and envision the swiftness of the Mountaineers' fast break and the smothering pressure of their famed zone press. And you could hear the stomping foot of WVU Coach Fred Schaus as he stormed up and down in front of the bench.
I will never forget the night a crowd at the WVU Coliseum gave West a seven-minute standing ovation when he was introduced at halftime of a game. It was 20 years or more after he had played at West Virginia.
Afterward, a misty-eyed West said, "I don't understand it. Most of these people never saw me play. And I didn't find a cure for a disease or anything like that. All I ever did was play a game and shoot a basketball at a basket."
Yes, but he did it when Fleming described it for fans all over the state who were watching through their radios. Fleming was that good. And although the Mountaineers were good, too, he made them bigger than life on the biggest screen of all -- the magic of the mind.
Everything has changed. I'm not convinced all change is necessarily progress.
Oh well. As Jack would say, "And goodnight to Mountaineer fans everywhere."
Now retired, Smith is a former sports editor of the Daily Mail. He can be reached at bs.i...@suddenlink.net
By Bill Smith
For the Daily Mail
The magic of the imagination is a wonderful thing.
It was a time before the explosion of television, the Internet, mind-numbing PlayStation and computer games, cell phones and iPods. It was a simpler time. At least that's the way I remember it.
Bear with me.
You have to be a certain age to remember when folks sat around and watched the radio. Yes, I said watched the radio. In our house, my brother and I watched the Shadow, the Lone Ranger, Sky King, the Green Hornet, Tom Mix and others that I can't recall.
After nearly 70 years, though, I still remember the sound of the announcer's voice as he said, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows."
Exciting!
On Sunday evenings the entire family sat by the radio and watched Jack Benny, Burns and Allen and Eddie Cantor. We never missed them. And on Tuesdays there were Fibber McGee and Molly, and Red Skelton. We laughed and laughed.
When I say we watched, what I really mean to say is that we listened and through our minds we imagined what the Shadow was like, how magnificent the Lone Ranger looked on his white horse Silver, etc. As for Jack Benny and the others, it was pure comedy.
Years ago my wife and I bought a small wagon full of wooden blocks of all sizes and shapes. There were no batteries, no flashing lights or screaming sounds. But all nine of our grandchildren played with those blocks for hours when they were young and built wonderful things.
If you teach a young child to read, he or she can go anywhere in the world through the pages of a book and their imagination and never leave home.
All of this is my way of going around the barn to get to the wonderful, creative voice of the late Leo W. "Jack" Fleming, who except for an absence of seven years was "Voice of the Mountaineers" from 1947-96.
It was a time long before the explosion of television and Jack's voice was it.
Fleming, who announced NFL games for the Pittsburgh Steelers and NBA games for the Chicago Bulls, flew 23 combat missions in a B-17 in World War II. He began his broadcasting career while recuperating from war wounds at a military hospital.
He did football and basketball at WVU. And while he was very good at football, in my opinion he was the best basketball play-by-play announcer I ever heard. He was so accurate you could keep score of the game and keep individual scoring, shots attempted, free throws, rebounds and assists.
He was the man during the heyday of WVU basketball (1955-63) when the Mountaineers stampeded up and down the floor of the old Field House. In that time they compiled a 318-55 record and advanced to the NCAA championship game in 1959 (losing to California, 71-70). What a time it was!
He made stars like Jerry West, Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn, Lloyd Sharrar, Bobby Joe Smith, Ronnie Retton, Donnie Vincent, Willie Akers and all the rest come to life. He painted pictures with his words.
He would say over the mike, "Let's bring on the Mountaineers" ... "Touchdown West Virginia!" ... "West is knocked to the floor and no call" ... "West comes down with the rebound with a man all over his back."
You could imagine West's greatness, picture the antics of Hundley and envision the swiftness of the Mountaineers' fast break and the smothering pressure of their famed zone press. And you could hear the stomping foot of WVU Coach Fred Schaus as he stormed up and down in front of the bench.
I will never forget the night a crowd at the WVU Coliseum gave West a seven-minute standing ovation when he was introduced at halftime of a game. It was 20 years or more after he had played at West Virginia.
Afterward, a misty-eyed West said, "I don't understand it. Most of these people never saw me play. And I didn't find a cure for a disease or anything like that. All I ever did was play a game and shoot a basketball at a basket."
Yes, but he did it when Fleming described it for fans all over the state who were watching through their radios. Fleming was that good. And although the Mountaineers were good, too, he made them bigger than life on the biggest screen of all -- the magic of the mind.
Everything has changed. I'm not convinced all change is necessarily progress.
Oh well. As Jack would say, "And goodnight to Mountaineer fans everywhere."
Now retired, Smith is a former sports editor of the Daily Mail. He can be reached at bs.i...@suddenlink.net