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Philly Broadcast Legends

In Misc Philly Sports, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Phillies on January 30, 2012 at 8:06 am

Philly Pressbox originally published this article on January 30, 2012. We’ve been asked to republish it several times by our readers so here it is. We hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment.

With the passing of Penn State legendary coach Joe Paterno this week it was somewhat lost in the news of the passing of a Philadelphia legend Andy Musser. Musser was often below the radar in the Phillies broadcast booth from 1976 – 2001that was full of larger than life personalities but Andy was a true professional, a gentleman and a man that could broadcast any sport and do a great job of it. Many people know Andy from those Phillies years but he also broadcasted the Eagles from 1965-68 and the 76ers from 1965-71. That’s 34 Philadelphia sports season in the books for Andy. Great Job!!

Andy’s passing made me think about the broadcasters that we’ve had in Philadelphia over the years. Do you realize that if you were born after 1955 you had never heard a Phillies game that was not broadcasted by a Hall of Famer? When I first started watching and listening to Phillies baseball it was Bill Campbell, Rich Ashburn and By Saam. All are HOF members in their own way. Campbell as a broadcaster in the Basketball HOF, Ashburn as a player in the Baseball HOF and the legendary By Saam as a broadcaster in the Baseball HOF. Saam called Phillies games from 1939-49 and again from 1955-1975. Campbell was replaced by Harry Kalas and another 38 years of broadcasting from a Baseball HOF member. Add to that the one year stints of Hall of Fame players Robin Roberts in ’76 and Mike Schmidt in ’90 and “The Box” was loaded with All Stars. Another long time member of “The Box” is Chris Wheeler who just completed his 34th season with the Phillies as well as Musser and his 25 years.

Moving on to the Flyers, people my age learned the game of hockey by Hall Of Famer Gene Hart. Hart was a Flyers broadcaster the initial 67-68 season and then full time from 1971-1992. Who will ever forget Gene calling the games of the Broad Street Bullies and the Stanley Cups? The Hart legacy lives in with his daughter Lauren singing the National Anthem and God Bless America at all home games. Here’s an interesting Flyer broadcast fact for you, during the 1970-71 season Flyers Sunday games were broadcast by former Phillies 1st baseman and later National League Commissioner Bill White. White was the first black to announce an NHL game. The Chief, Bobby Taylor spent 16 seasons, Gary Dornhoefer 14 and now Jim Jackson has been bringing us games since 1993. Maybe HOF will be in JJ’s future one day.

The Eagles Merrill Reese, although not a Hall of Famer at this time, has been broadcasting games on radio since 1977 and does he do a great job? How many of you have turned down the TV to listen to Merrill do the play-by-play along with his many color commentators, Herb Adderly, yes the HOF player, Bill Bergey, Stan Walters and now Mike Quick call the game the way it should be called. Tracing way back to 1940 By Saam was doing the games up until 1955, minus the 50 and 51 seasons when Bill Campbell took over. Campbell called the games until 1964. In ‘64 Saam was back for one last year working with Campbell and former Eagle Tom Brookshier. Musser took over from 1965–1968. Charlie Swift covered from 1969-77 and Reese joined Swift in 1977 until now. What a run of great announcers! Did you know that future Baseball HOF broadcaster Jack Buck did Eagles games in 1961? Anyone who was able to go to games at Franklin Field and the early days at The Vet will never forget the booming voice of PA announcer Matt Goukas Sr. who handled the duties from 1953-1985. Goukas was legendary! His call of 2nd down and niooooooon (2nd & 9) is still in my head after all this years. Amazingly enough when Goukas retired Dan Baker took over and he has been the PA voice of the Eagles ever since not to mention handing the same duties with the Phillies since 1972 and doing Big 5 basketball from 1977-1989. Baker has been a busy man in Philadelphia.

Speaking of PA announcers we can’t forget “The Zink”, Dave Zinkoff. Zink was with the Philadelphia Warriors and then the 76ers from 1946-1985. Zink had many favorites but “Dipper Dunk” for Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Errrrrrrrrrrving and Moses Maaaaaaaaaaalone have to be at the top of the list. Of course we can’t forget Bill Campbell again. Campbell along with his work with the Eagles and Phillies called Warriors games from 1946–1962 and 76ers games from 1972-1981. Andy Musser followed and Mark Zumoff has been holding it down since 1994.

There can’t be another city that can say that they’ve had a run with broadcasters and announcers that Philly has had. From Saam to Campbell to Ashburn to Kalas to Musser to Hart to Goukas to Zinkoff to Baker to the present day guys of Reese, Wheeler, Zumoff  and Jackson it’s been quite a run. The bar has been set very high.

As Gene Hart would say, “Good Night and Good Hockey”!!!

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EAGLES “STAY OR GO” FAN VOTE

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 8, 2012 at 9:02 am

Currently Philly.com is running the end of season fan voting for the Philadelphia Eagles. If you don’t know how it works, you log on and go through essentially the entire roster and choose if you feel the player should “stay or go”. Once you’ve voted on the player the current vote result is shown. There were 24 offensive players, 30 defensive players, 3 special teams players, 3 coaches, 3 administrators and a mascot listed. There have been between 2000-5000 votes cast so far, (you don’t have to vote for every player). I found the results very surprising. Here’s the breakdown.

On offense the fans want to keep ALL of the starters. This is the offensive machine that finished 4th overall in the league but generated a league high 39 turnovers. Here’s who the fans voted needed to “go”: Vince Young, Ronnie Brown, Steve Smith, Winston Justice, Julian Vendervelde, Jamaal Jackson and King Dunlap. That’s it!!! The fans even voted to keep Chad Hall, Mike Kafka and Owen Schmidt. I can’t say I disagree much with this list but keeping an experienced offensive lineman, Justice or Dunlap, is probably not a bad idea. Personally I’m torn over DeSean Jackson. I feel he let this team and fan base down by not playing hard and missing the Arizona game for disciplinary reasons. He’s a tremendous talent but needs to come to work every day. If a good trade for a 1st rounder was offered I’m not sure I wouldn’t move him. The fan base feels different with 74% of the fans wanting him back.

On defensive the fans want to keep 10 players that started most of the season. The only full time starter voted to “go” was Asante Samuel. Only 37% of the fans want him to return. We voted that Casey Matthews, who took an early season beating from the fans and media should stay along with former 1st round pick Brandon Graham. Here are the remaining defensive palyers the fans want to “go”. Some of these guys did contribute during the season to the 10th ranked defense in the league, Juqua Parker, Trevor Laws, Victor Abiamiri, Cedric Thornton, Akeem Jordan, Moise Fokou, Curtis Marsh, Brandon Hughes and Tom Nelson. Personally I like Parker, although he’s getting up in age. I also like Fokou and think I would keep him.

The  three special teams players listed, Alex Henery, Chas Henry and John Dorenbos were all voted to “stay”. Henery only missed 3 FG’s all season but 2 were in the 49er’s game that would’ve put the game away for us. Overall he had a great season. Both Henery and Henry are rookies.

So what we’re saying is that we are very happy with the team that has been put together. We want 24 of our 25 starters to return from a team that went 8-8 and missed the playoffs. What could we possibly be thinking? We’re thinking about the coaches and administration. 56.6% of voters call for Andy Reid to “go”. 53.9% of the voters call for Marty Mornhinweg to “go” and 75.1% of the fans voters call for Juan Castillo to “go”. Personally I think they should all stay. I’m disappointed in the 8-8 season but I still have confidence in Reid and like him as our coach. I think far too much blame has been placed on Castillo. Without making excuses for him he did have new postion coaches at DL, LB, corners and safeties. That’s an entire new staff to go with a new coordinator and a handful of new players. The lockout did hurt them. I feel they will be much better in 2012. On the offensive side of the ball I think Mornhinweg did a decent job that went bad due to the turnovers. For the first time in years the Eagles moved more to running the ball and utilizing the talents of Shady McCoy. I’d like to see them run the ball even more. Michael Vick was sloppy with the football early in the year before McCoy was established and the O-Line came together and it cost the Eagles games. That’s on Vick and some costly fumbles. As mentioned earlier Jackson’s lackluster effort at times hurt the offense. The offensive line improved greatly as the season went on. As far as the administration, 83.3% of the fans voted that Howie Roseman should “go” as the GM and 70.6% feel that Joe Banner should “go”. We have decided to clean out the major coaches and the administration that put together the team that has 24 of 25 guys that we want to keep! Jeffrey Lurie got a pass. 57.4% of the fans want Lurie to “stay”. Even Swoop makes the cut with 56.9% of the fans voting for him to “stay”.  

Please note that the voting is on-going, however, in most cases the splits in the votes are so significant that they won”t change much.  Final decisions on the coaching staff will probably come in the next week. Johnnie Lynn was fired last night and more changes could come but I don’t expect they will be major. Personally I think Castillo is safe but I could be wrong. As far as the players, I think we need to be looking forward to the draft to upgrade the players that we already like. The NFC East was down this year and the Eagles missed a golden opportunity to win the division and move on in the playoffs. They are a better football team than the Giants and the Cowboys but you have to win your games and not just talk about it. 2012 will be a better year. E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!

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A Comparison Of The ’05, ’07 ’11 Eagles Losing Seasons

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 4, 2012 at 10:31 pm

The last time the NFL season ended on January 1 was 2005, the last time the Eagles had a losing record (6-10). That season also ended at home against the Washington Redskins and a 31-20 loss. The last time the Eagles ended 8-8 was 2007 and they finished that season with a 3 game winning streak. Of course the ’11 team was also 8-8. It’s interesting to compare the three season but lets throw some names and numbers around. Obviously Andy Reid was the Head Coach. Offensive coordinator in ’05 was Brad Childress, former Head Coach of the Vikings. In ’07 and ’11 it was Marty Morninweg. The ’05 offense scored 310 points and ranked 18th in the league. Donovan McNabb passed for 2507 yards and 16 TD’s while Brian Westbrook rushed for 617 yards and received another 616 yards. Terrell Owens also caught 47 passes for 763 yards. The ’07 offense scored 336 points and ranked 17th in the league. McNabb and AJ Feeley combined for 4005 yards passing. Westbrrok combined for 2104 yards of total offense and Kevin Curtis caught 77 balls for 1110 yards. The ’11 offense scored 396 points and ranked 8th in the league.  Michael Vick passed for 3303 yards and 18 TD’s. LeSean McCoy rushed for 1309 yards and DeSean Jackson had 961 receiving yards while Jeremy Macklin added 859 yards and Brent Celek 811 yards.  The interesting statistic is that the ’05 team finished 23rd in giveaway/takeaways, the ’07 team was 25th while the ’11 team finished 30th. The years in between, all winning seasons, were as follows” ’06 – 9th, ‘ 08 – 14th, ’09 – 2nd and ’10 – 5th. The offensive statistics bear out a simple fact that if you turnover the football in the NFL you will not win games.

The defenses are also interesting. The ’05 team under the direction of Jim Johnson gave up 388 points while finishing 28th in the league. The top 3 tacklers on that team were Jeremiah Trotter, Michael Lewis and Brian Dawkins. The ’07 team, also coordinated by Johnson, gave up 300 points and ranked 9th in the league. The top 3 tacklers were Omar Gaither, Takeo Spikes and Sheldon Brown. The ’11 team under Juan Castillo gave up 328 points and ranked 10th in the league. The leading tacklers were Jamar Chaney, Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen. What’s the most intersting is that of the 9 tacklers lsited for these years 5 of them are defensive backs. Whether that points to the play of the defensive line, linbackers or both can be argued. The years in between consistently had Quintin Mickel as a leading tackler but also had Stewart Bradley (MLB) and Trent Cole (DE)  in the Top 3. What we do know is that the defense plays a big part in the giveaway/takeaway ratio discussed above. If the offense turns the ball over too much or the defense deosn’t create turnovers it plays a major part in the teams success.

Final analysis for improving in 2012 is simple, don’t turn the ball over on offense and create turnovers on defense. Pretty simple don’t you think???

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LURIE DOES THE RIGHT THING

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 3, 2012 at 10:23 pm

I really enjoyed listening to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie tell the Philly media sharks that Head Coach Andy Reid and the rest of the Eagles administration would be back. I don’t really care about Joe Banner and Howie Roseman because Andy is the guy that pushes all of the buttons. There were two things I enjoyed the most about this decision. First, Lurie actually does understand football and realizes that the pieces are in place for a championship and it’s the players that have to be held accountable as well as the coaches. 39 turnovers to lead the league is an embarrassment and that’s on the players. Jumping offsides at the most critical part of the game that cost another win.  Asomugha lining up offsides on a 3 and 11 incompletion that gave Arizona another chance, made the first down and drove down for the winning score. Alex Henery missing FG’s that ultimately cost the 49’ers game. AT SOME POINT THE PLAYERS MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!!! Coaches at the professional level have nothing to do with these crucial mistakes. Players have to make plays! Secondly, Lurie showed he has the stomach to stand up to the garbage that is sports radio and the media in Philadelphia. Enough said on that subject. Let the big mouths that have never worn a uniform, been in a locker room and surely never been in a coaches meeting do there best to ruin sports in the best sports city in America.

Looking forward to next year the priorities should be simple, sign Desean, get Linebacker help through the draft or free agency, sign a quality back up QB, sign an experienced third WR and tackle to back up Peters and Herremans incase one goes down, unload Samuel, Smith and the othr dead weight. The O-Line has improved with the two rookies, TE’s are solid, WR’s with Jackson are solid, Shady and Schmidt are solid, Vick is good when healthy but a back up is needed. The defense is solid up front, the LB’s got better but are very young and some help is needed. The DB’s are decent but I sure expected much more from Asomugha. Every team in the league couldn’t have been wrong on this guy. The young guys will continue to get better. The kicking game is solid with the two rookies.

My glass is half full for the 2012 Eagles and Jeff Lurie’s press conference today solidified my thinking. THE PLAYERS WILL PLAY!