We will watch the #FenwayBowl on Saturday and think of Vin Scully, whose iconic career was launched by a college football game played in Fenway Park. #Bearcats #Louisville
The world lost Vin Scully in 2022. As the year comes to an end, we want to keep Vin Scully’s memory alive in any way we reasonably can. This is not a baseball site, but one happy fact about Vin Scully’s broadcasting career is that it was launched by a college football game. Since college football is priority number one here at Trojans Wire, and since a lot of USC football fans care about and appreciate Vin Scully — as Angelenos generally do — it’s certainly worth it to note that Vin, if he was still around, would be watching one bowl game in particular this Saturday.
The first-ever Fenway Bowl was not played last year due to the pandemic. Vin wasn’t able to watch a bowl game played in Fenway Park. This year will launch the event. Cincinnati and Louisville will play at 8 a.m. Los Angeles time on Saturday, beginning a set of seven bowl games on December 17.
Here’s the story: A big Notre Dame-North Carolina football game in November of 1949 was supposed to be assigned to one broadcaster, but that broadcaster fell ill. Vin Scully’s mentor, Red Barber, did not yet know Scully at the time. Barber was the sports director for CBS Radio. Barber reassigned Ernie Harwell — who would become the iconic radio announcer for the Detroit Tigers — to the Notre Dame-North Carolina game. He therefore needed someone else to call the game between Boston University and Maryland in Fenway Park.
Here’s Red Barber’s recollection of the story:
“We needed someone to go up to Boston,” Barber told the Los Angeles Times. “I asked Ted Church for the name of that red-haired kid he had brought in. He didn’t know. I asked around, and nobody knew. I remembered he’d said he had attended Fordham, so I called Jack Coffee, the Fordham athletic director. That’s how I got Scully’s name and number.”
Scully braved very harsh and cold conditions on the Fenway Park roof — he was not placed in a warm, heated press box — and did such a great job that Barber took notice. Barber took Scully under his wing and developed him as part of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team that next spring, in 1950.
Scully would call Dodger games for the next 67 seasons.
When Barber left after 1953 to call New York Yankee games, Scully — in 1954 — became the Dodgers’ No. 1 play-by-play announcer and would remain in that position for 63 years. Scully and Jerry Doggett were the two principal Dodger radio announcers from 1957 through 1987, joined by Ross Porter in 1977. Doggett retired after the 1987 season. Scully and Porter were joined by Don Drysdale, then by Rick Monday. Porter’s run ended in 2004, with Scully continuing through 2016.
It all started at a college football game in Fenway Park. We’ll definitely watch the Fenway Bowl and think of Vin Scully.
Who calls a total stranger on Christmas to do a lengthy phone interview? Vin Scully, that’s who!
Vin Scully called me on Christmas.
Sure, I had sent him an email interview request hours earlier on Christmas Eve, but it never crossed my mind that he would phone me during the biggest day of the NBA season.
Hearing the sad news that Scully died Tuesday at age 94 made me think back (and dig up our interview transcript) to an occasion that to me said so much about the person he was. Scully may have been synonymous with baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he broadcast professional golf, too, first for CBS – including the Masters eight times from 1975-1982 – and then with NBC from 1983-1989, where he partnered in the 18th-hole tower with Lee Trevino.
As much as I would have loved to listen to him speak for hours on baseball, it was his time in golf that I was asking him to reminisce about. I had forgotten about this until I did an email search, but the person who shared with me Scully’s contact information (and shall remain nameless) gave it to me on Aug. 13, or more than four months before Christmas. No phone number but an email address – I guess at this point I’m not revealing too much by saying his email started red@ – and a fax number. Who still had a fax? Apparently, Vin did! I never faxed him but now that I think of it, I wish I had just to say I did.
This was some quality procrastination from mid-August to late December, even for me, but sounds about right – have a direct line to the man, the myth, the legend Vin Scully and wait until most of the Catholic world was at a midnight mass service to bother writing him for an interview.
Players and fans stand for a moment of silence for the passing of Vin Scully before the Houston Astros played the Boston Red Sox at Minute Maid Park in Houston on August 3. (Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
Santa could not have given me a better gift than a call from Vin had jolly Saint Nick landed his sleigh on the roof of my downtown Orlando condo and dumped out a bag of toys. The year was 2013, and while the specifics are a bit vague, I think I had seen a movie earlier that day and was watching the NBA in the late afternoon before dinner with my parents when I answered the phone and heard his unmistakable voice.
I may have procrastinated on writing him, but I had prepped several questions and I scrambled to pull them up on my laptop and fumbled to find my digital recorder. Again, who calls a total stranger on Christmas and sits for a lengthy phone interview? Vin Scully, that’s who!
I’m not going to post the full transcript of the interview, but here are a few things he said about Trevino, a partner he considered a true friend, that stuck out:
“Most people think of Lee Trevino they think of a talkative, outgoing, happy-go-lucky type of guy. He’s like so many people, he’s misunderstood,” Scully said. “He’s an intelligent, sensitive human being. Very bright. We’d sit on the tower and talk about the world events. He had a delightful laugh that everybody loved, but he’s far more than that delightful jokester.
“I marveled at a few things about him. Lee told me one time that he never had a cavity. As someone who has what I call Irish teeth, he had beautiful teeth,” Scully continued. “His eyesight was remarkable. I don’t know what it would be if he read the charts but we would in the tower on a par 5, so it’s a long hole, and then we would be 20 yards away from the green, and he would watch somebody hit off the tee and he’d say he blocked the shot. He had the eyesight of Chuck Yeager. It was incredible.”
“Once in a while I had the pleasure of playing with him,” he told me. “I never asked him anything. At my best, I was a 12 handicap. I’m left-handed. So occasionally we’d be on the range and we’d be facing each other and I’d just marvel at him. He might say something like, ‘Vinny, you’re choking the club to death. Relax.’ Then I’d start hitting a few balls very well and he’d say, ‘OK, let’s go.’ We’d walk 100 yards to the tee and I’d go right back to being what I am, which is hopeless. It was a great privilege to watch him shape shots. Remarkable.”
I asked him to describe how Trevino prepped for a broadcast, and his response was telling about how he went about doing his job and what made him so great. “Technically, in any sport, I always assumed I was the reporter answering the question who, what, where and when but the how – that key word – that belonged to the analyst. I would talk about score, where they are today, the shot, the club, the distance and then get out of the way to allow Lee to give the analysis. I would sit at his feet almost like a child and listen to his explanation of why these things occurred.”
I could go on but this final anecdote he shared is arguably my favorite, because it combined golf and baseball and two athletes that captured the attention of the sporting public.
“There was a wonderful golf writer in England named Bernard Darwin,” Scully began. “He talked about a player that was out of sight in a tournament and then won. He referred to the fact that the golfer had come from the back of beyond. I thought that was such a remarkable phrasing. I used it with Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican left-hander, who really came from the back of beyond to become more than a hero. I felt that Lee was the same. He came from the back of beyond. He came from hitting golf balls with branches in the cemetery.”
At this point we had talked for 25 minutes and I had exhausted my questions and he had told one gem of a story after another. However, I didn’t really want to hang up. I had the great Vin on the line and I didn’t want this moment to end. I had a pretty good idea that this was going to be a one-and-done for me. But before I could start vamping, he said, “I hope that helps a little bit, Adam. I’ve got family here and I did want to do it before I got overwhelmed.”
I suddenly felt like the worst person in the world. It’s Christmas Day, Vin’s family is over and I’m keeping him from having a glass of eggnog with his wife and kids to do the most-non-deadline of non-deadline interviews you can imagine.
I wished him happy holidays, and that was the extent of my dealings with him, but it left a lasting impression that someone as famous as he would drop everything – even on Christmas Day – to do an interview for a sport he hadn’t covered in over 20 years.
To me, it spoke to Scully’s character and was just a small reason he was such a beloved figure in sports. I loved listening to him call a game before, but after our Christmas Day interview he had secured a permanent space in the upper tier of my sports broadcasting firmament. Vin Scully was pure class in my book, and I can’t help but think of him every year on Christmas Day.
How a Notre Dame-North Carolina football game led to Vin Scully’s quick rise with the Dodgers.
The term GOAT gets thrown around way too liberally these days. There are some all-time greats and some really goods that deserve praise but it feels as if calling someone the “Greatest of All-Time” has lost a bit of the impact it used to.
That’s not the case for Vin Scully.
And it will never not be the case.
Scully became the legendary voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for whom he broadcast games for an astonishing 67 years. His iconic calls included Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in the 1988 World Series, Hank Aaron’s record setting 715th career home run, and even “The Catch” in the 1981 NFC Championship game.
Those were all incredible and are worthy of celebration but what made Scully special was his ability to tell stories. Sure, he had them of the greatest players the game ever saw and he saw plenty of those guys up close, but his stories of the other players who weren’t All-Star regulars or megastars are what I always enjoyed most about him. Check out below to hear just a few of his less iconic but equally as great of calls over the years.
Earlier today our colleague Matt Zemek at Trojans Wire shared a story of how a college football game at Fenway Park actually served as Scully’s major breakthrough in terms of broadcasting.
From the piece Zemek found on Boston.com:
It was November 12, 1949, and Scully was just a 21-year-old looking to break into broadcasting after graduating from Fordham University. A special circumstance had helped him land the job of calling the game at Fenway Park between 6-0 Boston University and 5-1 Maryland.
It was legendary Detroit Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell (who was once fired by Bo Schembechler – good going there) was reassigned to call the Notre Dame-North Carolina game that day which led to the famed Red Barber reaching out to Scully and getting him to announce the Boston University vs. Maryland game at Fenway. Notre Dame routed the Tar Heels 42-6 that day which meant Scully’s game received the majority of CBS’ attention as it was competitive.
Shortly after Scully joined the Dodgers broadcast booth and the rest is history.
I’m not silly enough to think Vin wouldn’t have made it one day if not for calling that Boston U.-Maryland game but he wouldn’t have gotten his start quite as quickly.
From a baseball fan that was blessed to be able to fall asleep to Dodgers games on MLB.tv for the better part of the last 15 years, RIP Vin. Thank you for the incredible memories and helping spread your love for baseball with a world that will never hear from a finer broadcaster.
En lo que se refiere a las voces más importantes al aire, Vin Scully tiene una de las posiciones más altas de entre todas las leyendas. Él era la voz de los Dodgers, tanto en Brooklyn como en Los Angeles. Él narraba los partidos de la Serie Mundial. …
En lo que se refiere a las voces más importantes al aire, Vin Scully tiene una de las posiciones más altas de entre todas las leyendas.
Él era la voz de los Dodgers, tanto en Brooklyn como en Los Angeles. Él narraba los partidos de la Serie Mundial. También anunciaba en la NFL y en el golf y siempre se podía contar con él para que nos pintara una bella imagen en plena acción o de darnos una bella historia al mismo tiempo. Y cuando era necesario, dejaba que la acción hablara por sí sola.
Rest in Paradise Mr. Scully. What a pleasure to not only meet you but to hear amazing stories in person. The Purest Voice to ever grace a mic. Rest Well 🐐🐐 pic.twitter.com/BkZ89f2fYG
Traducción: Descanse en el paraíso, Sr. Scully. Qué placer no solo conocerlo sino haber escuchado sus historias maravillosas en persona. La Voz Más Pura de los micrófonos. Descanse en paz.
Traducción: La vez que tuvimos el honor para anunciar al maravilloso #VinScully. Traducción recuadro: Los Angeles Dodgers están orgulloso de anunciar que Vin Scully, comentarista del Hall of Fame , regresará…
I loved getting to meet Mr Scully. So sad to hear of his passing, but so glad that he is being celebrated from so many different people. He truly was the voice of our game, and a treasure that we will never forget. https://t.co/XL1F0yaGMy
Traducción: Amé conocer al Sr. Scully. Es muy triste escuchar sobre su fallecimiento, pero muy feliz de que tantas personas lo estén celebrando. Realmente era la voz de nuestro deporte y un tesoro que nunca olvidaremos.
Vin was the voice of my childhood. Greatest to ever do it. Rest In Peace
Traducción: Descanse en paz.
Traducción recuadro: Fue un jugador magnífico. Pero fue un mejor humanitario. En 2003 recibió la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad, el mayor honor para un civil en nuestro país.
Traducción: Hace 31 años cuando le dije Hola en Juego de las Estrellas de la @MLB.
"Every great city has sounds to it. Los Angeles has had one clear sound and that's been the voice of Vin Scully." – Steve Garvey pic.twitter.com/AX2aJBnmng
Broadcasting legend Vin Scully, who passed away Tuesday at age 94, had one of his greatest moments in the 1981 NFC Championship game.
There are a handful of people through time who can claim to be the greatest sports broadcaster we’ve ever seen and heard. Whoever those people may be, they will nearly all take a back seat to Vin Scully — and they’d probably all willingly admit it. Scully, who passed away at age 94 on Tuesday, got his start on the main stage calling Brooklyn Dodgers games with the great Red Barber in 1950 (that is not a typo), and he did that job for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles iterations of the franchise through 2016.
But that’s not all Scully was able to do at the very highest level. He called NFL games for a very long time, and added his poetic voice to the PGA Tour, including The Masters.
For our purposes as a football site, let’s talk about Scully’s brilliance as a commentator for that sport. As was always the case, Scully was eminently prepared, and that allowed him to riff perfectly as the action happened. Scully’s most famous football game was the 1981 NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the “upstart” San Francisco 49ers.
As you may remember, that game went in the 49ers’ favor with one of the most iconic plays — and calls — in pro football history: Joe Montana’s lofted pass to Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone.
We know it, of course, as “The Catch.”
You may have forgotten but in addition to all the baseball history on his resume, Vin Scully was also in the booth for “The Catch.” pic.twitter.com/cNbvlUxxcB
If you’d enjoy a master class in broadcasting that lasts over two hours, the NFL’s YouTube account has you covered: Here’s Scully and Hank Stram calling the entire game. This is Mozart as it should be played.
And here, just because we’re sports fans in general, is an excellent reel of Scully’s finest baseball calls.
With that, we bid a fond, tearful adieu to a true legend — Vincent Edward Scully.
It was so soothing. So calming. Even in the final years of his career, Scully was still at the top of his game and just better than everyone else at calling games. This dude was a true legend and he’ll be missed.
Everyone is circulating their favorite Vin Scully moments across the internet now in the wake of his death. One of the moments people have been gravitating to on the NBA side of things is Scully’s call of Kobe Bryant’s first pitch for the Dodgers.
It’s a young Kobe, fresh off of a title run with the Lakers, taking the mound to throw out a ceremonial first pitch for LA. And with us losing both of these legends in recent years, this video will absolutely have you in your feels today if you’re fans of either of them.
The time that Vin Scully called Kobe’s first pitch 🐍 💙
“Do you recognize this man? No, he’s not a very tall, slim right hander. He’s not somebody who is trying out for the Dodgers. That’s Kobe Bryant of the world champion Lakers. Threw out the first ball tonight, gets a hug from Dave Hansen and he got an ovation from this crowd.”
Just a perfect Vin Scully call, man. Sweet, soothing, calming, descriptive, inclusive and so many more things. It’s just amazing in every way. He finishes off with “what a brilliant basketball player young Kobe Bryant is.”
This wasn’t a moment that needed such brilliance, but Scully applied it anyway. Why? Because that’s just what he did. That’s who he was. And that’s why he’ll be dearly missed.
After providing the soundtrack to countless memories for so many decades, Scully retired in September 2016. But when I reflect on my experience with the larger-than-life individual, one of the moments that sticks out happened in 2020.
During the early days of the pandemic, Scully told the Los Angeles Times that baseball would be like a “rainbow” after the storm. He also admitted that he was unsure what to do when COVID-19 shut down sports.
But we faced much bigger issues than a world without baseball.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and now I live in Brooklyn, New York. Like so many other people impacted by the pandemic, because I was living so far away, I could not see anyone in my family for longer than I had ever gone. I can admit that I was, as the kids say, down horrendous.
I had to use Zoom to attend funerals for a beloved uncle, then a beloved aunt shortly after, who lost their lives to the coronavirus. I missed home so much. I also missed sports, but I will always remember there was one restless day in which I decided to try something different.
One of my friends who lived nearby was on a walk and stopped by to say hello for an outdoor visit. We were both L.A. natives who lived in Brooklyn and wound up discussing how, because of the Dodgers, Scully was like the natural thread that bound those two cities together.
While outside my apartment, we came up with the idea to listen to a radio broadcast of Scully calling a game from 1957.
My friend and I are both Jewish, so we were delighted to find a game that Sandy Koufax was pitching. It was Koufax’s third season in the MLB, and for him and Scully, it would be the last one in Brooklyn before moving to Southern California.
While using my iPhone like a transistor radio, less than five miles from the former home of the Dodgers at Ebbets Field but more than 2,700 miles from Dodger Stadium in L.A., my friend and I sat on the stoop and heard Scully in a much different way than any we had ever heard him before.
Scully transported me back to the late 1950s, far away from the stresses I was experiencing at the time. It was so surreal to listen to the game the way my grandpa, who used to see Jackie Robinson play for the cost of only a nickel, may have experienced it.
During his interview with the L.A. Times, Scully said that the pandemic was “burning up days like an express train” and at that time, I felt those words to feel especially true. But he also offered some solace:
“From depths of depression we fought our way through World War II, and if we can do that, we can certainly fight through this. I remember how happy and relieved and thrilled everybody was … when they signed the treaty with Japan, and the country just danced from one way or another. It’s the life of the world, the ups and downs, this is a down, we’re going to have to realistically accept it at what it is and we’ll get out of it, that’s all there is to it, we will definitely get out of it.”
The pandemic still has a lasting impact on us all, but I know I am no longer in the dark headspace I was in when it first started. I am forever grateful for whatever role listening to Scully played to make that time brighter for even a moment.
I’m very sad that Scully is no longer with us, but he left such positivity and joy during his time on the planet. I am forever grateful for that, and I know I am not alone in that feeling.
Because his words are beautiful, I’ll leave you with his final sign-off … “I’ll miss our time together, more than I can say.”
Rewatch Rams-Packers from 1981, a game called by two legends: Vin Scully and John Madden
Two of the greatest sports broadcasters of all time passed away in the last 9 months. John Madden died at the age of 85 last December, and on Tuesday night, Vin Scully passed away at 94 years old.
They were two iconic announcers during their time, with Scully calling Dodgers games for 67 years and Madden working NFL broadcasts from 1979 to 2008. Their paths crossed for a brief time in 1981 when they called four games together.
In Week 3, Madden and Scully were on the call for Rams vs. Packers, a legendary pairing in the booth for a game between two storied franchises.
You can rewatch that game in its entirety below. The game was broken into two halves.
The Rams won that game, 35-23, at Anaheim Stadium. The Rams did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for 177 yards and three touchdowns, with quarterback Jeff Rutledge throwing for only 70 yards and one score with one interception.
That year, the Rams finished 6-10, their first year missing the playoffs since 1972.
There were also Los Angeles Dodgers fans who went to Dodger Stadium, and to a very specific address to pay their respects: 1000 Vin Scully Avenue.
That was the name given to the street right outside the stadium in 2016. It was there late Tuesday night when fans were snapped reflecting on Scully’s incredible life and career, and some left tokens of appreciation from baseballs to flowers.
Legendary announcer Vin Scully died at the age of 94 on Tuesday night
A Los Angeles legend left us on Tuesday night. Vin Scully, the iconic voice of the Dodgers, passed away at the age of 94. He was the announcer of the Dodgers for 67 years before retiring in 2016.
In addition to calling Dodgers games for nearly seven decades, he was also in the booth for NFL games for several years. He called NFL games for CBS Sports in the 1970s and 1980s, with his most famous call coming in the 1981 NFC Championship Game when Dwight Clark made “The Catch” against the Dallas Cowboys, propelling the San Francisco 49ers to victory.
The Rams shared the following tweet after learning of Scully’s passing, sending their condolences to the Scully family.
The Rams are saddened by the loss of sports and Los Angeles icon Vin Scully. Our sincere condolences are with the Scully family, friends, and Dodgers organization. https://t.co/MTBxM33nGk
