I remember Joe McConnell on the radio during the first half of Walter's career - he was really good.

Great team, no doubt. Made better with the love of my yout, Jayne Kennedy.

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Hawk was greatest with the late Don Drysdale.

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

1. Harry w/ White Sox
2. Lloyd Pettit
3. Wayne Larivee
4. Hawk
5. Jim Durham
6. Jimmy Piersall
7. Ed Farmer
8. Steve Stone
9. Dale Tallon
10. Pat Foley

_________________

I remember my dad watching a Bob Newhart episode centered around them going away to Milwaukee or somewhere out of market so that they could watch the game. I was confused. Now that I'm older, I'm even more confused. Why not just buy tickets?

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

We were all Channel 2 families during the Bill Kurtis/Walter Jacobsen days.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

NBC

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I think you could make a case they were the best baseball pairing ever in Chicago. Stone is highly overrated. I should add I liked Harry and Jimmy but that was in my youth.

I noticed Jimmy Piersall didn't appear on any lists. Harry and Jimmy were an absolute treat. That was a great era of broadcasting on both sides of town. Cubs were stacked both on TV and radio. Nobody had Milo Hamilton either. I liked him better than Brickhouse but both guys were HOF. Then on radio they had Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd, who I thought were really good as a kid.

No one today but Stone comes close to any of those guys.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Fox ruined sports coverage.

The pre games were never the same once they brought in their style of giggling fools and fake sound effects.

I pity younger people who don't know what NFL pre game was built upon. It was just entirely different in its nature. I think it was an hour as well. The coach's studio audience show would precede. I guess we must have gone to 9 or 9:30 mass back in those days and we'd get back home for football.

One of my really bad memories of youth was having to get dressed up on Sundays. I hated wearing dark socks for some reason and my parents were unbending in making me wear them I had a legit reason too, as the dark socks were always polyester or some synthetic material that I still hate today. I only like cotton socks. Why couldn't my parents understand this?

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Back in the day, the NFL popularity wasn't what it is now...and the Bears were even worse than they are now. There were blackout rules in place whereas if the Bears didn't sell out their games (and they didn't) the game wouldn't be on air in this market, but it would be on an hour's drive north to Milwaukee.

Not sure if those rules are still in place...

This man knows. The creation of Sports Sunday, which was like 15 more minutes of sports at the end of the broadcast, changed my world. Then George Michael's sports machine became syndicated and suddenly I was staying up until 11-11;30 when I had school the next day.

It wasn't THAT long ago that I was in college and the sports bar had not been invented. I see the internet says they were invented in 1979 but I could tell you for certain, they weren't really there, in big cities in the early 90s. There was no "hey, let's go to the bars and watch games today." Bars had a little tv up on one of the far ends of the bar. You were shit out of luck trying to follow the Bears out of market.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Didn't Soldier Field also have a capacity of around 80K back then as well, with that last 20K far away with bad sight lines?

I started going to games, probably around 82-83. We had a guy who was a friend who got us parking, literally a stone's throw from the stadium and really good seats.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I don't think I was alive when Harry worked for the Sox. IIRC, Murph introduced me to Jimmy.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

agreed. he was. i want to say larrivee's first year was the super bowl year, didn't take long to adjust to him. larrivee was that good. i remember morris was flying the 'payton out of the I and not T' flag.

I was pretty young then...and I could barely understand them!

_________________

Matt Blair can still go fuck himself. If he didn't die two years ago, he could have probably still blocked Bears kicks in his 70s.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Harry with the Sox was fantastic. He and Jimmy were great. They both knew the game and knew how to be interesting, and they weren't afraid to call people out. They were, in a way, like Bill Veeck: unconventional as all hell. They also brought the Sox much-needed exposure. Both became a caricature of themselves in later years . . . but don't we all.

I love Stone. I actually liked him and Chip Caray.

Listening to Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd somehow made it seem like it was the 1950s or something. Good voices.

Worst announcers:

DeWayne Staats
Milo Hamilton
Gordon Beckham (despite having a hot mom). Gordon just doesn't have the voice. His mom sure is pretty.

_________________

Gil Levine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLPeXrRY778

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

After I got out of college I was following the Wolves and became a fan of Judd Sirrott.

_________________
An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

I grew up with Vince Lloyd in the afternoons and Ernie Harwell in the evenings. When it was really hot outside, Grandpa made sure we took a break with Jack Brickhouse.

I think John Rooney and Pat Hughes have been the most professional broadcasters, top quality.

haha, i understand your pain. those guys every year. blocked punts, PATs, FGs, unbelievable. fantastic special teams.

I remember someone saying and I am paraphrasing "The Raiders and Steelers were like the thieves who would take their victim in the back alley, beat the hell out of them and take their money. The Vikings were just pickpockets"

Rooney - Sox

Durham - Bulls

Laraviee -Bears

My all time favorites. Probably cuz those were my guys when I was kid a kid. Now I don't care much about anybody. They're all just fine.

But of those three, Jim Durham was the best on Bulls calls. There was a time, for all you kids out there, where they would simulcast the Bulls on both TV and radio. So you got them on TV and when your mom and dad had to drag you some where, they were also on the radio. This was the 1980s. Jim Durham was awesome. "Shot on Ehlo by Jordan in 1989" Best call in Chicago sports history. Such a big deal to me at the time. That was a HUGE upset by the Bulls. They were the one seed, we were the 5 seed I believe. 2nd round I think. Then we lost to the pistons in the next round. Here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8rfjwXzPpU

good one. i seem to remember someone telling us that if the bears had thrown more than 9 a times a game, viking safety krause may have gotten to 100 career INTs. i looked it up, he had 81.

I had to look up Matt Blair's stats because I wanted to make sure I wasn't overembellishing what I saw as a kid. I couldn't find game by game stats, but the guy had 20 (!!!) blocked kicks in his careers, so figure at least 3-4 against the Bears. I don't think the Bears have blocked 20 kicks in this century.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

1. Harry/Jimmy
2. Durham/Red

There isn't really any way to describe Jimmy. You had to experience him. His legacy is he ripped guys a new asshole but the truth is he was the biggest homer you ever saw.

_________________
Wattabout Kodak Black?

swirsk and ray meyer calling depaul. they were a great combo.

right. the bears got smart and got an ex-viking in alan page. page blocked a chester marcol FG attempt in green bay and the ball came right fucking back to marcol - who ran it in for the winning overtime TD. it's darkest right before the dawn. bears' wilderness.

vikings were blocking our kicks and we lose and when we blocked a packer kick with an ex-viking, we lose.

I've never liked Pat Hughes. That's right....I said it. I don't hate the Cubs, so I say this fairly objectively

_________________