| FTBL Voice of the Bulldogs Larry Munson Retires

It Takes Eleven

Quoth the Raven...
Staff
Georgia's longtime radio voice, Larry Munson, has retired immediately due to declining health. At 86, he stopped traveling with the team last season. He's a legendary homer, but always entertaining. Would have liked to have heard him call one more this Saturday.

RTR,

Tim
 
son of tradition said:
Munson is/was one of the best play-by-play in college sports. I wish Alabama had someone half as good as he is.

What's wrong with Eli?

If you're ok with little things like down and distance being wrong, nothing. I've heard things like: "It's Alabama's ball, first and ten on their won twenty. The hand off goes to Coffee, who pick up four yards to the 25, making it second and 7."
 
Bama Bo said:
Munson is/was one of the best play-by-play in college sports. I wish Alabama had someone half as good as he is.
Maybe it is the Gator side of me coming out (the one that disallows anything good to be said about anything UGa), but I think Munson has always been vastly overrated calling a game - especially over the radio where the listener does not have a visual image in companionship with Munson's call.

Take the (in)famous Buck Belue to Lindsey Scott TD pass in UGa's last MNC year. Munson had a good call going until Scott hit around the UF 25-yard line. And to this day I am not sure Munson ever actually combined the words "Scott" or "Georgia" and 'touchdown" in his description of the play. Great drama, but poor play-by-play.

John Forney is the standard for what a truly great play-by-play guy should be. His like will never be seen, or heard, again. He had a unique talent to paint the picture before the game (Eli is very good at this part of the job) or play, give a crystal clear description of what happened on any given play - offering both technical objective information (play, player, result) mixed with subjective descriptions ('hard' run, 'great' move, 'devastating' block, etc.), and knew when to let the color or sideline guy be the star-of-the-moment.

Of course, the fact that the program Forney was describing was winning 10+ games a year 9-of-10 seasons made his job all the easier.

Those who did not have the fortune to sit on a back porch with their grandfather and listen to Forney call a game on a crisp, clear autumn afternoon missed a real blessing. I call still remember his call of the fourth-quarter of the UA-Tennessee game in Knoxville where UA scored two TD's in the closing minutes of the game to win 17-10 - and hearing the unspoken confusion and doubt in Forney's voice when Coach Bryant kicked the PAT after the first score instead of going for two. Forney could, nor would, say it overtly over the broadcast, but you could tell he wondered just what in the world Coach was thinking.
 
Good Post alagator.

I agree whole-heartedly on Eli. He can describe everything to a "T" I can sit out in the hunting stand on a crisp fall afternoon close my eyes and listen to him and visualize everything he describes. And like you say he knows when to let the color guy take over. I know folks gripe about Eli, but I think he is great.

Only thing I miss is hearing Doug Layton's voice on the sideline.

I can hear that man's voice and I'm 13 years old again in the front yard of my home growing up and I'm listening to the radio while throwing the football with my best friend.
 
psychojoe said:
son of tradition said:
Munson is/was one of the best play-by-play in college sports. I wish Alabama had someone half as good as he is.

What's wrong with Eli?

If you're ok with little things like down and distance being wrong, nothing. I've heard things like: "It's Alabama's ball, first and ten on their won twenty. The hand off goes to Coffee, who pick up four yards to the 25, making it second and 7."

What joe said re: Eli

alagator,
I agree with John Forney being another all time great radio man. Another good one was Paul Kennedy.

As for the sideline guy, it was hard to beat Jerry Duncan.
 
rammerjammer said:
Good Post alagator.

I agree whole-heartedly on Eli. He can describe everything to a "T" I can sit out in the hunting stand on a crisp fall afternoon close my eyes and listen to him and visualize everything he describes. And like you say he knows when to let the color guy take over. I know folks gripe about Eli, but I think he is great.

Only thing I miss is hearing Doug Layton's voice on the sideline.

I can hear that man's voice and I'm 13 years old again in the front yard of my home growing up and I'm listening to the radio while throwing the football with my best friend.

I hope you did not take my comment about Eli being good at painting a pre-game picture of the arena and transfer that to the idea that I think Eli is good at anything else.

Eli, the few times I have actually heard him, is just horrible. As was pointed out above, if pesky little details about score and down-and-distance and how an actual play transpired are important when listening to a game you cannot see, then Eli is 'gold.' But if you are trying to create an image in your mind of what is happening based on Eli's description, then you either have "fool's gold" or scizophrenia (sic?).

As psychojoe said, far too often I have heard "Alabama has the ball 1st-and-10 on its own 20 yard line. Wilson hands the ball off to Coffee and there is a HUGE hole on the left side. Coffee is tackled on the 23. (Banter, banter, banter.) (Ignores the confusion over how a 'HUGE hole' resulted in only a three-yard gain?)

Next play, Eli says, "Alabama now has the ball 2nd-and-8 from its own 22 yard line...

I just usually give up trying to follow a game from his play-by-play call.

Forney on the other hand was a master at describing the entire picture - the pre-game pagentry and emotions (this is the lone area where Gold excels), the actual game action, and how the game action resulted.

Layton was a pompous ass who came across thinking he was just as important as the game he was describing. I NEVER liked him. Layton's effort to step over the top of Kennedy's call of The Kick is a perfect example of how Layton did not know or understand when to just keep quiet and let the play-by-play guy or the game itself be the star.

Now, Jerry Duncan was the one I really miss.
 
alagator said:
Now, Jerry Duncan was the one I really miss.

I remember one of Duncan's comments in particular in the opening moments of a game vs. Tennessee. This is not an exact quote, but it's pretty close to what he said:

Duncan - "Well Eli, I see Ole Smokey coming out of the tunnel, if I had my deer rifle I believe I could take him out."

:lol:
 
I remember having to listen to Eli a few years back when Ray Hudson was still at Alabama. On a certain play, Hudson broke a tackle in the backfield, made a spin move and raced 60 yards for a touchdown. For whatever reason Eli just stopped calling the game during the spin move to focus on the spin move. I knew it was a huge play because I could hear the crowd going crazy in the background, but didn't know it was an actual touchdown run until Bama was snapping the ball for the extra point. That's when Eli actually informed the listeners that it was indeed a touchdown run. From then on I ONLY listen to Eli when I'm forced.
 
I've only heard a few of Forney's calls, never did hear him call a game live. I grew up watching games on TV, only rarely listened to them on the radio. Later on, after Eli became our play-by-play announcer, I would listen to some games on the radio. Eli is the voice I associate with Alabama football. I remember listening to games Eli called where I could literally see the game in my mind. Eli's voice gets me fired up for a game and, in my opinion is the best college announcer I've heard. He does/did a great job with calling races too. When he calls a race, the other announcers sound like amateurs trying to hang with a pro. Eli seems to know every player on every team by number, name and what his parents names are and what they do for a living. He is always prepared and knowledgeable about our opponents. For my money, I wouldn't trade Eli for anyone else out there.
 
rammerjammer said:
Good Post alagator.

I agree whole-heartedly on Eli. He can describe everything to a "T" I can sit out in the hunting stand on a crisp fall afternoon close my eyes and listen to him and visualize everything he describes. And like you say he knows when to let the color guy take over. I know folks gripe about Eli, but I think he is great.

Only thing I miss is hearing Doug Layton's voice on the sideline.

I can hear that man's voice and I'm 13 years old again in the front yard of my home growing up and I'm listening to the radio while throwing the football with my best friend.


Eli could call a chess match and make it sound good!!!

Rammerjammer; I could say it, but I ain't.
 
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