“Always be a Good Sport. Be a Good Sport Always” — Bob Robertson
Ten days ago and too late for me to put an echo into last week’s column, this newspaper carried a story about the retirement of a great sports announcer, Bob Robertson. And there was an immediate feeling of warmth as I remembered the times we spent together, so many years ago. We were both working at radio station KMO in Tacoma. While I had already worked with an Armed Forces Radio station in Japan, I was just beginning my career in commercial broadcasting. Bob had already established his reputation as one of the top sportscasters around.
We worked together on various sporting events; Bob doing the play-by-play while I handled the broadcasting equipment, occasionally managing to add a word or two to the proceedings. Bob didn’t need any help in following every second of many different sports. He’s best known for his connection to WSU, broadcasting — still on radio — the fate of the Cougars, whatever the sport might be. Local listeners on what is now KMST, will attest to the fact that he painted a verbal picture of the action complete enough to rival anything on TV.
Can you imagine describing a wrestling match broadcast on radio? It was a snap for Bob. I remember a wrestler who had been a Pierce County Sheriff, but I’ve forgotten his name. He had an ability to sit on the canvas and propel himself across the ring by his mastery of his gluteus maximus and Bob’s description had listeners laughing as hard as ringside spectators. It was at one of those wrestling matches that I once had the opportunity to interview Gorgeous George (remember him?) and asked why he chose that name. His answer was, of course, “Honesty.”
There was the occasion of a football game at the University of Puget Sound. The press box hadn’t yet been completed and was lacking a roof. Cold rain was falling, mixed with wet snow and it was windy. Bob stood as close as he could to a wall providing scant protection and broadcast the entire game without once looking at his sodden, prepared notes.
There was another memorable football game, this one at the Lincoln High School field, located in a gully next to the school. Fog rolled in and gradually, but completely, blocked the field from vision. Bob called for a commercial and, while it was playing, handed me a note pad along with instructions to run down the steps, jot down what was happening on the field and run back up to hand him the notes. We repeated this sequence until the fog either lifted or was blown away and Bob never missed a moment of describing the action.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that there’s a song with the lyrics, “Those were the days, my friend, those were the days.” They certainly were. Back then radio was entertaining, not vindictive. One more thing — with all my admiration for what he was able to do, it wasn’t until I read the item here in The Chronicle that I learned he was a year younger than I was. He still is.
Changing the subject, here’s a quotation from the man I consider to be the most underrated president this country has had, Harry S. Truman. He wrote this memorandum around 1954 in regard to polls, “I wonder how far Moses would have gotten if he’d taken a poll in Egypt? Where would The Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll. It isn’t polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leaders with honesty and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.”
Do I have to point out that his use of the word “right” meant correctness, not political leanings?
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
