[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 9, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1071-E1073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE RETIREMENT OF JOHN WARD, ``THE VOICE OF THE VOLS''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 9, 1998

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, as many people here in Washington know, I am 
a tremendous fan of the University of Tennessee Athletic Teams.
  For more than thirty years, John Ward has been known throughout the 
Nation as the ``Voice of the Vols.'' During that time Mr. Ward has made 
millions of fans feel like they were sitting in the stands even though 
they were only able to listen over the radio.
  He has been acclaimed with a reputation as one of the finest sports 
announcers in the history of this Nation.
  Even more importantly, he has become one of the most respected and 
admired men in East Tennessee and has been a true friend to many many 
people throughout our part of the Country.
  John Ward has now announced his retirement as the footfall and 
basketball broadcaster for the Tennessee Volunteers after one more 
season. When he leaves he will certainly be missed by countless numbers 
of Tennessee sports fans and will be almost impossible to replace.
  I would like to offer my congratulations to John Ward on a job well 
done and wish him the best for the future.
  I would like to call to the attention of all my colleagues and other 
readers of the Congressional Record several articles and editorials 
from the Knoxville News Sentinel.

                          A Legend Steps Down

  John Ward, Bill Anderson will end long broadcasting stint next year

       At the University of Tennessee, student-athletes come and 
     go with regularity. Less frequently, the school changes 
     presidents, vice presidents, deans, coaches and even athletic 
     directors. And life goes on.
       What has not changed in the past 30-plus years at UT is the 
     person broadcasting football and basketball games, John Ward.
       When Ward steps down as the ``Voice of the Vols'' after the 
     1998 football season and the '98-99 basketball season, life 
     will go on but will be very different. Bill Anderson, the 
     former UT football player who has been the color commentator 
     and sidekick to Ward's play-by-play announcing, also will bow 
     out next year. They are the longest-running broadcast pair in 
     Division 1-A college football.
       Ward, who has broadcast UT football games for 30 years and 
     Vols basketball games for 34 years, called a press conference 
     last Wednesday to announce that he will retire following one 
     more season behind the microphone. Succinctly he said, ``It's 
     time.''
       Edwin Huster, Vol Network general manager, promises a 
     national search by the university, the athletic department 
     and the network for Ward's replacement. The new broadcast 
     team likely will be named by May of next year.
       But how does UT or the network replace an institution? 
     University President Joe Johnson said he would prefer the 
     headache of picking head coaches, athletic directors or 
     chancellors to finding a successor to Ward.
       As much as Ward's longevity and steady voice at the mike, 
     he will be remembered for the detail, the fairness and, most 
     of all, the colorful way he announced UT's games.

[[Page E1072]]

       Ah, yes, the color. How does one improve on, ``Give him 
     six''? Or dragging out the last five yards of a long 
     touchdown romp as though the runner suddenly lapsed into slow 
     motion: ``He's at the five, the four, the three, the two, the 
     one . . .''? Or, with field goals, expanding the word 
     ``good'' to about 10 syllables?
       In basketball, Ward might not have patented the term 
     ``bottom,'' but can anyone deliver it any better? And who can 
     forget the basketball glory days of ``Ernie G. of Tennessee'' 
     or ``Bernard KING of the Volunteers'' from the mid-1970s?
       Such are the things of legend, and, in the world of college 
     football and basketball broadcasting, Ward's legendary status 
     is assured. We wish him and Anderson the best in retirement.
       Meanwhile, thanks for giving us one more year.


       
                                  ____
                John Ward, Voice of the Vols, To Retire

                           (By Mike Strange)

       John Ward revealed his scenario Wednesday, envisioning the 
     aftermath of his retirement as the voice of University of 
     Tennessee athletics.
       ``Game one,'' Ward said, ``people listening will say, `That 
     sure doesn't sound like John Ward.'
       ``Game three, people will say, `I wonder what John Ward's 
     doing today?''
       ``Game five, people will say, ``What was the name of that 
     guy who used to broadcast Tennessee games?' ''
       That's one call Ward will blow.
       The man revered as ``The Voice of the Vols'' announced he 
     will retire following one more football and basketball season 
     behind the microphone. However, it's not likely he will be 
     forgotten by UT fans until well into the 21st century, if 
     then.
       After 30 seasons of broadcasting Tennessee football and 34 
     describing basketball, Ward called a press conference that 
     ended several years of speculation as to when he would step 
     down.
       ``It's time,'' he said.
       Because of his commitment to sponsors who already had 
     signed on for the coming year and to allow for a more 
     deliberate search for his replacement, Ward agreed to one 
     more season.
       Bill Anderson, his color commentary sidekick for all 30 
     football seasons, also will bow out with Ward. They are the 
     longest-running broadcast tandem in Division I-A college 
     football.
       ``He's seen head coaches come and go, and he's seen 
     athletic directors come and go,'' said UT head football Coach 
     Phillip Fulmer. ``And John has remained the rock that has 
     always been there.''
       ``That won't change for a number of years. He may retire 
     from being there every day, but he won't leave the minds of 
     Tennessee people.''
       Ward, who has always been secretive about his age, is 
     believed to be 68. He said he had considered retirement ``for 
     three or four years'' before arriving at what finally seemed 
     to be the right time.
       ``I didn't make this decision all by myself,'' Ward said. 
     ``My wife was involved, the university, some of the sponsors 
     we visited with.''
       He added, ``I know the decision now is correct, and the 
     time is correct.''
       Why? Ward said he had jotted down a list of 22 factors, 
     ranging from health to commitment to the travel to the hours 
     of preparation to the quality of the product.
       ``It's not a matter of where I think I've slipped very 
     much,'' he said. ``I did a great job this year, compared to 
     other years.''
       UT President Joe Johnson said he preferred the dilemma of 
     hiring head coaches, athletic directors or chancellors to the 
     daunting prospect of replacing an institution of Ward's 
     stature.
       Doug Dickey, men's athletics director since 1985, was the 
     Vols' head football coach when Ward slid behind the 
     microphone in 1968.
       ``When 107,000 show up for football games or 24,000 come 
     for basketball games, part of that legacy and building that 
     goes to John Ward and Bill Anderson,'' Dickey said.
       Dickey said before the search process for Ward's 
     replacement begins, UT must renegotiate its broadcast rights. 
     The current contract with Host Communications expires in July 
     1999.
       Edwin Huster, Vol Network general manager, said a national 
     search will be conducted by the university, the athletic 
     department and the network. A new broadcast team will be 
     named by May 1999.
       ``This is the day I and all Tennessee fans hoped would 
     never come,'' Huster said. ``Where do we go next? Good 
     question.''
       Ward prefers to sit out that process.
       ``I think it would be better to have a detached, methodical 
     search,'' Ward said.
       The two most often-mentioned candidates among UT fans are 
     WBIR-TV's Bob Kesling and Mike Keith, who recently left WNOX/
     WIVK radio to become broadcast director for the NFL Tennessee 
     Oilers.
       Both are UT graduates and Vol Network veterans who got 
     their respective starts under the Ward regime.
       ``John set such a high standard,'' Kesling said. ``And he 
     gives the Tennessee fans exactly what they want, so the next 
     guy who follows him is going to have it pretty tough.''
       Keith said he was ``shocked'' by Ward's announcement, 
     adding, ``It's neat that he set himself up to go out on top 
     of his game. The last year, when basketball was good again, 
     you got to hear what really made him special.''
       Kesling was recently named top play-by-play man for the 
     Jefferson Pilot SEC weekly football telecasts for 1998. He 
     has made no secret of the fact that he considers the UT job a 
     desirable career move.
       Keith said he would ``certainly pick up the phone and 
     listen'' if UT called, but added, ``I'm very happy where I 
     am.''


     
                                  ____
                 Ward Has Taken UT Fans on a Great Ride

       Ed Balloff lost his job Wednesday.
       Don't worry, he has another one, and he doesn't need the 
     money. He is a retired LaFollette, businessman who eight 
     years ago began a second career as a hotshot 72-year-old 
     public defender.
       You might know him as a credit line at the end of John 
     Ward's University of Tennessee basketball broadcasts: 
     ``Transportation provided by Ed Balloff.''
       Balloff, 80, was in court Wednesday morning. Otherwise, he 
     would have been at Ward's press conference.
       Ward called Balloff on Tuesday to tell his longtime friend 
     that this would be his last year as the voice of UT football 
     and basketball. ``It's time,'' said Ward, announcing 
     succinctly, dramatically that the next season would end 35 
     years of basketball and 31 of football.
       And thousands of miles on the road with Ed Balloff.
       Balloff and Ward became friends in the mid-'70s. In the 
     more than 20 years that followed, they realized they shared 
     more than a passion for Tennessee basketball.
       ``I couldn't have a better friend than John Ward,'' Balloff 
     said.
       They aren't just friends. They are as much a team as Ward 
     and Bill Anderson, Ward's radio sidekick on UT football 
     broadcasts for the last 30 years. Their booth is Balloff's 
     car.
       Balloff, who doesn't fly, began driving Ward to SEC 
     basketball games during the glory days of Ernie Grunfeld and 
     Bernard King (1974-77). They once drove all the way to New 
     York for a National Invitation Tournament game. They have 
     driven home from games in Baton Rouge, La., and Oxford, 
     Miss., when they didn't make it back to Knoxville before 
     dawn's first light.
       But their landmark trips was to Lexington, Ky., in January 
     of 1976. After that, their return-trip conversations were 
     never the same.
       As Balloff watched the game from the UT bench, he became 
     more and more nervous. When the game went into overtime, he 
     couldn't take it.
       He went into a men's room, turned on all the faucets and 
     began flushing the toilets--anything to muffle the roar of 
     the crowd that only could mean bad news for UT. Finally, when 
     he detected a silence beyond the men's room, he ventured 
     outside to see all the sad Kentucky faces. The Vols had won 
     in overtime, 90-88.
       The games didn't get any easier for Balloff after that. 
     Watching made him too nervous, so he either paced the 
     corridors of the arena or dropped Ward off at the game, 
     returned to the hotel and picked him up afterward. Ward told 
     him what happened on the way home.
       So, in effect, Ward did for Balloff what he did for Vols 
     fans everywhere. He gave him a front-row seat at a UT 
     basketball game.
       ``He's great at painting a picture of a game,'' Balloff 
     said. Former Knoxville Journal sports editor Ben Byrd said 
     the same thing.
       Byrd remembers the first time he heard Ward broadcast a 
     high school game. ``From the first day; you knew then he 
     would be good,'' Byrd said, ``because he could keep up with 
     the action of a basketball game.''
       In football, Ward has made a point of trailing the play, of 
     prolonging the call emphatically past the TD run: ``5 . . . 4 
     . . . 3 . . .'' That countdown is as much a part of Ward's 
     distinctive repertoire as ``Give him six'' and ``It's 
     footballtime in Tennessee.''
       Bob Pob Prince was one of my favorite broadcasters. Never 
     mind that his station was in Pittsburgh, and my radio was in 
     Clinton, La. Sandwiched between a rock'n roll station in 
     Meridian, Miss., and a Spanish-speaking station from who 
     knows where, KDKA still could be heard on most nights in the 
     early and mid-'60s. Even now, I think I could pick out that 
     longago voice of the Pirates amidst static and song.
       In Prince's vernacular, a flyball to Roberto Clemente was a 
     ``can of corn,'' a Pirate on the basepaths was a ``bug on the 
     rug.'' Those lines, that voice, assured me that all was right 
     with the world.
       For more than three decades, Ward has done as much for 
     Tennessee football and basketball. There's no mistaking his 
     voice or call. The voice has bridged generation gaps and 
     taken its listeners from high school to the high point of 
     their careers.
       ``I listened to him as a high school athlete,'' UT football 
     coach Philip Fulmer said. ``We used to have to drive to the 
     top of a hill late on Saturday night to get the signal.
       ``I remember a particular (broadcast), the UCLA game when 
     Kenny DeLong made a big catch. The energy and enthusiasm (of 
     Ward) affected me because he was in the process of deciding 
     where I wanted to go to school.''
       It was Ward's time to make a decision Wednesday, and UT 
     fans shouldn't be saddened by it. Like Peyton Manning, he 
     gave them one more year.
       Balloff gladly will provide the transportation.


[[Page E1073]]

     

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