[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 30 (Thursday, February 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1158-S1159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO KEN SQUIER
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is my honor and privilege to recognize
the achievements of a great Vermont broadcaster and friend, Ken Squier.
Ken recently became the first journalist ever to be enshrined in the
NASCAR Hall of Fame. While his roots are at WDEV Radio in Waterbury,
VT, Ken is known nationally as the country's most recognizable voice of
auto racing. Without question, Ken's voice and calls of the most
memorable auto races were key to the rise in prominence of the sport.
Still, with all of the national recognition, Ken has always made
Vermont his home. His radio station, WDEV, is strongly committed to
community service and serves the people of his hometown and the greater
Vermont community with distinction. Ken Squier is, without question, a
Vermont treasure.
In honor of Ken's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and his
continued outstanding service to Vermont, I ask unanimous consent that
the article by Jasper Goodman, from the January 24, 2018 edition of the
Barre Montpelier Times Argus, ``Profile: Squier a living legend,'' be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Times Argus, Jan. 24, 2018]
Profile: Squier a Living Legend
(By Jasper Goodman)
``Guys like Neil Bonnett and Tiny Lund and so many of those
guys who were so good--they all died doing what they wanted
to do, which is not the same as any other sport. If you are
dedicated to racing, it can cost you your life. I just felt
they needed to be represented far more than announcers or
promoters or sponsors''--Ken Squier.
Seldom is Ken Squier wrong in his prognostications about
the motorsports industry. But when he told me five years ago
that he would never be officially inducted into the NASCAR
Hall of Fame, I had my doubts.
Squier had just returned home from a trip to Charlotte,
North Carolina, where he and Barney Hall were presented with
the first annual Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media
Excellence, an honor for which they were co-namesakes. He
felt at the time that he had reached the pinnacle of his
career.
NASCAR had just unveiled an exhibit in its Hall of Fame
museum that featured audio from his famous broadcast of the
1979 Daytona 500. Each year since then, a media member has
been honored with an award named after him.
Last weekend, Ken Squier returned to the Hall of Fame in
Charlotte--this time to accept an even more prestigious
honor: being the first journalist ever inducted into the
NASCAR Hall of Fame itself.
``Because the panel is made up of a majority of drivers and
media guys, there were two or three who said, 'You just have
to be there.' So there I went,'' Squier said.
Around Vermont, as the former owner of WDEV Radio and
Thunder Road, Squier has been a prominent public figure. But
at NASCAR events, fans worship the ground he walks on. Why?
It's simple: NASCAR wouldn't be the sport it is today
without him.
As auto racing rose in prominence during the 1960s and
early '70s, the sport began appearing on television. But it
was never given the treatment that baseball, basketball,
football or hockey got: live, start-to-finish coverage.
In 1979, Squier changed that.
At the direction of NASCAR co-founder Bill France Sr.,
Squier convinced skeptical CBS-TV executives to air flag-to-
flag coverage of the Daytona 500.
It was a smashing success--literally. The race ended in
thrilling fashion, with Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison
spinning out and getting in a fistfight on the infield. Ken
and color commentator David Hobbs vividly captured the
excitement and delivered a live broadcast to 15.1 million
viewers, many of whom were snowed into their homes after a
blizzard buried the Northeast.
That date--Feb. 18, 1979--was when racing went from being a
Southern fringe-sport to a nationwide phenomenon.
Squier served as the lap-by-lap commentator for the next 20
Daytona 500s. He famously nicknamed the event ``The Great
American Race.''
``The beaches of Daytona, in Ormond--that's the history of
American motorsports,'' Squier said. ``They were racing there
over 100 years ago. . . . This wasn't just another race--this
was Daytona.''
Squier expresses hesitation about being in the same Hall of
Fame as the racing legends who he covered.
``There was still that catch in my throat,'' he said.
``Guys like Neil Bonnett and Tiny Lund and so many of those
guys who were so good--they all died doing what they wanted
to do, which is not the same as any other sport. If you are
dedicated to racing, it can cost you your life. I just felt
they needed to be represented far more than announcers or
promoters or sponsors.''
Squier's hesitation is unsurprising. Unlike many modern-day
broadcasters who enjoy directing the spotlight at themselves,
Squier has never been one to place himself at the center of
attention. Vermont Governor and three-time Thunder Road track
champion Phil Scott noted last Friday that in the first draft
of Squier's acceptance speech, there was ``not one single
mention of himself.''
``He's been telling us the great American story his whole
life,'' Scott said in his introduction of Squier at the Hall
of Fame induction ceremony. ``But we never hear his story.''
[[Page S1159]]
The line about Squier not wanting to talk about himself was
repeated over and over again last weekend. And in a 90-minute
interview for this story, it proved to be largely true.
Squier managed to eloquently brush off questions about his
career accomplishments. Instead, he chronicled the history of
motorsports--as he so often does in conversation.
But make no mistake: The fact that Squier rarely speaks of
himself isn't a character flaw. It's what makes him the best
at what he does.
He is a storyteller--not of his own life, but of others'.
And without his innate ability to deliver those stories,
NASCAR would have never enjoyed the national prominence that
it does today.
Squier grew up in Waterbury and worked throughout his
adolescence at WDEV, which his father, Lloyd, founded in
1931.
``I was lucky,'' Squier said. ``(WDEV) was always full of
kids--young, young guys. And Rusty (Parker) ran it fluidly.
It gave me an opportunity that a lot of people wouldn't have
had to go out and do something that I really desired, which
was the racing. It was big and it was growing and every year
it got bigger and bigger. But I could always come home.''
Even as he rose to national prominence, Squier always
called Vermont home.
``I loved Verniont and everything it stood for,'' he said.
Squier once described NASCAR drivers as ``ordinary people
doing extraordinary things.''
The same can be said of Squier, an ordinary, down-to-earth
Vermonter who changed a sport in extraordinary ways.
Squier has given much of his life to NASCAR. Last weekend,
the sport gave back to him.
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