The Wartburg Wow

 

Walston-Hoover Stadium (Google Maps)

If you've been around these parts long enough, you know we all have stories.

You know that broadcast setups can be dicey.

I've shown you the setup with the Connecticut Roughriders from the scorer's booth. I once did an ice-level call from a corner for a playoff game.

I've looked through a window from 20 feet away to get a partial view of the football field in Harrison, NY. Chris Erway had to help out with play-by-play for the final 20 yards to my left. Sean Kilkelly, my analyst, had to sit near a window probably 50 feet away from where I worked.

Another time we worked from a classroom in the same school. The view was worse.

There have been scissor lifts and rooftop views and parking lots and outdoor setups in the rain.

There have also been the myriad calls while standing literally right next to another broadcast team.

There are more stories but those are just a few.

While I've told you the stories, I've tried to tell them with a hint of laughter and intuitiveness to get the job done. That's the bottom line, right?

Take note of the dorm building across the way

We now take you to Waverly, IA. The Wartburg Knights were hosting the North Central College at Walston-Hoover Stadium.

The game -- a Division III national football semifinal -- ended in a 34-27 NCC win. They head to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl next weekend in Salem, VA.

But it was the broadcast that wound up being part of the story. You know how I feel about that.

It appears there wasn't much room in the pressbox for the visiting NCC broadcast team.

OK, I've been in a spot like that. It makes me grumpy as the visiting broadcast crew, but there's not a lot one can do. You can only hope you're appropriately accommodated. 

Sometimes that means we're in the stands or on a concourse at the top of the stands. Sometimes you're in with coaches. No matter what, you make the best of it.

I'm not going to tell you I've never grumbled. Chris and I have each grumbled to each other in some circumstances. How many times have we frozen with bad connectivity at one stadium in particular?

Yet, again, maintaining composure and a sense of humor is everything. I've posted many a picture of curious setups for the viewer to form their own opinion.

And so I've buried the lead deeply. NCC's broadcast team was not pleased about where they were placed for the semifinal: in a dorm room.

No, I kid you not.

Wartburg brought a riser in with a table and a couple of chairs for the broadcasters to work out of. Apparently, they didn't have a full view of the field from the dorm inside Clinton Hall. But they did have power and connectivity. That's so important.

Broadcaster Andy Jachim put Wartburg on blast in a now-deleted tweet/post on Twitter/X.

We get to Wartburg for the National Semifinal game and this is the set up we are presented with. This is absolutely disgraceful and disrespectful beyond belief. @WartburgKnights you should be ashamed of yourself for treating opposing media this way.

Whoa. Obviously, deleting the post was a prudent decision. An apology to explain that you overreacted would likely be smart as well. There was -- as of yesterday -- a follow-up post to say he knows how lucky he is to even be broadcasting the game. To my knowledge, that tweet is also gone. 

I can't say shaming a school is a smart thing to do and Wartburg could deny NCC the right to broadcast from there in the future is such a need arises.

I'm not here to dunk on Andy Jachim. He let his temper overflow and he has taken quite a bit of heat from social media. He has also had some defend him and call out Wartburg for the circumstances.

He looks bad. Yes. No question. 

But I think we need much more information to tell this story completely.

What were the circumstances in the press box at Walston-Hoover Stadium? Who else was in there?

Walston-Hoover press box from outside (Google Maps)

We know the deal. Two sets of coaches, a clock operator, a scoreboard operator, a public address announcer, perhaps a spotter, and at least one broadcast team are likely in there.

There probably should have been room for another broadcast team but, again, what don't we know? What is the space like?

And I'd be concerned if it was my dorm but I digress.

Entitlement, ego, and attitude are a big part of the business. I don't mean that in a good way. I heard stories of that very thing from yesterday's CIAC championship broadcasts in New Britain and East Hartford yesterday. That's been a thing for some time.

Indeed, I'm reading tweets today about Darien and New Canaan fans who complained about having to travel the 90 minutes or so to Rentschler Field. I recall the same when Greenwich played Darien in 2017 and New Canaan in 2018. In each case, fans wanted to move the game to Boyle Stadium in Stamford. I don't deny I was comfortable with those games being moved because it was a shorter trip for me. It was also a stadium that I was familiar with.

But to the rest of the state, it becomes "'Gold Coast' fans are entitled whiners who think they're above the rest of the state."

I'm happy to not be involved in any of that and I would have happily gone to New Britain to work the game if Greenwich had played.

But back to Iowa. I get they were mad. For a national semifinal, the North Central College broadcast team expected a better position. I remember first getting into broadcasting and quickly discovering that everything is not served on a red carpet regardless of circumstances.

Heck, I called minor league baseball as the home broadcaster from a breezeway. You deal with it and adjust.

Many schools have done everything to make us comfortable and, honestly, the dorm was an intriguing idea.

So when I saw Jachim's tweet, I felt pangs of "back in my day," which is frankly still today. In my day, I worked in all kinds of bizarre circumstances.

Welcome to the club. You're clearly just getting started.

Hopefully, the noise will die down and Jachim will come off sounding less entitled and more humorous.

In the long run, I've learned to deal with it, laugh at it, and appreciate the achievement of adapting when it's all over.

Then put those stories in the bank and pass them along.

Or start writing a blog.

This whole thing reminds me of a guy who was asked to do a college football game at Fenway Park in 1949. 

Boston University vs. Maryland.

Thinking he'd have a warm booth, he left his overcoat in his hotel room.

Then he was ushered to the roof of Fenway. In freezing cold November weather.

The young broadcaster said nothing on or off the air.

Officials from the game apologized to the young broadcaster's boss the next day. 

The boss had no idea and was impressed with the 21-year-old play-by-play announcer.

The broadcaster's name was Vin Scully.

He had a pretty good career.

Keep that in mind.

*****

I posted this picture on Facebook this morning. It's my father holding me in a picture that I think is dated Jan, 1970.

My dad was born on this day in 1929.

The picture is so him. He's home from work, sitting in his trusty recliner, smiling at the baby that carries his name.

Yet it's not entirely him. His smile is charming and silly but, trust me, that's not my dad's real smile. Yet I still like it.

I don't know that I need to tell you too much more about him as I've written so much over the years. Probably too much. Yet I'd happily tell you more.

The hurt of his loss is still profound. 

His laughter, voice, sense of diplomacy, charm, and wisdom still ring in my ears. In the 20 years I had with him, I learned so much.

I miss him.

That's all I want you to know tonight.