Quote:
Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead
here come the hawks the MIGHTY black hawks..i miss jack brickhouse as the
voice.
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Thankfully, Jack Brickhouse never called the Blackhawk games.
A renowned booze fighter, whore monger and general good guy about town, Brickhouse was a raconteur extraordinaire for the Chicago Cubs during a 30+ year broadcasting career of the most god-awful baseball ever sustained by one team in the history of major league baseball.
Brickhouse and Irv Kupcinet teamed up for several years on WGN radio going Chicago Bears football games and in so doing formed the most inept broadcast team in professional football history.
The duo reached their zenith on a frigid December afternoon at Wrigley Field in the mid-1960's when the Bears lined up to kick a game-winning field goal against their arch rivals, the much-hated Green Bay Packers. Mac Percival, who earlier that year gained Chicago Bear immortality when one of his field goal attemts hit his center square in the ass, came onto the field for an unheard-of attempt of 42 yards. A converted lineman, Percival was challenged both by distance and accuracy by any kick greater than a 100 feet.
While everyone in a five state area listening to the broadcast knew that the Bears were kicking for the win, the two broadcasters airing the event somehow missed that fact. Both 'professionals' were mystified both by the fact that not only were the Bears trying a 42 yard extra point, but also by the fact that the phantom touchdown eluded them. Demonstrating their unique pigskin acumen, Brickhouse and Kupcinet began screaming from the broadcast booth to the referees somewhere below that the game should be over because of the "game-winning" touchdown. It mattered not to Brickhouse or Kupcinet that between them and the referees were two decks and 40,000 delirious fans. The integrity of the game dictated that they should alert the refs to the crime about to be committed.
As Percival's kick miraculously sailed through the uprights for a Bears victory not one person across the Midwest dialed into WGN heard "the call". Precisely as the kicked was launched, Brickhouse managed to drop his binoculars from the booth down below onto the melon of an Andy Frain usher, creasing the poor bastard's skull and sending him to the emergency room with a concussion.
A legend, indeed. You just don't get that kind of a call from today's talking heads.