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Uncle Verne
CBS BROADCASTER VERNE LUNDQUIST HAS FRAMED SOME OF MOST LEGENDARY SPORTS MOMENTS OF OUR TIME, AND HE'S DONE IT ALL BY SAYING VERY LITTLE
BY DENNIS DODD
December 5, 2014
CBSSports.com
If I were Verne Lundquist, I would tell this story in a paragraph or two. Concise, poignant, compelling. A mere oil change of a tale, it would be.
But alas, I am not Verne Lundquist.
Nobody is.
For the last 51 years, no broadcaster has framed more timeless moments with fewer words than the man lovingly known as "Uncle Verne." He has mastered the art of saying more with less -- crafting eternal pentameter, letting moments become permeable.
"An undercover minimalist," one media observer called him.
This Saturday, Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. will call the SEC Championship on CBS. His greatest call might still be ahead of him; might be Saturday night. But after more than five decades of telling other people's stories, the real treat is sitting back listening to him reflect upon his own.
After all, 74-year old Verne Lundquist is, more than anything, a storyteller. A comfortable, homemade sweater of a storyteller. The man's work has stretched across generations -- from teletype to social media.
From 16 MM film to Happy Gilmore.
From a perceived demotion to perhaps college football's No. 1 announcer. Ever.
No. 1? My goodness that's bold. Well, Keith Jackson is retired. Brent Musburger is on the SEC Network. No one else has the experience. Perhaps no one else has the overall chops.
The others may have youth, but they haven't defined Jack Nicklaus' Masters victory at age 46 or Tiger's chip-in on No. 16 at Augusta.
Lundquist is remembered for two words after Nicklaus sank a birdie putt at No. 17 in 1986: "Yes sir!" He actually expanded to sum Tiger's miraculous shot: "In your life have you seen anything like that?"
"It wasn't what he said, it was the timing," said Ed Sherman, media observer and proprietor of the Sherman Report. "It was the moment he said it. You can kind of feel the hair stand up on the back of your neck."
Verne is among a handful of voices that are the soundtracks of our living rooms. They are a select few: Musburger, Jackson, Al Michaels. From the old days, Jim McKay and Chris Schenkel.
Seven months ago, Lundquist received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting from Fordham University. Also, this year Verne was the first on-air personality to win the Sports Business Journal's "Champions of Sports" award.
There are trees that don't last 50 years, much less oracles who can speak from the top of them with authority.
Read much much more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/feature/24868680/uncle-verne
Verne Lundquist at WFAA-TV, Dallas, TX
in 1968. (WFAA-TV Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas)
CBS BROADCASTER VERNE LUNDQUIST HAS FRAMED SOME OF MOST LEGENDARY SPORTS MOMENTS OF OUR TIME, AND HE'S DONE IT ALL BY SAYING VERY LITTLE
BY DENNIS DODD
December 5, 2014
CBSSports.com
If I were Verne Lundquist, I would tell this story in a paragraph or two. Concise, poignant, compelling. A mere oil change of a tale, it would be.
But alas, I am not Verne Lundquist.
Nobody is.
For the last 51 years, no broadcaster has framed more timeless moments with fewer words than the man lovingly known as "Uncle Verne." He has mastered the art of saying more with less -- crafting eternal pentameter, letting moments become permeable.
"An undercover minimalist," one media observer called him.
This Saturday, Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. will call the SEC Championship on CBS. His greatest call might still be ahead of him; might be Saturday night. But after more than five decades of telling other people's stories, the real treat is sitting back listening to him reflect upon his own.
After all, 74-year old Verne Lundquist is, more than anything, a storyteller. A comfortable, homemade sweater of a storyteller. The man's work has stretched across generations -- from teletype to social media.
From 16 MM film to Happy Gilmore.
From a perceived demotion to perhaps college football's No. 1 announcer. Ever.
No. 1? My goodness that's bold. Well, Keith Jackson is retired. Brent Musburger is on the SEC Network. No one else has the experience. Perhaps no one else has the overall chops.
The others may have youth, but they haven't defined Jack Nicklaus' Masters victory at age 46 or Tiger's chip-in on No. 16 at Augusta.
Lundquist is remembered for two words after Nicklaus sank a birdie putt at No. 17 in 1986: "Yes sir!" He actually expanded to sum Tiger's miraculous shot: "In your life have you seen anything like that?"
"It wasn't what he said, it was the timing," said Ed Sherman, media observer and proprietor of the Sherman Report. "It was the moment he said it. You can kind of feel the hair stand up on the back of your neck."
Verne is among a handful of voices that are the soundtracks of our living rooms. They are a select few: Musburger, Jackson, Al Michaels. From the old days, Jim McKay and Chris Schenkel.
Seven months ago, Lundquist received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting from Fordham University. Also, this year Verne was the first on-air personality to win the Sports Business Journal's "Champions of Sports" award.
There are trees that don't last 50 years, much less oracles who can speak from the top of them with authority.
Read much much more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/feature/24868680/uncle-verne
Verne Lundquist at WFAA-TV, Dallas, TX
in 1968. (WFAA-TV Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas)
