I remember when they introduced Frank McGuire after naming the starting five the band would start playing “When Irish eyes are smiling.”
I THINK he was a City Councilman in Columbia, too. And I think he had a grandson who was an athlete at Carolina. McKay replaced him after he either passed away or retired. I remember him, too.
By golly six, you got it. It was Joe petty! Thanks. I’ve been racking my brain for years. First he would deadpan the opponent’s announcement with a boring “Introducing the Terrapins of Maryland… at forward Tom McMillan, blah blah and then switch over to the voice of Moses parting the Red Sea. It would take him 30 seconds of enunciating every syllable from his diaphragm just to get through the initial line of the introductions. I was 15 but I got my Dad to put a 20ft pole on the roof and an antenna tuned for VHS ch 10 and point it toward Columbia so I could barely watch every Gamecock basketball game through the black and white snow on the screen (from Aiken). It was glorious and Joe Petty set the mood.
Joe Petty sometimes introduced starting lineups for games Channel 10 televised. The players would be introduced on-camera but Joe was not heard in the arena but on TV only. It was in addition to the regular introduction of the players, which was handled by the regular PA announcer.
Thank you for clarifying, They were both great. Epic. I got to know Uncle Gene when I was in school from 77-81 and he was as good a person as he was a PA announcer. And as crazy in real life as he was behind the mike!
I loved when the house lights went down seconds before the tipoff. The court looked brilliant.
"Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end."
The other two were Bill Benton and Dave Wright.
And at some point, Joe Daggett did the play-by-play on those WIS-TV games. How literate he was. "That's HE with the ball".
That's cool to hear it from our side. I've heard this call before from Larry Munson's call.
Joe Petty finally got on top of his problems. After he left WIS-TV, he spent some time as an administrative person at the Lancaster hospital's rehab facility. I actually ran into him - didn't speak to him - at the hospital's cafeteria when I was up there visiting. He was with some other people and seemed well.
Yep. Joe straightened himself out and spent the rest of his life counseling others and raising money for treatment programs. And while its not appropriate for this board, he wasn't the only broadcast legend from this area who had major issues with the bottle back then. Thankfully, most of them also eventually got their lives in order.
Daggett was a good guy who just wasn't near the talent level of a guy like Joe Petty. There is a documentary in the USC archives of the 73-74 basketball season narrated by Joe Petty. I've been looking for it to post so the younger guys can hear how terrific he was but I can't find it, damnit.
I thought Daggett's nightly sportscasts were excellent. He only had a three-minute block so conciseness was key. I ran into him down at the Masters one year and he was extremely nice to me. He told me that what he enjoyed most about broadcasting was the writing.
I got to know him pretty well when I was in school. He was good-natured and a gentleman. But, I agree with you that basketball play-by-play wasn't his strong suit
