Public Addressing

John McAdams, for those who don't know the name, is the best public address announcer of all time. He was truly a public address announcer, since he had no other job. Amazingly, he made his entire career behind the microphone at games, doing the games of any number of teams in the Delaware Valley.

Princeton University was among his many employers, as McAdams did games here in any number of sports. Most notably, he was the PA announcer for the four women's soccer NCAA tournament home games in 2004 (all wins, as Princeton reached the Final Four) and at Princeton Stadium for football from 2000-2004.

He did minor league baseball games in Delaware, college games all over the Philadelphia area, Philadelphia Eagles' games, high school games - basically anything. More than anything, of course, he was the voice of the Palestra and the Philadelphia Big Five for nearly 25 years, beginning with TigerBlog's first year at the University of West Philadelphia and continuing until McAdams passed away. He is a member of the Big Five Hall of Fame, along with all of the great players and coaches. His signature introduction? "Good evening and welcome to the Palestra, college basketball's most historic gym." It ranks up there with being welcomed to Madison Square Garden, the "world's most famous arena."

He would call on average 300 games a year, which adds up to nearly 10,000 games in his lifetime. Perhaps the most famous was the legendary Duke-Kentucky game in the 1992 NCAA tournament, arguably the greatest college basketball game ever played.

McAdams was a giant of a man, weighing more than 400 pounds when TigerBlog first met him a long, long, long time ago. It's possible that TB has never met a nicer person or greater gentleman than John McAdams, who died nearly five years ago at the age of 64.

TigerBlog followed McAdams as the PA announcer at Princeton football (a plaque with McAdams picture on it sits outside the PA booth), and TB fills in as well as the PA announcer for Princeton men's and women's basketball when Bill Bromberg, the regular announcer, cannot make a game. One such game was the men's game against Monmouth last night.

TB's basic approach to doing public address is to try and imitate McAdams, who had a simplistic style that focused on some basic things: keep it crisp, don't shout, stay composed, don't be a homer, have a rhythm to your voice. His word flowed easily, and that's basically what TB tries to do as well.

TigerBlog spends most of his time during Princeton men's basketball home games on the radio, so he's forgotten a bit of what it's like to sit next to the bench. TB's first game on the radio for Princeton was in 1989 in East Lansing, Mich., when the Tigers played the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and then Michigan State in a holiday tournament.

Since then, TB has been part of a rare three-man college basketball radio team along with David Brody and Rich Simkus, and he's also worked with play-by-play men Peter Peretzman, Andy Castin, Ed Benkin, Tom McCarthy, Dan Loney and now John Sadak. There are some pretty good voices in that lineup.

There was a stretch in the mid-’90s, though, where TigerBlog didn't do radio. As the sports information contact for men's basketball, he usually found himself sitting in the first seat next to the bench, which is a great place to watch game, and not just because of the closeness to floor.

Much of that came back to TB last night as he watched the Princeton-Monmouth game and watched and listened to the Tiger bench and the officials. With a radio headset on, none of that is audible.

The amount of communication between the officials and the head coaches (and even assistants) and between the three officials is amazing. It's non-stop. They call each other by their first names as if they're either brothers or best friends, and the coaches frame every argument/comment as if it's ludicrous that the official could even remotely disagree with their version of what happened.

During TB's days sitting next to the bench, he remembers some extraordinarily funny moments. Bill Carmody used to have running conversations and commentaries while the game was going on, often touching on subjects that had nothing to do with the game. Pete Carril, as could be expected, had some great things to say. There was this interaction once after a player went the wrong way:
Carmody: "How dumb can he be?"
Carril: "Don't sell him short. He's very dumb."

Princeton was playing a game (TB believes it was at Iowa State) that was officiated by the ref who been part of Bobby Knight's most famous meltdown a few years earlier. At one point, frustrated by a call, Carril yelled out: "No wonder that guy threw a chair at you."

At a game at Marquette, Carmody complained to ref Ted Valentine that the foul totals were 10-0 at one point. "Fouls are 10-0," Carmody yelled. Valentine came back with the perfect response: "I know. As soon as they commit one, I'll call it."

In New Orleans, Carril was talking to one ref about how UNO's big men were being too physical. "You've got big guys too," the ref said. "Yeah," Carril answered, "but I didn't go down to the docks to get them."

There was nothing quite like that last night. Still, sitting next to the bench was fun.