Great article from the Chronicle Telegram about Joe Tait

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As you all know, Joe Tait goes into the hall tonight! Here is a great article of him reliving his 40 years of broadcasting in about 90 minutes.


Here is the source

Joe Tait quickly agreed to meet two reporters for lunch the other day to discuss his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame tonight.

Picking an establishment was a little more difficult, but the 73-year-old Tait, who turned down two pricey restau*rants, finally settled things: “Let’s go to Eat ’n Park.”

Eat ’n Park it was, because that’s Tait’s style.

The man would rather drive or take a train than fly first class, rather drop a few coins in a little casino in the middle of nowhere than go to Las Vegas, rather eat a good, family-style meal than spend some serious dough at a five-star restaurant.

So it was between bites of a turkey club sandwich and sips — OK, gulps — of a strawberry milkshake, that Tait spent 90 minutes reliving 40 years of broadcasting NBA games.

At times he was humorous and at others he was humble, but he was always honest. “It beat the heck out of working for a living,” Tait said at one point. “It was an enjoyable experience over a much longer period of time than I had ever imagined.” Hired by original Cavaliers owner Nick Mileti when the franchise was founded in 1970, Tait has been the team’s radio play-by-play voice ever since, save for a two-year hiatus in the early 1980s when Ted Stepien owned the club.

The coming season will be his last, as earlier this week Tait turned down an offer to broadcast only home games beginning in 2011-12.

“I’ve had enough,” he said in typically blunt fashion. “It becomes harder each year to perform my duties at the level I expect of myself. I’m not going to sit around and become a cartoon charac*ter. I’ve seen that happen to others, and I’m not going to do that.”

Tait doesn’t spend much time rehash*ing the past, but that’s exactly what he’ll be expected to do tonight when he and Jackie MacMullan, a former reporter for the Boston Globe, receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award in Springfield, Mass.

“I don’t know,” Tait said when asked what he would say in his acceptance speech, “but it will take less than three minutes.”

Though he would rather say “It’s bas*ketball time at Quicken Loans Arena,” “Wham, with the right hand,” or “Have a good night, everybody,” it will take a bit longer to do justice — or attempt to do justice — to Tait’s remarkable career.
The coach

Bill Fitch, the original coach of the Cavs, was at Coe College in Iowa when he first met Tait, then a student at Mon*mouth College in Illinois.

To pick up a little extra cash, Fitch also scouted for the Coe football team, which played Monmouth on a regular basis.

“This kid was broadcasting the games and eating up all the food in the press room, but he was doing an outstanding job,” recalled Fitch, 78 and living in Montgomery, Texas. “I got to know him, and he was good at what he did.”

Later, when Fitch became general manager and coach of the Cavs, the organization “had to fill some spots in a hurry.” One was that of radio play*by- play man for games that were to be broadcast on WERE-AM.

“Joe’s the first guy that came to mind,” Fitch said. “I told (Mileti) about Joe and he said, ‘Go talk to him.’ I did, and I asked Joe how much he’d pay us if we let him announce.”

Bob Brown, the team’s public relations director, broadcast the first few exhibition games before Tait was given a one-game audition.

“They told me if Nick Mileti liked what I did, the job would be mine,” Tait said. “He did and it was.”

The Cavs went 15-67 that first season — one of their games was not even broadcast on WERE, which chose to air Monday Night Football instead — but their 33-yearold radio announcer could make any victory sound like the greatest ever recorded.

“He was some kind of friend, and still is,” Fitch said.

“I’d say I could trust him as far as I could throw him, but he’s too damn big.

“The one thing I told everybody when we started the franchise was that no one was going to do anything that wouldn’t stand the test of time. Joe was one of them.

He’s certainly stood the test of time.”
The owner

Hired by Mileti, basically forced out of town for two seasons to preserve his own sanity during the Stepien regime — “Drudge that pond,” Tait said — brought back by Gordon Gund and maintained by current owner Dan Gilbert, no one has seen more Cavs games in person than Tait.

Though he’d be the first to joke it’s not a pretty mug shot to put on something, Tait in many ways is the face — or at least the voice — of the franchise, especially to those who have listened to him for four decades.

“I’ve listened to him for 27 years, and he’s really brought basketball alive for me,” said Gund, who is blind. “He’s been terrific. He’s just outstanding at what he does.

“I’m just very glad he’s receiving this recognition.

Sure, it should have come sooner, but the most important thing is it’s coming now. I think the world of Joe.”

Tait’s ability to describe the action, provide up-to-date statistics and continually remind listeners of the score and time on the clock isn’t rocket science, but those who have listened to a lot of radio broadcasters nationwide are unanimous in their opinion he’s one of the best play-byplay men in the business.

Of course, early in his career, Tait could make a Cleveland victory in the 56th game of the regular season sound like the team had just won an NBA championship.

“I’m always amused by my enthusiasm,” Tait said when asked what it was like to listen to tapes from the early days. “I tended to get very enthusiastic, but back in those days there wasn’t a whole heckuva lot to cheer about.”

Tait’s most memorable broadcasts probably came in the 1975-76 “Miracle of Richfield” season, which featured last-second shots by Jim Cleamons and Dick Snyder as the Cavs beat Washington in a thrilling seven-game playoff series.

To this day, Tait still believes the Cavs would have beaten Boston in the Eastern Conference finals and Phoenix for the championship had center Jim Chones not broken his foot in practice prior to the Celtics series, but he wastes no time worrying about the fact he’s never gotten to call a title-clinching game.

“I’m just along for the ride,” he said. “I’ve told other announcers who are thunderstruck or crushed when their teams lose, ‘Your name is not in the scorebook, so get over it.’” It is that ability to stay somewhat detached — to remember he is calling the game for those listening on the radio — that has allowed Tait to stay so good for so long.

“When it comes to ‘telling it over the radio,’ there is no one who has ever done it better than Joe Tait,” Gilbert said.

“Rarely has a broadcaster been able to entertain, call the game and connect with fans in the great way that Joe has.”
The player and GM

Tait no longer allows himself to get close to players, coaches or front office executives, but he holds a special place in his heart for Danny Ferry, who came to the Cavs in the unpopular Ron Harper trade and never lived up to expectations.

“He worked so darn hard to become an acceptable player,” Tait said. “He came in on a very tough trade, he had bad knees and the coaches didn’t play him, but he kept working very hard. When a bunch of guys got hurt and he finally got the chance, he played well.”

Ferry never came close to becoming the next Larry Bird, as some had predicted when he left Duke, but Tait calls him his favorite Cleveland player of all time.

Ferry, who returned to Cleveland as general manager when his playing days were over, holds Tait in equally high regard.

“Joe is an honest guy,” Ferry said. “When I wasn’t playing well early on, I’m sure he told it like it was. As I continued to work at it, to get healthier and find my niche as an NBA player, Joe let me know he had an appreciation for me as a player and a professional.

That certainly meant a lot to me.

“Joe knows basketball and calls it like he sees it,” Ferry added. “He has a great style on air that combines his love of sports, a sharp mind and a great voice. When he walks away from the Cavs after this season, it will be a great loss.”
Hall of Famer

Tait has been inducted into so many halls of fame, he should have his acceptance speech down pat. Yet for a man who makes his living talking, he’s surprisingly concise and quick at the podium.

It was true when he was inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame, it was true when he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and it will be true again tonight.

“I certainly didn’t put it on myself,” Tait said when asked about having the tag of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer.

To those who have worked with Tait over the years, that humility is not a shock. Nor is it surprising he is receiving what they feel is a long-overdue honor.

Though he can be grumpy at times and disdains much of what surrounds the game today, Tait’s ability to convey what is happening on the floor has not deteriorated.

“With my job, I hear every announcer from every team,” said Scott Zurillo, who produces Tait’s broadcasts. “I’m not saying it because he’s my co-worker, I’m saying it because it’s true: He’s the best. I’ve told him that 100 times and he doesn’t believe me. He pooh-poohs it away and chuckles.”

Zurillo, who drove Tait to tonight’s induction, has tons of stories about the announcer’s reaction to drawn-out renditions of the national anthem, lousy halftime acts and deafening noise in arenas.

He can tell you about nearly tipping a golf cart in the pouring rain while racing to get Tait to a fundraiser, or of Tait “swearing like a drunken sailor” then laughing like a little kid when he messes up the taping of promotional announcements.

“He’s like my grandfather,” Zurillo said. “We sit and talk about current events, about personal things. He’s business when it’s time for business, but before and after, he’s fun.”

Those are the kind of compliments Tait will gladly accept. The way he sees it, he wants to be respected by fans and co-workers. He’s not out to make friends with multimillion- dollar athletes or owners, he’s out to do his job.

“I’m trying to tell the people what’s going on and capture the excitement of the moment,” Tait said. “If somebody on the other team does something spectacular, I’m going to give him his just deserts. If somebody for the Cavaliers screws up, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It’s important to me to let the people know what’s going on.” For 40 years, Tait has been doing just that. Tonight, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will recognize him for it.

“There’s nobody better than him,” said Dave Dombrowski, Tait’s producer for 10 years beginning in the late 1980s and currently the Cavs’ director of broadcast services. “I hear some people say so-andso is the best. That’s baloney.

“We’ve got the best. We’ve always had the best.”