2 weeks Ago
To subscribe, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To pitch a ‘My Turn’ guest column, email jdalessio@news-gazette.
com . Want to purchase today’s print edition? Here’s a map of single-copy locations. Sign up for our daily newsletter here Anyone who follows Illini sports knows what I know .
.. Brian Barnhart is a treasure.
Kids growing up and listening to Illini football and basketball will remember those games by Brian’s voice. They will associate Illinois with that voice. Those of you who grew up elsewhere no doubt have a voice in your head from your childhood as you followed your favorite teams: baseball, football, basketball, etc.
They are embedded in our memories and recalling them usually raises a smile. In 1996, I took over the Meridian Star in Meridian, Miss. It was a regional paper, about the size of The News-Gazette, with a robust commercial printing business as part of the operation.
On my first day, I was moving through the building meeting folks when I heard this booming voice coming from the newsroom. I was stopped dead in my tracks as that voice brought back memories of lying on my bed listening on my transistor radio to that voice calling the games for the Ole Miss Rebels. Most of my family were “Ole Miss folks” and I knew every player on the starting lineups and where they were from.
When I was playing football in high school, I would come home from my game as quickly as possible to catch a ride with my father and a few of my uncles to wherever Ole Miss was playing the next day: Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, Auburn and, of course, Oxford, to watch the Rebels play. I’d met Archie Manning and his bride-to-be, Olivia, and was thrilled to see about 80 percent of Archie’s games. And the man who called those games for radio was now sitting in my newsroom .
.. Stan Torgerson.
I followed that voice around the corner and there he was, in all his glory, holding court with several of the young reporters. At 72 (my age now), here was this giant of a man still commanding attention and respect with that voice. As people recognized that the new boss was standing there, they turned and welcomed me, shook hands and drifted off, leaving Stan and I to visit.
I felt in the presence of royalty. In fact, in Mississippi, Stan Torgerson was considered royalty. As we shook hands, I felt like that 12-year-old kid who once hung on to his every word.
I had no idea that Stan, in his retirement years, had decided to get back in the news business and was a reporter in my new newsroom. I was flabbergasted that one of my childhood idols now technically worked for me. And not only was Stan a “rookie” reporter, but he was also by far the best reporter.
He had at least five Rolodexes on his desk and a couple dozen business card holders in his side drawer. Once, a few weeks later, a group of Boy Scouts was trapped in an elevator of an old building downtown. The building was in questionable condition and the ownership was murky.
As several reporters scrambled to find out who owned the building, Stan never left his seat, leafed through one of his Rolodexes, made a quick call and pounded out the story in about 15 minutes ...
complete with all the details and a quote from the owner, now living in Louisville, Ky. Before he left the Star, he made a video cassette for me of all the games he called during the “Archie years.” I still treasure that cassette.
Stan Torgerson, Harry Carey, Jack Buck, Mike Shannon and yes, Brian Barnhart are among the many people whose voices are in my memory forever. Whose voice do you hear when you close your eyes to remember?.
