My grandparents lived in Galesburg. They had a second floor
apartment at 153 East North St. They had no TV until the late 1960’s. They had
a small den with a huge wooden cased radio that took about two minutes to “warm
up.” They were huge Streaks fans. They had no car and not a lot of money so
they never went to games, but they went to the den and listened to all the
games on WGIL. They could quote things Coach Thiel said in the pre-game and
post-game interviews. And they knew their Streaks. And they enjoyed the
broadcasts so much.
Brad Bennewitz is the one who has been “painting the
picture” of Streaks football and boys basketball for years. He is not a good
play by play announcer, he is a great play by play announcer. He is
polished and professional in his presentation. And he is entertaining to listen
to. Brad is an expert, but he doesn’t come across as an expert. He never gets
in the way of the game.
Three things Brad is able to do in his broadcasts:
1-
He
clearly recognizes he is talking about young, teenage kids. He never hangs a
player out for their errors.
2-
He
never tries to get into coaching, he describes the strategy being used, but he
never second guesses the coaches.
3-
And,
he doesn’t get into analysis of refs. So many people today are sure in every
game that the refs are out to get a team. He refuses to get into the crazy
world of attacking refs.
I know there are people just like my grandparents who are
Streaks fans, and can’t get out to games- but they are home listening to Brad
describe the games. And I know they are enjoying his work!
Massey- Your major in college was broadcast
journalism? Was this an area you had always wanted to go into? What was your
motivation for going into this area?
Brad- My undergraduate
degree is a B.S. in Journalism with a broadcast news track. The news,
specifically, was not originally my intended area of focus, but it was a means
to an end toward sports broadcasting. Most of my college professors told me my
main route of getting to do sports play-by-play would be with a broadcast sales
degree, which would allow me (once someone hired me) to secure as much
advertising as I could for the games I wanted to cover. However, sales does not
appeal to me in any way whatsoever, so I went against their advice and pursued
news because it was far more interesting to me. I figured it would at least get
me into the doors of someplace that covered games, and I could weasel my way
into the sports area if I had to. Fortunately, it worked out in the long run.
Massey- Several years ago, I talked to Jason
Shay about wanting to take my son to some famous college arenas. I asked for
his suggestions, and he immediately said I needed to take him to Allen
Fieldhouse for a game. I was not disappointed, it was a fantastic experience. I
don't think the average person realizes how special the atmosphere at Allen
Fieldhouse is. How would you explain Kansas basketball to other people? What
are some of your great memories as a student at Kansas?
Brad- Explaining Kansas
basketball is not nearly as effective as experiencing it. The atmosphere is
palpable -- there really is a feeling to just being in the
building. At least part of that is the age of Allen Fieldhouse, but it's also
the ongoing tradaitions (the pep band counting down the final minute of
the warmup clock with its slow-to-rapid fire rendition of the fight song,
"waving the wheat" when an opposing player fouls out, the Rock Chalk Chant
in the final minute of an imminent victory). Not many facilities that were
built in the 1950s are still around. Alumni of Bradley and Illinois State can
attest that the games never felt the same and their schools lost a
significant home court advantage after they moved (respectively) away from
Robertson and Horton Fieldhouses. KU has done all it can to preserve and build
upon its history.
My two favorite memories of
KU basketball:
1. Watching the Jayhawks
win the National Championship my freshman year. Staying up all night to
celebrate the victory, the school administration cancelling classes the
following day, attending a parade in downtown Lawrence followed by a victory
rally at the stadium ... I guarantee a person cannot help but become a lifelong
fan of his or her school after experiencing such a monumental display of
enthusiasm and spirit. The fact that the season was full of challenges that the
team overcame, and the fact that our final three wins in the tournament were
against the three teams that had beaten us at home that season, made for a
super memory. My favorite t-shirt that came out of the National Championship
showed the losing scores at home to K-State, Duke and Oklahoma on the front of
the shirt; on the back of the shirt were the winning scores against those same
three teams in the NCAA tournament with the inscription, "Paybacks are
hell."
2. Being at KU's 150-95 win
over Kentucky with two guys who - to this day - are two of my closest friends.
Rick Pitino was in his first season at Kentucky, which was on NCAA probation,
and didn't have the horses to run the up-tempo style of game that he would
eventually implement. But he tried to do it anyway and refused to abandon the
full-court press against our team, which was far more conditioned, deeper, and
experienced. The result was a game that still holds several
"best-ever" KU game records and "worst-ever" Kentucky game
records. The fact that we three friends experienced it together is a priceless
memory.
Massey- You came to Galesburg and got into
radio work. What do you miss from working full-time in radio? Why did you
decide to go into teaching then?
Brad- Mostly, I miss
seeing the people I used to work with on a daily basis. As for the work itself,
you can be nice and call me "curious" or you can be harsher and call
me "nosy," but I miss the feeling of knowing what's happening in and
around the community (another reason working in news was a better fit for me
than sales). The reason I switched to teaching is for a longer discussion, but
the simple answer is 1) I wanted a connection to people in a deeper, more meaningful
way that helped me feel that I was making a positive difference; 2) after my
daughter was born, I began to grow dissatisfied with the never-ending demands
of a news/sports reporter and desired a more stable schedule.
Massey- I was very lucky my first year. We
were supposed to teach five periods per day and have one prep period. My
principal gave me four periods to teach and then a "hall duty." He
gave me a desk in a little used hall and told me to sit there and work on
lessons. It saved me having another prep period. I remember seeing you
during your first year teaching. You had to have been spending somewhere
between 12-18 hours per day. First years are loing!! Did you have second
thoughts? I am sure that it has settled down now, what did you learn that
allowed you to shorten your days?
Brad- As a morning news
person, I got up between 3 and 4 a.m for 15 years, so a main reason I would
have such long days was that I continued to wake up at a very early hour
instinctively for another two years (and still do at times). I am someone
who needs to feel prepared in all that I do, so I would just use those early
hours as additional prep time, which helped me feel as ready as I could for the
career change and for daily classes. I did not allow myself to have second
thoughts because I knew those first few years would be
challenging. My wife and I agreed that changing careers was a significant
investment that was not to be wasted by quitting after a year or two and taking
the easy route back to broadcasting just because teaching was hard. If I was
miserable after five years, that would have been a different story. I believe
being a more "experienced" first-year teacher (as opposed to someone
coming straight out of college) helped me in the long run. Covering some very
difficult news stories over the years forced me to learn how to leave work at
work. Similarly, when the school days were hard, I was able to leave bad days
behind me when I went home at the end of the day. Twelve years later, I do
sleep better. Most of the time.
Massey- What made you decide to get back into
announcing and doing games?
Brad- Essentially, the
timing was right. The position opened at WGIL when Mike Perry left the station
to work at Knox College; I had been teaching for four years and felt confident
enough in what I was doing that I felt I could handle the additional load of a
part-time job. I missed broadcasting, but I missed broadcasting the games with
my very close friend Jim Lee even more, so the stars aligned and General
Manager Roger Lundeen was gracious enough to let me return.
Massey- In my opinion, you are VERY good
doing play by play. You are polished and easy to listen to. You are better than
some of the people doing national broadcasts. Was it ever your dream to become
an ESPN type sports?
Brad- First of all, I am
truly humbled by the question, and I honestly don't know how to say "thank
you" in a way that truly conveys how much that compliment means to
me. Traveling all over the place doing a "game of the week" or
just doing whatever was assigned to me is not something that ever appealed to
me. As a kid and early in my career, my ultimate goal was eventually to
have a play-by-play job with a Major League baseball team (preferably the St.
Louis Cardinals).
After meeting and marrying
my wife Kelli, who is a Galesburg native, my priorities changed and I realized
my life goals were far more important than my career goals. As a community,
Galesburg offers what I value as a place to live and to raise a family.
Geographically, it's close to both Kelli's family and mine, which is something
I did not want to sacrifice. I don't think I would have minded the travel
that's associated with having a major sports announcing job as long as I would
have had the stability of covering one team or program during
a season and living in that team's community; looking back on the
trajectory of my life and how and why things have changed as they have, I might
have grown weary of that as well.
Massey- As a high school coach, sometimes I
can get frustrated by refs and the thought goes through my mind that I should
just run on the floor and go nuts- and get kicked out of the game. So far
rationality has prevailed and I have not done this. It seems to be so easy for
announcers to get upset with refs and then just obsess. I am so impressed, you
have always "told it like it is", without becoming a whiner about
refs. Do you have similar thoughts like me- where you say this is the game to
go off on refs? As you look back, have there been games in your career where
you were really close to losing it?
Brad- I want to be there -
if it ever happens - when you just "run on the floor and go nuts - and get
kicked out of the game." I think it would be impossible not to rank your
outburst up there among my favorite memories of any sporting
event. Again, thank you for the compliment because "telling it like it
is" is what I have strived to do over the years. I acknowledge that I am a
"home" announcer for the Silver Streaks or, on occasion, for other
local teams when our stations have covered them, so I can't help but lean
toward telling the story of a game more from that team's perspective. That
doesn't mean, though, that I abandon my reporter's perspective.
Becoming a fan would
diminish my responsibility as a broadcaster. Becoming a fan makes it too easy
to get caught up in the mentality that "The refs are against us." At
times, yes, I have questioned calls. Other times, I have said
a referee made the wrong call, but that's only when I clearly saw what happened
- and usually because I had a better view of the play than the official did. I
don't make a big production out of it, though. Usually, I'll make a simple
observation that Team A "got a break" there, or the crowd or the
coach "clearly disagrees" with the call.
My philosophy about
referees has not changed: they have a very difficult job because someone is
always going to be upset when the whistle blows. They are human, which means
they are imperfect, so I am not going to sit there and harp on them any more
than I am going to harp on a kid who makes a bad turnover. I refuse to be a
part of instigating or escalating anything against a person on any level. Lord
help me if anyone started to analyze all of the mistakes I make because I make
plenty.
Massey- You have covered lots of games
at GHS. As you look back, what have been some of your favorite games or most
exciting to cover?
Brad- Over the years, as
Steve Cheesman and I have discussed at times this season,
the games and the memories
really blur together. However, I have to start with the '97-'98
boys basketball season. The Supersectional game against Rockford Boylan that
went overtime is among my "favorites" from that year. I don't
know if I'll ever have a more special privilege in sports broadcasting than
getting to call the Streaks in the state championship game just a few
days later. The 1994 Regional championship victory against Richwoods and
Purdue-bound Mike Robinson (which also went overtime) is among the first I
remember as being really special.
Being a part of both
broadcasts for the girls' and boys' Charleston Holiday Tournament championships
in back-to-back wins over Teutopolis in 2010 was a lot of fun. And while I have
called football games that had more down-to-the-final minute drama and were
more naturally exciting (such as knocking off #1 Peoria in the 2016 regular
season finale), being able to call the football team's first-ever playoff win
the following week is something I will always be proud to have been a part of.
Massey- You have done lots of
interviews or listened to your partners do lots of interviews. Who is on your
list of best, most interesting, or most entertaining interviews?
Brad- I always took great
pleasure when I would have the chance to talk to Harley Knosher. He is easy to
talk to, fascinating to listen to and learn from, and it never felt like
"work." While I rarely had the chance to talk to him in an official
capacity since we didn't cover Monmouth College basketball, I couldn't help but
be entertained any time I would interview Terry Glasgow. Mike Reynolds is also
entertaining, but because I interview him all of the time, it sometimes ends up
being more of a hoop that we both jump through than flat-out fun. Both Terry
and Mike have great facial expressions that often communicate something
humorous that is intended more for the interviewer than for the audience.
I also enjoy talking
football with Tim Dougherty. Over the years, not a lot of coaches have taken
the time to share their philosophies about the sport they coach and how they
approach the many different aspects of their job. I have enjoyed learning
from Tim his strategies of coaching both kids and the game itself, and how his
experiences have shaped the coach he is today. Both Tim and Mike have been very
generous with their time to help me understand how they go about developing a
program and teaching kids, and sometimes, just talking about life.
Massey- If you had the opportunity to
interview anyone in the sports world, who would you love to interview?
Brad- I would have loved
to have had the chance to interview Stan Musial. If I had to pick an athlete
living today, I'd go with Michael Jordan. He has a wide variety of experiences
that make him far more layered than someone who just played the game, was
successul, and then retired. In all that Jordan has done across multiple
sports, at many different levels, both on and off the field, there would be a
lot to talk about. For that reason, I think announcers would also have some of
the most interesting stories to tell -- guys like Bob Costas, Al Michaels and
Jim Nantz because they have covered multiple sporting events at all
levels.
Massey- I am not a Cardinal fan (unless
they are playing the Cubs), but I am jealous of the Cardinal organization. I
look at the Cardinals in baseball, the Spurs in basketball, and the Packers in
football- none are in major markets but year after year they compete for
championships. What do you think it is about the Cardinal organization that has
enabled them to have so much success?
Brad- Like any successful
operation, I really think the story starts at the top. Back in the late 80's
and early-to-mid 90's, the Cardinals ownership was more invested in brewing
than baseball, and the product on the field suffered. The new ownership that
took over in the mid-90s was local, and it understood, respected
and valued the importance the community placed on the team. Green Bay's
community ownership of the Packers is legendary. San Antonio, although I'm not
as familiar with its ownership group, seems to have a similar investment in the
entire community. They all built from the top down and back up again. It's not
this simple, but the similar theme among all three seems to be a genuine and
sincere interest and investment in the fan base, not just putting together a
roster of players from one year to the next.
The Ricketts ownerhip of
the Cubs is following the same path – approach the entire organization
and operation -- and it looks like the Astros are doing the same. The Marlins
clearly have not. While they have won two World Series titles since the 1993
expansion, what have they done to build a truly loyal and dedicated fan base?
Some of the greatest enjoyment I have had covering high school sports is seeing
a community unite through its student-athletes. Professional franchise
ownerships that execute a similar approach -- win, yes, but unite the fan base
through the team -- seem to me to be the most successful.
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