As long as I can remember, I have always had an infatuation for sports.
Every morning when I was younger, I would get up and hurry downstairs to make sure that I was the first one to grab the sports section; so I could study and memorize all the box scores from the previous nights baseball, basketball, football or hockey games (depending on the season)…I didn’t want to miss a thing.
See, the internet had not come into existence as yet; so I couldn’t just pull up an app to catch up on all of the scores. Newspaper and magazines were my main source of information.
I played baseball, basketball and football growing up (mostly sandlot) while living in a small town in northeastern Indiana just a block from our Elementary School, there was always something to do.
Beside the normal playground equipment, we also had an outdoor basketball court, as well as a baseball field. All you needed to do was pick up the phone and call your buddies and a game broke out.
As time went by I played organized baseball, football and wrestled (but was average at best). Plus, I didn’t reach 5′ tall until I entered the eighth grade. I picked up golf my freshman year and played it throughout my time in high school.
I spent a lot of my free time listening to the Cincinnati Reds on AM 700 WLW during the summer months and switched over to AM 1190 WOWO during the Fall and Winter months to catch Bob Chase’s call of Fort Wayne Komet hockey.
I just knew someday I wanted to broadcast sports; just didn’t know if I would ever get the opportunity.
After graduating East Noble High School in 1981, I went to work at Pizza Hut and the Kendallville News-Sun; then entered the Air Force in 1984 and ended up retiring in 2008.
The year I retired, while attending one of my son’s games in Pace, Florida, there was a man that was handing out flyers for his broadcasting business. He stated that he was looking for a broadcaster in Navarre…this was my opportunity!
Bill Brownell of Panhandle Sports Broadcasting taught me the ins and outs of broadcasting and later introduced me to Robert Williamson (owner of JockJive.com).
Over the last 11 years I have broadcast baseball, basketball, football, soccer and softball via live streaming. For the past six years during football season, you have been able to listen to my own show, Irish Bill’s Twist on Sports from The Twist and Culver’s in Navarre.
This past summer I started up my own website (with assistance from YourTek Professionals) and was invited to come on 100.3 FM, The Ticket Sports Network, on Saturday mornings from 9 AM to 12 PM, for a new show titled, The Southern Gentlemen Sports Show.
Broadcasting has opened up so many new opportunities and friendships for me along the way. I am so honored to be able to share these young athletes stories to those that can not make it to games.
Don’t ever give up on your dreams; you never know when opportunity is going to come knocking.