YOU could be the next Voice of the Blue Devils.
Bob Harris says he’s retiring as play by play man for Duke football and basketball after the 2017 hoops season, which would be his 41st calling games on the Duke Radio Network. Maybe Harris the Hall of Famer wanted to work one more year than Woody Durham, his old high school mate from Albemarle, North Carolina. Or maybe Harris had enough trying to see the dad-gum game from the crow’s nest at the very top of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
So who will succeed Harris? Here are some requirements to calling games on a radio network that, like many other of big-time college programs, people only listen to when they cannot get in front of a TV. You can’t even turn down the sound and listen to the radio these days because the delays of the satellite TV signals are like instant replays. But the next Voice of Duke must do the following things.
One, pretend that Duke did not play basketball before Mike Krzyzewski became head coach there. That’s how Coach K prefers it, so the radio guys have to suffer a case of convenient amnesia and forget names like Groat, Heyman, Mullins, Gminski and Banks.
Two, continue to praise David Cutcliffe as the second coming…of what, a coach who had consecutive winning Duke teams for the first time in more than 25 years. You also have to vote “yes” on the debate over whether Coach Cut should have a statue erected for winning a bowl game in his fourth try with the Blue Devils.
Most importantly, you must follow the long traditions of Duke voices since the days of Wallace Wade and Vic Bubas and sound as if there has never been a legitimate penalty called against the Dukies in football and, of course, no foul when, in fact, the basketball Blue Devils often have five guys all fouling simultaneously. Tradition further demands that the reportage tone of such calls must fall somewhere between moral indignation and severe condescension.
If you can do that and continue referring to the two head coaches as the GOAT – Greatest of All Time – and GORT – Greatest of Recent Time – then send in your tapes. You have a shot.
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