Interview with Paul Rogers, January 16, 2013

PR: You know what? Let me turn off my phone, so it won't ring at least.

JF: [inaudible] right here. Here we go. We're taking care of business here, getting phones taking care of and everything.

PR: Modern nuisances.

JF: That's right. That's right. Well, this is Wednesday, January 16th, 2013. We are at WHAS Studios, actually at the desk where Paul Rogers does his stuff. We're talking to Paul Rogers, veteran sportscaster here in Louisville and a fellow who's been around WHAS now... I guess you're the longest, tenured current employee, is that right?

PR: I am. I'm in my-

JF: When did you start?

PR: I'm in my 40th year. I started-

JF: Are you kidding?

PR: I started in August of 1973.

JF: Here at HAS?

PR: Yep.

JF: Oh my god, I didn't realize it.

PR: This is where I am and where I've been. People say, "Where else have you worked?" I say, "Nowhere."

JF: This is it.

PR: This is it.

JF: I didn't realize it's been that long.

PR: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

JF: Oh, wow. That's great. Well now, you're from Louisville.

PR: Grew up in Louisville.

JF: Go to school here?

PR: Went to Eastern High School. Went to the University of Kentucky which is 1:00ironic since I now do-

JF: U of L basketball and football.

PR: ... the Louisville games, but it's been a labor of love. It's fun to work in your hometown because there's so much history that you know without having to look up, and I think you have a great feel for what's important and what the people get tuned into, which is timely now with Louisville being ranked number one for the first time ever.

JF: In basketball-

PR: So things are good.

JF: ... and had a great football with the Sugar Bowl. We'll talk about that a minute, too. Well now, Paul, your dad is with us here, too. Bob Rogers is with us. Did you grow up with a basketball and a football and a baseball in your hand? Were you a sports nut?

PR: Absolutely.

JF: I know you're a great golfer. Did you start playing golf at two years old [crosstalk]?

PR: I wish I had started golf when I was younger. Unfortunately, I didn't get into that till I was an adult. By then, I had too many habits to ever break. No, I was-

JF: I think you do pretty well.

PR: I'm still working on it. But I was your basic, as everyone was in that era, late '50s, early '60s, three-sport guy: football, baseball, basketball. Baseball was probably my best sport, but I remember playing them all. I remember playing for a church softball team that Dad coached.

JF: Oh, really?

PR: In fact, they were older boys at the time. They needed somebody to fill in, and I came in and played a few games when they needed a player or else they'd have to forfeit the game, and I'd fill the plug at right field or something.

JF: Yeah, right field.

PR: I mean sports has been part of me as long as I can remember. Dad was always around. Helped coach Little League baseball.

JF: You're the only son. You have two sisters-

PR: Right, two sisters.

JF: ... in the household. Were your sisters athletic at all?

PR: Not especially. My older sister had some interest, but neither of them have ever played. Of course, there weren't that many opportunities for women back then as well. My younger sister, I don't recall ever really having much interest in sports.

JF: Well now, Bob Rogers is your dad. Bob, when he was growing up, obviously involved in sports with him, did you think that some day he would be doing what he's doing today?

BR: No, tell you the truth, I really didn't. [crosstalk 00:02:53] he was-

PR: It was a surprise to me.

BR: Well, I knew he always loved sports. Back then, I really thought I don't know if he can make a living just doing sports. I didn't think that there'd be that opportunity. Although, the one good thing about raising Paul was there was no doubt what he wanted to do when he grew up. He had a one-track mind, and that was something in sports. But he was also very good in math, science in school and I thought maybe he can make a career in that. I didn't know.

BR: I remember one time I'd just help found our engineering company, [Vicock 00:03:34] Engineers. We had a new project that I was heading up down in Brandenburg, Kentucky, at Olin-Mathison. Paul was a senior in high school at that time. I thought, "I need to show him some other options besides sports. I'm not sure he can make a living doing just sports." So I asked him to go with me one day down there on a Saturday. I had to go down there on the job to do some work down there. I took him with me. He met some of the engineers there, and we 4:00spent the day there. On the way back, we stopped at the Doe Run Inn for lunch. I don't know if Paul remembers this or not.

PR: I do.

BR: But he said, "Dad, I want to thank you for taking me down there because it helped me make up my mind. I know I don't want to do that."

JF: What I heard, that was a defining moment.

BR: It was a defining moment.

PR: It was for both of us actually. What's interesting is is I know now as an adult exactly where he was coming from. When I have young students come in and want to be a sportscaster, I look at them and think, "Do you know what the odds are of you getting to do this?" I look at me and I say, "Do I know what the odds are of me doing what I'm doing?" It's incredibly low. I'm incredibly lucky, and I treasure it every day.

JF: Well, I heard a story before we started recording here about you would do play-by-play when you were playing basketball out in the driveway or something.

PR: Oh, yeah. We had a basketball goal up over the garage and played all the 5:00time, snow, rain, sleet, you name it. Usually while I was playing I was calling the game at the same time, too.

JF: And always the 10 seconds to go, the [crosstalk].

PR: Oh, sure. Of course, I always made the game-winning shot.

JF: Sure, that's right. That's right.

BR: Let me just mention one other thing. It was about that time when, was it Mike Pratt and Dan Issel, these fellows were playing for Kentucky, and he was a UK fan growing up. He kept a book of statistics of every game.

PR: That was actually back in the Runts.

BR: [crosstalk].

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: That was the Runts, the Louie Dampier crew.

BR: That's right. It was the Runts.

JF: Wow.

BR: He kept a little booklet of statistics of every game: shots made, shots taken, free throws, everything.

PR: I did it by listening to Cawood.

JF: How about that? You were in training. So you went to Eastern High School and went to UK. Were you involved in sports at all at UK, or were you working at a radio station or television station or something?

PR: I played high school sports, basketball primarily. I actually tried out for UK's freshman team. Joe B. Hall was the freshman coach then. That's when they 6:00had freshman teams. I actually made it to the last cut.

JF: Is that right?

PR: I got a job at the radio station, the student station at UK beginning my sophomore year through the advice of actually of Cawood. I had met with him, and he suggested I do this, go talk to them. Fortunately, they had a guy who was doing sports who was a senior when I was a freshman. He left. I auditioned for the job. Got it. So for three years at UK, I did a daily sports show and broadcast the home basketball and football games.

JF: Really? Wow.

PR: So when I got out of college, I had three years of experience that very few college people have.

JF: Big time experience.

PR: As luck would have it, right at that time HAS had an opening, and Cawood Ledford hired me, and I was on cloud nine.

JF: Oh, wow. I guess you were. Now, what time frame was this?

PR: This was the summer-

JF: Late '60s?

PR: Well, I got out of-

JF: You were in school. You were in school.

PR: I was at UK from '69 to '73.

JF: Who were on the basketball teams since you were calling the games for them?

PR: My freshman year UK had a number one ranked basketball team that Dan Issel 7:00and Mike Pratt played on. Actually, it was the next year, though, that I started doing the games. Those teams were good. That was right at the beginning. I'm trying to get my years straight.

JF: Was Adolph Rupp still there?

PR: Rupp was still there. Joe B. took over my senior year.

JF: Wow. [crosstalk] a lot of-

PR: So I did two years of Rupp and one year of Joe B.

JF: That was a heck of a bridge there.

PR: Yeah.

JF: Yeah, very good. So you had met Cawood already, and you had some contact. HAS had an opening, and you came to work. That was a big step to go from college... Of course, I didn't realized you'd had the experience you had.

PR: Yeah, it was huge. It was odd. I was actually working that summer as an intern at WAVE, which like us back then was TV and radio like WHAS was TV and radio. I was a news intern, but they knew I liked sports, and they would give me the opportunity to do sports occasionally. I got to know Mike James who was a sportscaster at WHAS at that time. I didn't really know what I was going to do after that summer. Toward the end of the summer, he said, "I think we're going 8:00to add a man to our sports department. You should call Cawood." So I did. Fortunately, I'd gotten to know Cawood a little bit from being at UK, and he knew who I was, just another young kid out there, but at least he know who I was.

JF: He had an eye for talent.

PR: So I went and talked to him. Left him an audition tape. A couple of days later my phone rang. I'll never forget this. My mom answered the phone. She said, "Paul, telephone." Picked it up and, "Paul, this is Cawood Ledford." I went, "Oh, wow. This is pretty neat." His first words, I remember it vividly, were, "Boy, have you improved," because-

JF: Is that right?

PR: ... he had critiqued some earlier tapes for me.

JF: Wow. That's some praise from Cawood Ledford.

PR: So I'm already getting kind of excited. He said, "Can you come down and see me?" I said, "Sure," I think the next day. He never really actually said, "You're hired." He just started telling me all the stuff that I was going to do. I said, "Okay."

JF: What did you do? Were you radio and television?

PR: Uh-huh. We all did both.

JF: Who was in the...? Cawood and was Van [crosstalk]?

PR: Cawood and Van Vance and Mike James were the sports people back then. Mike 9:00was the main TV anchor. Cawood did UK. Van did Colonels. They needed someone also to do U of L games at that time. Now, we all did some of everything, but those were kind of your primary niche roles. So I did the Louisville games for one year. Then we lost the contract, and so I got phased into doing more TV and did weekend TV and continued to do sports on radio and the like. Eventually, over time the Colonels folded. We got the U of L contract back. Van Vance, who'd been doing the Colonels, did the U of L games until he retired, and then I took over the U of L games after that.

JF: What was-

PR: It took me 20 years to get back to where I start, which was doing the darn ballgames.

JF: Let's talk about Cawood a minute. Cawood was obviously a very special guy to UK fans. He was just a man of integrity and everybody... Talk about your experience with Cawood a minute.

PR: Couldn't meet a better boss, friend, mentor, whatever. You learned so much just by listening to him. He was very willing to help but would not interfere. I 10:00mean he wouldn't come tell you how to do a game, but if you had a question, "Cawood, how do you do this? What do you think about this?" he was always there to offer advice.

JF: Interesting.

PR: You just saw how much everybody respected and admired him. He was such a professional. He was a great person to have grown up listening to and then to learn from from a closer standpoint as a boss as well.

JF: It just occurred to me, we're talking about basketball and football, but you've done horse racing, too. You've done the Derby and races at Churchill Downs. How did that happen?

PR: That happened because of Cawood. He wanted somebody who could relieve him. At that time we were doing a feature race every. Of course, in November he'd be gone for football games, and they wanted somebody. He said, "I want you to go out and call races." Well, I was petrified, but I didn't know any better. I had found out later he'd tried to get a lot of people to do it. Nobody would.

JF: Nobody would.

PR: But I was too young and dumb to know better. I just thought I was supposed to go do it. So I went out and practiced a few races and eventually got to where I was filling in for him. I remember after he did the 1983 Kentucky Derby he 11:00said, "Rook..." He used to call me Rook for rookie all the time. He said, "Rook..."

JF: After all these years, you're still Rook.

PR: Yeah, still. He said, "That's my last Derby." I said, "What?" He said, "My eyesight's just not real sharp." He said, "That's my last Derby. It's yours from here on." So I've done every one since 1984.

JF: Is that right?

PR: I'm about to turn it over. My eyesight's beginning to wain a little bit.

JF: Tell me a little bit about calling a horse race. That's so different from most things, or it seems to me it is. How do you sort all that out when you got 20 horse on the backside and you're [crosstalk].PR: It's the hardest-

JF: You have a system for that?

PR: It's the hardest thing to do. It is for me anyway, and I think most people would agree. You just have to go by name and colors, associate what the jockey silks look like and that horse. The easier part about the Derby is you've watched these horses all winter and spring, but the hard thing is there's so darn many of them. They do get jumbled up together, and you get a lot of similar colors. When you got 20 horses, not everybody is going to be a whole lot different. There's going to be some that look similar. So it's a challenge, and it's tricky, but it's a great thrill.

JF: You have to like when it's at the top of the stretch and hear those hooves start coming down there.

PR: In all honesty, there's not that many people in terms of the world population that has called a Kentucky Derby, so that's a special thing to know, too.

JF: I forgot was I was going to ask you, something about... Oh, we're going to talk about basketball and football games in a minute. But what about memorable Derbys? Anything that stands out in your mind? Are they all memorable to you?

PR: Yeah, they're all memorable. It's hard for me to pick one. Several come to mind. For some reason, I've always really liked my call when I hear of the 1997 Derby that Silver Charm won. It was a close stretch run that he held on and won over Captain Bodgit. The year before, Silver Charm, who was trained by Bob Baffert... Bob Baffert had a horse named Cavonnier who looked like he was going 13:00to win the Derby, and Grindstone came flying and won in that photo finish. But that's the only Derby I've seen that didn't know who won. Nobody knew. The photo finish was that close in that Derby. That was really exciting, too. But they're all so exciting and so special in different ways.

JF: Do you look forward to it, horse racing?

PR: Oh, yeah, yeah.

JF: Derbys [inaudible].

PR: I get pretty nervous.

JF: That's a lot of responsibility.

PR: But fortunately, actually because of the national rights, we do not have the rights to call the race live, so I'm just taping it for our archives. So if I really botch one, no one would ever really know. I'd find a way to... "Well, I don't know what happened to that tape. I can't find it."

JF: Tricks of the trade. Let's go back a minute and talk about... We're sitting right now, the studio is on Bishop Lane, but you started down when HAS Radio and Television were together down at 6th and Chestnut. What was that like? You had radio and television all together there.

PR: We're all nostalgic. We pine for the old days. It was different. It was neat. That's when you had radio and TV were together and the Courier-Journal and the Standard were right next door. They were all owned by the Binghams. As I 14:00said, we were all interchangeable in terms of the radio and TV. Now we're here. Now we're separate. But there are eight different radio stations in this building now owned by Clear Channel. But that's the world. It changes. You adapt. It's a whole lot different in terms of the structure, in terms of the corporate structure and all. Fortunately, for me it really has changed very little. I've kind of always done what I do and thankfully without a whole lot of interference from above. I guess I've been around long enough they say, "He's figured it out," and nobody really bosses me around too much here.

JF: Well, we're sitting here recording on a digital recorder. The equipment has changed in the 40 years. Talk about that some. What'd you start out with?

PR: A huge difference. Actually we used some reel-to-real some back then still.

JF: Is that right?

PR: As far as portable for doing pre-game interviews and on-site interviews, we used cassette recorders back then. Transferred to ones that were called carts that were played back. Got those in the studio. Now, of course, everything is put into the computer and played back on audio files. So the technology has changed greatly.

JF: When you travel, do you have an engineer that travels with you? What equipment?

PR: In football-

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: In football, we do travel with an engineer because it's a bigger production. We have a sideline guy which adds a whole other element. In basketball, generally on road games I do my own engineering. We use a pretty basic set up, so I don't do anything too elaborate.

JF: Did you have any moments where-

PR: All the time.

JF: ... [crosstalk] happened or interrupted or all that sort of?

PR: Frequently. That's always something you're fighting, or if you're not fighting, you're worried about it. The best feeling is when you go plug everything in and hook up and it says, "Connected." You go, "Ah, thank goodness." But you go and the phone system won't work, or a phone line won't work, or there'll be a glitch somewhere.

JF: You're trying to concentrate on a ballgame-

PR: Exactly.

JF: ... and now you got to solve these things.

PR: That can be a little distracting.

JF: Tell me about the building we're in here now. You got eight radio stations in here.

PR: We've been in here, how long now? Gosh, I don't know, 10 or 12 years. I 16:00can't remember exactly when we moved.

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: Maybe longer than that. But I still get lost in this building.

JF: It's a big place.

PR: As you said, there's eight radio stations plus there's offices. It's a place that's laid out in kind of a maze-like fashion. I still will come to an intersection, and if I'm not going from point A to point B, but maybe I stopped off for something, I have to get my bearings again and think, "Wait a minute. Which way do I go here?" But it's a lot different. You got a lot of people here all working for a lot of the same common goals.

JF: One of the things, as we came in, Denny Crum was sitting in--Shay--in the cafeteria.

PR: What we used to call the Shay Cook, if you-

JF: That's right, Shay Cook.

PR: One of the other stations here is 790, WKRD. This is where Joe B. and Denny do their show from. That studio is right literally across the hall from the WHAS studio. In fact, I do a little bit every morning.

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: It's still takes me a while to get used to this of going to different radio stations.

JF: I hear you on WKRD. I hear you do a sports report and then two minutes later 17:00I hear you on [crosstalk].

PR: People say, "Boy, how did you get there so fast?" Well, it's about four steps. I go across the hall and do a bit with Drew Deener every morning.

JF: [crosstalk] you have to adjust a little bit to remember what you said before or who you're saying it to and everything.

PR: It's kind of different working for both, but it's all the same owners. The money goes to the same people, so we're all supposed to do the best we can for whichever station we're on.

JF: Well, let's see. You've also got traffic in here and the Kentucky News Network I [crosstalk].

PR: Right, yeah, all those, there's lots here.

JF: Well, you went to UK and wound up doing all the U of L games. Any challenge with that or anything?

PR: There hasn't been. It's been so long. I obviously don't hate UK. I grew up a fan. Went to school there. But I really don't have the personal ties there. None of the people are there now who were there when I was there. All the people I know and work with are at U of L. I love the university and what they've done 18:00there. It's-

JF: Boy, haven't they done [crosstalk]? You worked with several... Who was the athletic director when you first went in there?

PR: When I first came it was Dave Hart. He was the AD. Been through several ADs, Bill Olsen and Tom Jurich were the primary ones. Numerous football coaches, all of whom have been uniquely different but lots of fun in different ways.

JF: Who was coaching when you first started?

PR: T.W. Alley-

JF: Really?

PR: ... who was succeeded by Vince Gibson-

JF: I remember that.

PR: ... who was succeeded by Bob Weber followed by Howard Schnellenberger, Ron Cooper, John L. Smith, keep going here, Bobby Petrino-

JF: Bobby Petrino.

PR: ... Steve Kragthorpe and now, of course, Charlie Strong.

JF: That's pretty good. That's very good. We've had-

PR: I've only had two basketball coaches in all that time.

JF: That's right. At least you got a break there.

PR: Denny Crum and Rick Pitino.

JF: Talk a minute about when Howard Schnellenberger came. That was, I think, in most people's minds think it was a turning point in U of L football. What were your experiences with that?

PR: He was a real visionary. Howard gets a lot of credit for where U of L is now. He sort of started people thinking it could be done here, and you had a guy 19:00like Tom Jurich come in and build things up phenomenally and various coaches and people along the way. But Howard was the guy who came in and I think got people to thinking "Wow." He dreamed big. Howard's a man who got the stadium built. He was a highly entertaining man, really-

JF: Still is.

PR: Still is, yeah. Really, really liked him. He was a lot of fun to work with. Understood the media. Knew what to say, how to say it.

JF: Kind of put everything together, didn't he?

PR: He was a lot of fun. There are very few football games that I broadcast that something doesn't happen that brings to mind a Schnellenbergerism in my brain.

JF: Wow, wow. That's amazing. You broadcast the Fiesta Bowl then, I guess, didn't you?

PR: I did. I did not do the play-by-play on that game. Van was doing the play-by-play then, and I was actually doing color on that game.

JF: That was a special moment. I remember here at HAS we had a planeload of fans 20:00that went out. I got to go with them. We flew out that morning, came back that night. That was an unbelievable [crosstalk].

PR: That was one of the first times... You talk about the way Louisville fans just completely overran New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, which was so exciting. But the Fiesta Bowl was sort of the first time that happened for football where a bunch of people went somewhere. Now, many of them, like you did, went the day of the game. It was just expensive to go to Phoenix and stay a few days, so they actually put together some charters that flew out that day, if I-

JF: [crosstalk] where you get out.

PR: But I remember the team coming out on the stadium there in Phoenix and the throngs of Louisville people who got up and cheered. It was like, "Wow. This is really something neat." There's some debate, was the biggest game that one or the Sugar Bowl or whatever? I was kind of leaning toward the Fiesta Bowl for a while because it was the first time on the big stage. But then considering the caliber of team Louisville beat in the Sugar Bowl and what they're set up to do down the road, I'm kind of leaning toward the Sugar Bowl as maybe the biggest win. But it would never have happened if you'd not had that Fiesta Bowl and all the building blocks along the way. That's why it's so hard to say the best or most important or biggest of anything because it doesn't get there unless you have those that take you there along the way.

JF: That's right. You mentioned you did color for Van. Who are some of the people you've worked with over the years and who have been your partners?

PR: I actually did sidelines for several years with Van. Then for one year I moved up into the booth because the person who was doing color at the time, who I believe was Steve Corso who is Lee Corso's son-

JF: Oh really?

PR: ... left. So I went to booth, and we brought in Doug James, and he did sidelines. Well, I heard about one game with that, I said, "Guys, we got the wrong guy on the sidelines." So the next year we moved Doug into the booth as Van's color man. The next year Van retired, and I took over football. Then Doug and I worked together for seven years.

JF: That was a great team.

PR: Had a great time together. He had to leave and Craig Swabek, a former 22:00player, joined me. We did 10 years, and we had a great rapport together. Since Craig, I've had a hard time keeping people. I don't know if I'm getting old and crotchety or what, but we've had several people come in. Actually, I joke, I say, "If you want to pursue your coaching career, come be my color man." Because they do it a year and they seem to get a job somewhere. Anyway, my partner now is Joe Tronzo, a former Louisville player, does the color with me and Doug Ormay has been with us for several years as our man on the sidelines.

JF: What about basketball? Who you worked with [crosstalk]?

PR: I started with Jock.

JF: Jock Sutherland.

PR: ... until Denny retired. Jock was a character. Oh, he was loads of fun. Jock was a great aid to me. He'd worked the games many years with Van, but I knew Jock.

JF: Jock was a former coach himself.

PR: Yes, he coached at Lexington and Lafayette. Won a state championship. Got involved in radio. He's such a colorful character. People loved him. He would spin his yarns.

JF: Loved or hated him.

PR: Yeah, true. But when Van retired and I took over, Jock immediately came to me and said, "Look, if you want to keep me, I'm happy to do it. If you want 23:00somebody else, it's up to you. Whatever you want to do." I wouldn't dare have changed anything. He was very helpful. Did anything I needed and asked. Anyway, when Denny retired, Jock decided he would retire also. That's when we brought in Bob Valvano.

JF: Oh, yeah.

PR: So Bob and I've doing the games for 12 years now. He does have a number of conflicts with ESPN games in which time usually Doug Ormay then fills that slot.

JF: Basketball coaches, you've worked with two. Talk about that a little bit.

PR: Two brilliant coaches, two very different people. Denny was as laid back as a coach could be in terms of dealing with us. I'm not saying he wasn't an intense basketball coach. He was. But he would come out and do the post-game interview, and you rarely could tell the difference if they won or whether they lost. With Rick, we pray for wins because he is no fun to talk to after losses. But a great guy, loads of fun. I'm not sure people know how fun-loving Rick Pitino can be because he is such an intense and competitive guy. He's intensely 24:00loyal to his friends, to his family, to his coaches, to his players, and he's been a real pleasure to work with, too.

JF: Well, I got to church with your dad, and your dad was telling me a story once about after one of the particular games last year, year before last. Louisville had lost, and you got a call at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, "Let's go play golf," or something. What was that?

PR: We had a little break-

JF: It was a loss.

PR: Well, it was actually after a win that he had decided he wanted to do this little golf getaway. They had a break, and he wanted to go recruit a player in Florida, and he wanted to go play golf. He asked me if I could go. I said, "Heck, yeah." We did have one more game to play, which we lost, and he was not happy right then. We got on the plane, and by the time we got down there things were better.

JF: He had worked out some-

PR: There were four of us. It wasn't just him and me. There were two other friends of his, too. By the time we got down there... He kind of needed a little getaway. We all did and had a nice little time together. He doesn't take many breaks during the season, very few.

JF: I was going to ask you about, talk about coaches, what are some of the memorable players that you've watched in football, first of all, that you've had the pleasure of calling? You've had some great people.

PR: Man, there's too many to mention.

JF: It amazes me the number of people from Louisville who've gone on to the pros, and you called many of them.

PR: When Charlie Strong came here and he started going back, he's really big on tradition and values and what's been done, he was amazed at how many former Louisville players have played in Super Bowls. I think it's in the 20s.

JF: Is that right? Wow.

PR: But I can even go back to... I saw Tom Jackson play here. They've had a great line of quarterbacks, and the one they got now might be the best one of all, Teddy Bridgewater. But you go back through Brohm, Redman, LeFors-

JF: Nagle, [crosstalk] Nagle.

PR: ... Nagle, I mean just so many of them. I mean there have been the good defense players come through here, linebackers, defensive ends, Frank Minnifield, a cornerback.

JF: Did Deion Branch-

PR: Deion Branch played here.

JF: [inaudible].

PR: Branch went on to be a Super Bowl MVP. There's been a lot of great football 26:00players. I mean basketball, gosh, again, just a list that goes on and on.

JF: When you're calling a game you think, "This guy has got it, that this person is going to go on to another level"? Can you spot [crosstalk]?

PR: Most of the time I just don't think that way. I mean certainly there are guys you see and you know they're big-time players. But there have been guys that you don't necessarily think that about who then do go on to make it in the pros. I'm the world's worst talent evaluator. I'm just not good at projecting. That's not why I'm not real big on recruiting. It's the coaches' job to get them here. It's my job to learn them once they get here, and then when they move on, best of luck.

JF: They've been replaced. I want to ask your dad a question here real quick. Bob, what's it like to be...? You saw this kid playing basketball in the rain and the snow and doing play-by-play, what's it like to sit home and listen to him on the radio? Because you've got a special device, haven't you, that let's you-

BR: Actually, he gave me that for my birthday. It's where you can... It's very 27:00frustrating without it. I like to listen to Paul on the radio, but when he's 10 or 15 seconds ahead of the picture-

JF: If you're watching the television-

BR: ... it's very frustrating. So he gave me. It's called a SportSync radio.

PR: What you call?

BR: Which I called the DVE, the Dick Vitale eliminator. Now I call it the BKE, the Bobby Knight eliminator.

JF: I didn't know you were such a techno geek here, Bob.

BR: Well, it's a great device to have because now I can listen to Paul. I'm very proud of Paul and what he has done. I think he does a great job calling the games. So it's a real pleasure to listen to him.

JF: Do you go to some of the games?

BR: No, I'd rather stay home and watch them and listen to him on the radio.

JF: In the comfort of your home and you got your son doing it.

BR: It's really enjoyable to listen to him, and it makes me very proud.

JF: I'll bet it does. Paul, when you first came here, you worked at a station that was owned by the Binghams. Of course, there's a lot of history here. Any comments on your association with the Binghams when you were there? Did you have any contact with them?

PR: I really had very little contact with the Binghams personally. They ran the company the way a family ran companies years ago. Profits weren't there foremost concern. Yeah, they wanted to make money, but they didn't have to make 50% on the dollar. They would make 6% to 7% on the dollar. They were very involved in journalistic integrity. Put their money into that. It was just different from the corporate environment of today's world where essentially radio stations are owned by banks and accountants who want to make money. You can't really fault them for that, but there are times I do think the quality suffers somewhat.

JF: You work for Clear Channel now.

PR: Clear Channel is a monstrous company, which actually its first major 29:00purchase, they owned a station in San Antonio, WOAI, which is sort of the WHAS of San Antonio.

JF: [crosstalk] San Antonio in what station?

PR: I think owned another station in Connecticut and bought WHAS. That was sort of the big buy that propelled them in them becoming the media mogul they now are.

JF: [crosstalk] San Antonio, yeah. You watched-

PR: [crosstalk].

JF: ... [crosstalk] develop, didn't you? You watched that develop.

PR: We were the big cash cow-

JF: That's right.

PR: ... that sent them on their way.

JF: Who are some of the people, who are some of the managers you worked for over the years here? Who was managing when you first came? Was it Hugh Barr? Was he the [crosstalk]?

PR: Hugh Barr was here.

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: I guess Ed Shadburne was head over everything.

JF: Everything.

PR: Is that right?

JF: Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

PR: I'm trying to [crosstalk] out what structure. Huge Barr was here. Jim Topmiller, he was sales manager. I don't think he was ever a general manager. But Jerry David Melloy, Denny Nugent-

JF: Gary Bruce.

PR: Gary Bruce. I was picturing him and trying to think of him. Kelly Carls now has been... The structure changes so much, but Kelly Carls, who has been here quite some time, is sort of the equivalent now of a program director. He is-

JF: [crosstalk] been there for a while.

PR: Oh, yeah.

JF: Did he ever... I don't want to say interfere but ever give you advice on your sports [crosstalk]?

PR: Some advice but very helpful in many ways. They were always very supportive of me. Never promised me that I would take over the games when Van retired but always gave me the impression that if I hung in there and worked at it I'd be the first guy they'd look at, so I appreciated that from them. So I hung around. Play-by-play is what I love most. I enjoy other things, but that's what I like most. I was really pining away there for a number of years waiting for my turn and frankly looking for some other opportunities. None really came my way.

JF: You're glad now I guess that you didn't [crosstalk].

PR: Yes. When Van finally did decide to step down, they were kind enough to let me move into that spot.

JF: You also stop in in the morning and do sports reports on the radio. You mentioned WKRD, but you've worked with very few morning men over [crosstalk].

PR: Yeah, that's true. They had Wayne Perkey for many years, then Bob Sokoler 31:00for a few years and now Tony Cruise for the last several years. The mornings have changed a little bit, but essentially it's the same. We're a news, weather, traffic, information station in the mornings. The format gets tweaked a little bit here and there to adapt to modern times. For example, remember we used to spend 20 minutes every hour giving school closings. Well, now you just go to the internet.

JF: That shifted everything around.

PR: Right. But essentially I've been doing... I actually started doing morning radio, morning drive radio in '81, so I've been getting up at 4:00 o'clock in the morning for 30 however many years now.

JF: That's right. Even after a game, you've got to be in here. [crosstalk]-

PR: So getting up is not my favorite things to do.

JF: Is that right, Dad? It never was, huh?

BR: He was pretty good.

PR: But the good thing about working early mornings is you don't fight traffic coming to work, you don't fight traffic going home, and it does give you great 32:00flexibility. I'm on the air from 5:00 to 9:00. Now during the season, I'm here considerably longer than that, working on game notes, stat notes, pre-game interviews, what have you. But if I have to leave at 9:00, I can. I can work on all those other things basically whenever it fits my schedule. Frankly, in the summertime I'm rarely here after 9:00 o'clock and that gets me on the golf course by 9:30.

JF: I was going to ask you what you do in your off time. This is a very busy time for you. I know football or basketball especially is nuts with you.

PR: It just keeps you moving all the time. They don't play-

JF: How do you keep it all straight in your head?

PR: It's not that hard other than out-cues. When I'm in that transitional phase invariably I'll do a football game and then go to a basketball game and say, "I'm on the U of L Football Network," and then go to a football game and say, "I'm on the U of L Basketball Network."

JF: You've done some on the same day, haven't you?

PR: I have. There's been a few times that we've done double headers where they'll play a football and a basketball game.

JF: Fortunately, both here at [crosstalk].

PR: Yeah, right. I haven't missed very many, but there have been a few where it's just been impossible where they were... This year, for example, we played the Sugar Bowl the same day as they had a basketball game here. So I've been lucky to not have to miss too many games, and if at all possible, I do try and 33:00do them both.

JF: You mentioned the games, basketball especially, well, in football too, but let's talk about the venues there. You saw basketball at Freedom Hall when you started. A lot of tradition there. What was it like doing [crosstalk]?

PR: Freedom Hall, I grew up there. That was the place I loved. To this day probably the most emotional broadcast I've ever been a part of was that last game at Freedom Hall. It was a perfect storm of circumstances where, first off, an historical arena. Secondly, Louisville's playing the number one team in the country. Third, they had to win the game probably to make the NCAA tournament. They pull all stops. They bought in every living All-American that had ever played here, I think, and the crowd was so revved up.

BR: Wasn't that Syracuse that [crosstalk]?

PR: That was Syracuse. It was ranked number one. There were people literally-

JF: They were playing this Saturday, and they're number one.

PR: There were people literally crying at that game. I had some people say to me, "I don't know how you kept your composure. I was crying." I tape all my 34:00games and listen to them. The next day I'm driving around town listening to the game and tears start rolling down my cheeks when I hear that.

JF: I'm sure, yeah. Very special.

PR: The emotion of that game was something. Freedom Hall was fabulous in its time, but, man, I've never seen a place like the KFC Yum! Center.

JF: Is that right?

PR: It's amazing.

JF: In what ways do you mean that?

PR: Just so bright, so modern, so lively, great crowds there. The fans have really taken to the place. It's such a social place with its abundance of concessions and drinking areas, and the people just love the downtown environment.

JF: Were you surprised by that, that they were downtown? Were you surprised by that, that it worked out well?

PR: I won't say I was... Maybe a little pleasantly surprised. I think it was what I hoped it would be.

JF: Really?

PR: I was not a naysayer by any means, but I just didn't know. I mean people were all worried about the parking and the like. For the most part it's been, you come in, you park, you hang around, and people seem to really enjoy it. It's just been an environment that the people have really gotten tuned into, and it's 35:00great fun to do games there.

JF: You talk about how technology has changed. Freedom Hall was not necessarily built for broadcast, but I'm sure that was a big consideration that the Yum! Center is, I would think.

PR: There's not a whole lot you can do with basketball. The thing, as a broadcaster, that I like is a little room. I recently did a game at Connecticut where I was in a little bitty table. I didn't have room to put my papers down, and they wouldn't bring me a stat sheet. But here we have plenty of space. We do have a lot of notes and stats to keep up with. The more you can have them in front of you rather than having to shuffle through papers in your lap, the easier it is.

JF: With football, you started... was it Fairgrounds Stadium? Was that where you started calling games there?

PR: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.

JF: Fairgrounds Stadium at the [crosstalk]?

PR: My first year was the first year after they built the other bleachers on the other side. It used to just be an L-shaped baseball stadium. Then they built the 36:00bleachers along the other side. That was 1973. That was my first year, and I did broadcast the games that year. Then, of course, Papa John's was built in '98.

JF: What's that like? '98? Is that right?

PR: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

JF: Wow.

PR: Then they expanded it with the upper deck a few years ago. Again, for all the places we go, and we go to some NFL stadiums in Tampa and Pittsburgh and other places, as far as a place for the media to work in terms of just convenience, site lines, space, the media assistance and the like, none better.

JF: I'm jumping around here a little bit, but I was just thinking about what a seat you have for the Kentucky Derby, too. Where are you situated for that?

PR: It is good, but I tell you what. It's not as good since the renovation only because what they did was they glassed in our booth. If you remember, we used to be in an open-air booth. Now we are in a glassed enclosed I call it hermetically-sealed booth, and you really lose the flavor. You don't hear or 37:00feel the crowd, which, to me, is the big part of it.

JF: Sure, yeah. It gets you in [crosstalk].

PR: It's very fatiguing. We do that all-day broadcast, and you just feel so isolated.

JF: You're out there all day, Derby Day and broadcasting all the races.

PR: It's a good vantage point. It's close to the finish line. It's high up. You can see. I just don't like looking through glass.

JF: I'll be darned.

BR: I thought it was kind of neat on the old roof up there where you could go into the-

PR: Called the Plywood Palace.

JF: Oh, that's right.

BR: Yeah, it is kind of.

PR: We had various places up on the roof, various booths. One was literally a temporary plywood shack that they built for us to work in.

JF: Wild, wild. Well, you've had a heck of a career, 40 years here at WHAS.

PR: Yeah, it's been a long run. Cawood Ledford was my hero when he hired me here. Oddly enough I'm now older than Cawood was when he left here.

JF: Is that right? [crosstalk].

PR: I've been here longer than he was.

JF: Wow. I didn't realize that.

PR: It's been just a long, great run. I don't know how long it'll go-

JF: I actually [crosstalk].

PR: ... but I have no intention of stopping soon.

JF: I think Milton Metz was here longer than anyone but probably nobody longer. You may be second in this.

PR: I think I am. I don't know all the numbers. I think Milton was here over 40, and, like I said, I'm in my 40th year. In all of Clear Channel, I'm not sure how many people have been around longer than I have. I'm talking about nationally. Here, I am the elder statesman. Even nationally I may be [crosstalk].

JF: We talked with Helen Huber.

PR: She's number two here right behind me.

JF: Yeah. She's number two. She's behind you. I thought she was a long [crosstalk].

PR: She's trying to push me out the door so she can get the number one.

JF: She just walked by a minute ago. I saw her. I wasn't sure if she was still here now.

PR: Helen's the one who keeps all the commercials playing.

JF: Yeah. She does a great job with that. Well, anything else, Paul, you'd like to add? We talked about special moments, Freedom Hall. Any other special moments that stand out in your mind with basketball or football games? You've called some championship games.

PR: Certainly probably one of the most fun in my professional life was last year, that Final Four run they made. It came so out of the blue. I took a good friend of mine to New York for the Big East Tournament. He'd never been. He was prepared to go-

JF: That's a [crosstalk]. The Big East Tournament is a big thing.

PR: ... and spend the day and come home. Of course, we end up there. We don't come home. They keep winning and winning and winning. So four days in New York City. Won the Big East Tournament. Had a blast. Came home. Got sent out to Portland of all places. It turned out it was a good thing because when they went out to Portland, a lot of fans could not make it, which is unfortunate. It's great when you have your fans with you. But it turned into like a little traveling circus where we went to Portland, won the two games, didn't come home-

JF: Oh, that's right. [crosstalk].

PR: ... went straight to Phoenix, which I didn't know was the plan. I had no change of clothes. Won two games in Portland. Won two games in Phoenix. Bought a shirt at the golf course. Just had an absolute blast as the team just kept winning and winning. It was so much fun. Of course, they bowed out against Kentucky, against a great Kentucky team that won the championship. But that was probably the most... for a month-long, I was hardly home, just on the road, 40:00playing ball games. It was a total blast. There have been many other memorable games: the comeback against West Virginia in Albuquerque to go to the Final Four in '05, the football game when Louisville and West Virginia were both undefeated in '06. Just loads of memories. It would take forever for them all-

JF: Are you a memory keeper? Do you have things at home? Do you have shelves at home with things on them?

PR: I have recordings of virtually every game I've done.

JF: Really?

PR: But I don't keep programs. I don't keep media guides. It's just too cluttery, too much to keep up with. But I do have recordings of virtually all my games. In fact, the summer before last I had back surgery. I couldn't do anything, and I spent that summer pulling out a lot of old games and listening to them. That was a lot of fun.

JF: Wow, what a treat.

PR: The Florida State football game here they won in the rain-

JF: The rain, yeah, yeah.

PR: ... the Kentucky overtime football game, that West Virginia game I mentioned. Those are things I collect, frankly, is the old tapes-

JF: What a treat for the-

PR: ... or CDs as they are.

JF: What a treat for a young guy, though, that played basketball in his driveway, calling games, and for 40 years be able to do that.

PR: You know what's interesting? If you talk to almost every announcer I know... It is kind of a neat fraternity. We all know each other but the different teams. We have great camaraderie and help each other and kid with each other and pull for our teams, but we're all friends. All [inaudible] have the same story: "Yeah, I sat up the bleachers calling the game in my tape recorder. People thought I was crazy." We were all kind of nerdy in our own little way. But fortunately it worked out.

JF: You did a lot of sports, you wanted to be involved in sports, but were your sights set on being a sportscaster and doing that kind of thing?

PR: Yeah, more so. I realized early on I didn't have the ability to play sports at a high-level.

JF: But you wanted to be caster, not a sports information guy. You wanted to be-

PR: Two things came together. I remember when I was about 10, 11, 12 years old and that was, a) I love sports, but was pretty sure I wasn't going to be 42:00professional or even college material, and b) I love to talk. Given a chance to write a written report or an oral report, I always chose the oral. I said, "I like to talk. I like sports. I'll be a sportscaster." It was as simple as that in my mind.

JF: Did you have a plan set out or anything?

PR: Not specifically. Like dad said, I was young and naïve and thought, "Well, that's what I'm going to do."

JF: Were there [crosstalk]-

PR: That's, fortunately, for me, that was [crosstalk].

BR: I thought he'd never make a living at it.

JF: He's done pretty well, I'd say. What about idols? Cawood, obviously, had some influence [crosstalk].

PR: He was the main one because I grew up listening to him and had the most contact with him. But there have been-

JF: Who are some of the sports people that you may not work with but you've heard do games or you had admiration for?

PR: I always loved Dick Enberg when he was in his prime. To me, sports is still meant to be fun, and Dick had this good-natured manner about him when he broadcast games. I always liked him. Maybe the best wordsmith is Vin Scully, the longtime Dodgers announcer. He's a guy who's so smooth and always has the great 43:00expressions and proper way of describing things. There was a lot of good ones. I have Sirius Satellite Radio, and you can hear a lot of announcers for a lot of teams. I think we all like to eavesdrop on each other and see how they do things. There's a lot of [crosstalk].

JF: That's changed it, the Sirius and the-

PR: Yep.

JF: How's the internet affected what you...? Does the internet have an effect on what you do?

PR: Internet, not so much. A lot of games are blacked out on the internet. I'll tell you where the internet has helped most, I can remember when I first started doing games, if I knew I was going to have a game against West Virginia, you would write them a letter a couple of weeks in advance. They would mail you their roster and stats and so on. Of course, now everything's right there on the internet.

JF: You can use your smart phone even while you're in the booth.

PR: Exactly, exactly.

JF: You got it right there.

PR: Right there. Everything's instantly accessible. That's made things... That's the best thing about modern technology I can come up with.

JF: Ever frustrate you once in a while?

PR: Once in a while a whole lot.

JF: Just once in a while. Well, very good. Anything else you'd like to add about 44:00a 40-year career that all your listeners hope will go on a few more?

PR: Just that I'm grateful to the people here who have let me do it as long as they have, and I hope it will continue. These are high times for the University of Louisville athletics that's for sure. It's been great fun to be a part of it, and I hope to continue for however long I can.

JF: What about advice to some young guy who is just in college or coming out of college who are in the position where you were in a few years ago?

PR: I'd tell them what my dad told me, "Get a fall back." Go for it. How can I tell you not to? It worked out for me. As I said, believe me, every day I understand how fortunate I am. If it's what you want to do, pursue it, and hopefully it'll work out.

JF: Your son, Eric, is he a sports guy at all?

PR: A little bit. He was never huge into sports. He just recently moved back into town and got married, and he has become a U of L fan. Oh, he's followed them but is maybe getting a little more entrenched as a fan now that he's here and has more exposure to them. But he was never the diehard sports fan that I was.

JF: So you didn't have to give any advice: Find something else because-

PR: No.

JF: He's done well.

PR: He knew to find something else.

JF: Very good. Well, Paul, thanks for taking the time.

PR: You bet.

JF: We look forward to hearing your broadcasts. I'm sure people over the years will enjoy going back and listening to this, and you'll stir up some memories for them.

PR: Hopefully so.

BR: I had one other questions that I was thinking about earlier. Who was the quarterback when you first started at calling games at U of L? [crosstalk].

PR: Wow. First year quarterback?

JF: The coach was T.W. Alley?

PR: T.W. Alley was the coach.

BR: [crosstalk].

PR: I cannot... I know who it was. It was Len DePaola. He came right after, oh, Corso's good quarterback who I know and his name just-

JF: Ken something. What was it?

BR: I was trying to think that far, '73, right?

PR: Mm-hmm (affirmative). But Len DePaola was the quarterback.

BR: Huh. I don't remember [crosstalk].

JF: Was there an Oyler or somebody? Was there-

PR: Wally was Oyler. I knew Wally Oyler, but he was before that.

JF: Before that, okay.

BR: Wally grew up the same [crosstalk].

PR: Wally Oyler grew up down the street from me on Alton Road, St. Matthews. We played sandlot football and baseball together.

JF: Is that right?

PR: Sure enough.

JF: How about that?

PR: Wally quarterbacked here in maybe the mid to late '60s, I think.

BR: I think that's about right.

JF: How about that? Interesting stuff.

PR: John Madeya, that's the quarterback I was trying to think of.

JF: [crosstalk].

BR: [crosstalk].

PR: Was a really good quarterback under Corso.

JF: I remember that.

PR: Then his senior year was before me and then the year I came in [crosstalk].

JF: You didn't work with Corso at all, did you?

PR: No, no. In fact-

JF: Right across [crosstalk].

PR: Alley was only the coach for two years. I believe his first year was my first year, or was my first year his second year? I can't remember. Corso had already gone to Indiana when I came here.

JF: I came here in '73. I remember when you came in to the station. I remember that.

PR: You were actually the DJ in those days for my very first sportscast. We had a-

JF: Is that right?

PR: ... legendary sportscast that ran at 5:15 every afternoon. It wasn't like the two-minute sports hits we have now. It was like a 15-minute sportscast. It was a daily sportscast that I used to listen to Cawood Ledford every day. My first day at work he let me do that sportscast and you were [crosstalk].

JF: Is that right? I didn't remember that. I didn't remember that. Well, I'm wandering a little bit here, but do you remember, we used to do a sports... On Saturdays, we gave all the scores.

PR: [crosstalk] score '84.

JF: Yeah. Remember that? People were calling it.

PR: It was a blast.

JF: We had wire things. Now, it's on the internet, but you got to [crosstalk].

PR: That was before you had the internet. People wanted to know football scores. We came on after the UK game if they were playing or before and did a two-hour show-

JF: We'd have teletype wire.

PR: ... where people just called in and asked for scores. We'd chat, and we'd get scores.

JF: What did Slippery Rock do today? Somebody would call and ask.

BR: I remember.

PR: We'd look them up.

JF: I was thinking about it the other day.

PR: We had a big chalkboard we would tally the scores on.

JF: That's right.

PR: Like you said, mountains of paper because you're getting score updates. That was a blast.

JF: [crosstalk].

PR: That show was a lot of fun.

JF: I thought the other day if I could get on and get a score from 50 years ago on the internet now, but then you couldn't do that.

BR: The reason I asked about the quarterback, I could not remember a quarterback between Unitas and, oh, let's say, well, the one... The two guys you named, I didn't remember.

PR: John Madeya was a very good quarterback here.

BR: Madeya, I remember. I don't remember the first guy.

JF: Well, all right. I'm sure we'll think of some other things. If we do, we'll turn the recorder back on.

PR: We can always do that.

JF: Thanks, Paul and Bob.

BR: Okay.

JF: Bye.