BERKELEY — Joe Starkey, whose radio name of “The Play” within the 1982 Large Recreation elevated his fame amongst faculty soccer followers, says he received compelling proof of that 20 years in the past whereas vacationing along with his household in Rome.
Starkey, who Thursday morning introduced that his forty eighth season working Cal video games this fall might be his final, was poolside on the posh Cavalieri Lodge twenty years in the past, able to take pleasure in a quiet afternoon with a e book.
“In 5 minutes, all the Rolling Stones band joins me on the pool,” Starkey recalled Thursday.
The late Charlie Watts, drummer for the Stones, sat down subsequent to Starkey and the 2 started a dialog. Watts requested Starkey to hitch him within the pool and the 2 stood within the shallow finish, cooling off on a sizzling August afternoon.
Minutes later, actor Lou Ferrigno, star of the TV program “The Unbelievable Hulk,” joined them.
“So I’ve received Lou Ferrigno on my left and a Rolling Stone on my proper,” Starkey mentioned. “And a man jumps into the pool on the different finish. He appears to be like us over and Charlie says, ‘You recognize, they’ll trouble you in every single place, gained’t they.’
“The man comes as much as the three of us and appears us over and says, ‘Aren’t you the Cal soccer announcer?'”
Starkey, who will flip 81 in October, started calling Cal video games for KGO-810 in 1975, when Mike White was the Bears’ coach and their star gamers included Chuck Muncie, Wesley Walker and Joe Roth.
He has been on been on the mic for 538 of the 545 Cal soccer contests since he started, calling his five hundredth Cal sport towards Oregon on Sept. 29, 2018.
“Almost 50 years of calling Cal soccer video games . . . only a legend within the Cal group,” mentioned Bears coach Justin Wilcox, who was born the identical 12 months Starkey started his run in Berkeley.
“I wasn’t going to convey one thing like that up . . . that’s quite a lot of video games, quite a lot of performs, quite a lot of catch-phrases.”
A favourite for Starkey is “What a bonanza!” which he employs to explain an thrilling play by the Bears.
There has by no means been a extra thrilling one than the five-lateral kickoff return that Cal pulled to beat Stanford 25-20 again on Nov. 20, 1982.
Forty years later, Starkey’s frenetic on-air description of the play stays an iconic second in Large Recreation lore:
“Oh, the band is out on the sector!” Starkey shrieked, calling it “essentially the most wonderful, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, thrilling, thrilling end within the historical past of faculty soccer!”
“It’s in every single place. It’s an entrance to conversations,” Starkey mentioned. “I’ve had folks speak about it actually everywhere in the world.”
Cal will honor Starkey in its last regular-season sport towards UCLA on Friday, Nov. 25, dubbing it “Joe Starkey Day.”
The Bears’ schedule is highlighted by a Sept. 17 journey to Notre Dame, the primary assembly between the colleges in 55 years, a visit that has Starkey excited.
“I’m a south-side Irish Catholic from Chicago, so I grew up as a Notre Dame fan,” he mentioned. “That won't be the case this time.”
Starkey started his broadcasting profession in 1972 and has performed radio or TV play-by-play work for the Oakland Seals, the Golden State Warriors, Colorado Rockies, San Jose Sharks and the USFL’s Oakland Invaders. For 25 years, Starkey served as sports activities director for KGO.
He's finest recognized for his work with Cal soccer and the 49ers, for whom he referred to as video games from 1987 by means of 2008, which included reporting the on-field exploits of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Younger throughout an period when the group gained three of its Tremendous Bowls.
For all of these years, Starkey would wrap up a Cal broadcast on Saturday and catch a flight to someplace throughout the nation to work a 49ers sport on Sunday. With all the late-night faculty soccer kickoffs today, Starkey admits he wouldn’t be capable to tackle each assignments.
He mentioned he’s thought of for a number of years when can be the suitable time to name it quits, and he drew on the philosophy of former 49ers coach Invoice Walsh.
“We might all the time speak about when he would reduce guys,” Starkey mentioned. “His foremost mantra was reduce ’em a 12 months early, commerce ’em a 12 months early (relatively) than a 12 months late.”
Starkey didn’t need to be that man who stayed too lengthy.
“I’ve had a heck of a run,” he mentioned, “and I could already be the oldest play-by-play man within the nation, for all I do know.”