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Al McCoy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Allen Leonard McCoy (1933-04-26)April 26, 1933 Williams, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | September 21, 2024(2024-09-21) (aged 91) |
| Other names | The Voice of the Suns |
| Education | Drake University University of Iowa |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Years active | 1950–2023 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Sports commentary career | |
| Teams |
|
| Genre | Play-by-play |
| Sports | |
Allen Leonard McCoy (April 26, 1933 – September 21, 2024) was an Americansportscaster who was theplay-by-play announcer for thePhoenix Suns of theNational Basketball Association from 1972 to 2023.[1] The2022–23 NBA season was his 51st and final season. He is the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA history.[2]
Along withChick Hearn,Hot Rod Hundley andKevin Calabro, he was among the last of NBA broadcasters to have beensimulcast on bothtelevision andradio, before league-officials ended the practice in the mid-2000's[3] and McCoy's broadcasts became exclusive to radio andonline streaming via theSuns Radio Network.
His fast-paced, classical broadcasting style coupled with his colorful use ofcatchphrase to distinguish plays has proven influential to a generation of sportscasters, such as leadNBA on ABC play-by-play announcerMike Breen, who remarked of McCoy as "one of my heroes" during liveESPN coverage of the2021 Western Conference Finals.Steve Albert said "I put him up there withVin Scully andErnie Harwell, and all the greats, all the legends."[4]
McCoy is aCurt Gowdy Media Award winner and a member of thePhoenix Suns Ring of Honor. Despite these accolades,The Arizona Republic would later detail the circumstances leading to his forced displacement to the back of the Suns arena upon his final season,[5] after 50 previous seasons on thefloor next to the Suns players' bench in a courtside spot once-named "the best seat in the house" in his own Ring of Honor speech.[6] The Arizona Republic also published a photo gallery showing 90-year-old Al McCoy walking up the long flights of concrete steps to the higher arena location Suns personnel moved him to finish his career.[7]
McCoy was born on April 26, 1933,Williams, Iowa.[8] He grew up on afarm outside the area with noelectricity orrunning water throughout his early childhood.[3] To entertain himself as a boy on the farm, he would often readcomic books or listen to his family'sbattery-powered radio.[3]
At an early age, he became enamored with both the local andnationally-syndicatedsportscasts picked up through the area'sAM radio frequencies. The sounds of golden-age broadcasters likeBert Wilson,Don Dunphy,Bill Stern, along withPat Flanagan,Jack Brickhouse andHarry Caray, would propel his childhood imagination, provide future inspiration and fuel a lifelong passion forsports and broadcasting.[3] As a growing boy, he would sometimes prop himself on the farm's fence posts and broadcastfantasy play-by-play for a crowd of the family's pigs and cattle, imagining himself atChicago Stadium,Madison Square Garden or famedBoston Garden.[3]
In 1945, he attended theWorld Series between theChicago Cubs andDetroit Tigers. In the fall of 1948, he attended his firstNational Basketball Association (then-known as theNational Basketball League) game as theWaterloo Hawks hosted league-MVPDon Otten'sTri-Cities Black Hawks, and would soon witnessGeorge Mikan play in-person during another game in Waterloo.[3] He continued to scan the radio dial every night to hear theJoe Louis big boxing fights of the era,Cubs broadcasts, nationalfootball, basketball, or any and every other sport he could gettuned through hisreceiver. Concurrently, as an active youth with a basketball hoop now-propped up in a tree on the farm, he made the starting line-up of his high-school basketball team for three seasons, playing the position ofpoint-guard. His high school Coach Chuck Lovin remembered McCoy as a "good shot" who was "intense" about everything he did in high school, from athletics to school plays.[3]
Around the same span of time, at the age of 14, he began playingjazz piano in a variety of local and touring small-piece andbig bands at local area dances in themidwest-territory for extra income, a side-gig he would continue throughout college that would routinely have him home by 2.a.m. for 7 a.m. classes.[3] One memorable night, he played as a sideman to famed jazz trumpeterRoy Eldridge, who remembered and recognized him immediately upon their second meeting many years later, as McCoy attended a concert alongsideAl Bianchi &John MacLeod following a Phoenix Suns game.[3]
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He attendedDrake University, majoring inDrama-Speech and minoring inBroadcast Journalism.
Drake University did not formally offer a radio or broadcast major at the time, so McCoy signed up for as many radio classes as he could. During his first year of classes he begged hisprofessor, the head of the radio department andDrake Relays announcer Jim Duncan to let him borrow a universitytape recorder so he coulddemo his play-by-play during a campus basketball game. Assuring McCoy it could wait until his junior or senior year, Professor Duncan relented after weeks of McCoy's ongoing persistence. Dropping his recording off early the next morning and eager for his professor's critique, he waited another couple weeks until finally being called into Duncan's office, who now demanded to know how long McCoy had been calling basketball games. Impressed by the level of detail in his first play-by-play recording, Duncan became McCoy's early supporter andmentor from that date forward.[3]
Also during his freshman year his first job in radio was atKJFJ inWebster City, Iowa, and he was soon hired byWHO in Des Moines, Iowa, working the night shift where was subsequently told by the person who hired him that he did not have a future in broadcasting, demoted from "on-air" talent and moved to production staff.[3]
Shaken by the experience, but undeterred from following his childhood dreams, McCoy left WHO for smaller family-run stationKWDM to strengthen his play-by-play for a variety of different sports.[3] Amidst transition, he first encounteredChick Hearn, then-broadcaster forBradley University, at a Bradley-Drake basketball game. The two would remain friends until Hearn's death in 2002, buying each other dinner when either were inPhoenix orLos Angeles for their future respective NBA teams, often reminiscing on their early days broadcasting in the midwest. McCoy would later credit Hearn along withMarty Glickman as “blazing the trial” for basketball broadcasters in his Naismith Hall of Fame speech.
In 1954 McCoy graduated from Drake. Testing his luck out west where some of his relatives had relocated, he spent a summer looking for radio work inPhoenix, Arizona and laterDenver, Colorado. In both locations he found could not even land a single job interview and playedpiano to support himself, before applying for a graduate assistantship at theUniversity of Iowa.
During and following the year of graduate school McCoy ran the gamut of employers, bouncing around more local Iowa stations likeKXIC where he kept area connections[9] and as of 2007[update] was still a frequent guest on "Two Guys Named Jim"—a sports-talk show on WHO.[10] He would eventually move from Iowa City, toWJJD inChicago, toWHLD in Niagara Falls where he commenced broadcasting a “Steve Allen-type”piano-meets-disc jockey show forBuffalo, New York that was rejected by WHO. Three weeks after moving toNiagara Falls amidst a decade of constant transition and upheaval, he found stability in the form of Georgia Shahinian, born Koharig Shahinian, meeting her at a birthday party for a mutual friend. The two soon found themselves inseparable, and quickly became a daily part of each other's lives.
As his radio contract in Buffalo was set to expire, McCoy got a tip fromNew York Giants play-by-play broadcasterRuss Hodges that the team would be relocating toSan Francisco as theirTriple-Afarm team moved toPhoenix, Arizona.[11] Both men felt McCoy had a good shot of securing the job. With major life decisions to be made quickly, Georgia & Al McCoy were soon wed, hitching their lives on atrailer attached to his '54Ford with noair conditioning, headedsouthwest in thesummer of 1958.
After getting married, Al & Georgia McCoy moved toPhoenix, AZ in the summer of 1958.[3] He was soon hired byKOOL, scheduled broadcaster for thePhoenix Giants, and he worked as the host of night-time radio shows for the station until the team completed their own move to thewest coast.[citation needed]
With the Phoenix Giants, McCoy broadcast the only baseball game in history to be postponed due tograsshoppers, who collectively gathered around all the surrounding sources of light and placed the ball park in a shroud of darkness. McCoy described exiting the ball park grounds as “like driving around insnow. There'd be a drift of grasshoppers in the street. you'd start sliding around.”[3]
McCoy was occasionally visited during Phoenix Giants broadcasts by then-San Francisco Giants ownerHorace Stoneham, who often told McCoy he would become the next “Voice of the Giants” inMajor League Baseball.[3] When the job was eventually offered, talk of a potential move of the team away from the west coast caused McCoy to decline, believing it to not be the “right fit.” During another period in time when the Giants job was again presented, McCoy briefly contemplated broadcasting both Suns and Giants games, planning to make a decision later, but was ultimately glad he did not.[3] He would eventually one day fill-in as play-by-play for the San Francisco Giants for one single game, during a night the Suns were not playing.
TheTriple-A team would also eventually leave Phoenix for Tacoma, WA due to a dispute over construction of a new ball park, while McCoy remained in Phoenix. Once the park was built, the team returned. In the interim five years without the Phoenix Giants, McCoy became "One of the Good Guys", aDJ onKRUX 1360 AM. While on KRUX in the 1960s he also did play-by-play forASUSun Devil's football and basketball.[3] On local television stationsKTVK andKTAR-TV, he didring announcing work forboxing fights held at Phoenix Madison Square Garden, and also someprofessional wrestling commentary for the regional territory.[3]
McCoy parted ways with the Phoenix Giants three years after their return to Phoenix in 1966. He would eventually return to baseball some 32-years later with theArizona Diamondbacks during the club's first season in 1998, paired withJoe Garagiola.[citation needed]
As theWestern Hockey League expanded to Arizona in 1967, McCoy also began broadcasting for thePhoenix Roadrunners during the Giants' off-season. Less experienced with hockey, McCoy served as a color-commentator for two seasons before learning to do play-by-play for the ice on-the-fly after his broadcaster partner Jim Wells fell through a shower door. McCoy found he enjoyed doing hockey play-by-play, and Wells' agreed that it would be a better fit if they switched roles after his recovery.[3]
As his ongoing commitments to the Phoenix Giants, the Phoenix Roadrunners and other radio stations transitioned, he began to observe a “buzz” in the city over a potential new NBA expansion team and quickly made inroads to secure a job with the new franchise as it was officially announced in 1968.[3]
Al McCoy served as the play-by-play "Voice of the Phoenix Suns" for 51 consecutive seasons, or every season excluding the first four years of franchise existence. He became a fixture ofPhoenix media and localpop-culture as the central broadcaster for the Phoenix Suns on both radio and television until 2003, when Suns TV and Suns radio became separate media.[12] McCoy continued to broadcast on theSuns Radio Network through the2022-23 NBA season.[citation needed]
For 50 consecutive seasons (barringremote broadcasts during the pandemic) hisofficial arena broadcast location had been stationed courtside, adjacent to the Suns players' home bench, as recent as May 2022.[13] He stopped broadcasting road games in 2019 due to difficult vantage points at higher locations in other NBA arenas.[3]
On October 2, 2022, his home broadcast location was moved higher up in the Suns arena, just beneath theskyboxes in theFootprint Center.[14]
In the fall of 1966 McCoy completed his first NBA broadcast during apreseason game atArizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum between theSt. Louis Hawks andGolden State Warriors. Thrilled by the idea of professional basketball in Phoenix upon announcement of the scheduled game, he phoned the Hawks GM and brokered a deal for his then-employerKOOL-FM to broadcast the game in exchange for freeadvertising spots, making sure to record his broadcast as a demo for a potential future in basketball.[3]
Two years later in 1968, thecity of Phoenix was granted an expansion team that would become the Phoenix Suns. Immediately, prior to the start of the first season, McCoy slipped then-General ManagerJerry Colangelo a recording of that 1966 preseason game. Colangelo was blown away by what he heard and wanted McCoy to handle play-by-play for the team on planned broadcasts on localKTAR-AM andKTAR-TV.[3] Tired of moving around from radio gig to radio gig, and seeking stability for his now-family of a wife and three sons, McCoy suggested Colangelo retain broadcast rights instead of selling them to another station, the routinesportscast policy of the time. McCoy suggested producing everything in-house, which was a new concept for the era. Colangelo liked McCoy's pitch, but after inaugural season tickets were underselling, he ultimately decided to sell the rights to KTAR.[3] Believing it was no longer the right move, McCoy declined working out a separate deal with the station.
Following multiple changes in Suns broadcasters over the next four seasons, GM and head coach Jerry Colangelo would eventually agree with McCoy about the Suns organization producing their own broadcasts, realizing he was often competing with the radio and television stations for Suns advertising.[3] With one year left before the broadcast rights reverted to the organization, McCoy agreed to a contract with the Suns as Vice President of Broadcasting.[3]
On September 27, 1972, McCoy broadcast his first game with the Suns, alongside Hot Rod Hundley, during the NBA preseason hosted byABA team theUtah Stars.[3][11] Initially, McCoy would handle production of both the radio and TV broadcasts by himself. He would hire a television crew in each city for road games after arriving in the destination city. He handled his ownaudio engineering and would, on an occasion or two, have to broadcast games viatelephone due to technical difficulties. He helped sell advertising and would meet with any potential clients alongside Jerry Colangelo. McCoy observed "maybe 8 people in the entire front office" when he was hired, first-hand witnessing the Suns organization's gradual and eventual growth into a company that now employs hundreds.[3]
The first Triple-Overtime game inNBA Finals history, Game 5 of the1976 NBA Finals at Boston Garden, was memorable in many ways to McCoy, who broadcast the game directly beside a group of rowdy, inebriatedCeltics' fans, one of whom passed out on McCoy's lap amidst the frenzy as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" byGar Heard sent the game into league-history. McCoy deftly pushed the fan off his lap and onto the floor mid-sentence as he continued his broadcast unabated.[3]
He was also courtside, live on the air for the second Triple-Overtime game in NBA Finals History during Game 3 of the1993 NBA Finals between theCharles Barkley-led Phoenix Suns andMichael Jordan'sChicago Bulls.
The NBA's adoption of theThree-point field goal in 1979 would prove as influential to McCoy's career as it would to modern basketball itself. Upon its integration into the league, McCoy viewed the shot as the equivalent of ahome-run inbaseball. Noting that every baseball announcer has their own "signature call" for home-runs, he questioned what his NBA call could be. Thinking back to his childhood on the farm, his favorite comic bookCaptain Marvel and the moment mild-mannered Billy Batson transformed into the mighty Captain Marvel by shouting the word "SHAZAM!" to a flurry of thunder and lightning, McCoy believed this phrase - an acronym for the first initials ofSolomon,Hercules,Atlas,Zeus,Achilles andMercury - would convey the proper level of enormity and distinction he felt the shot deserved.[3]
In July 2003, after 31 years of being simulcast on both television and radio, the Suns organization relented to growing NBA pressure to end the simulcast format after then Suns General ManagerBryan Colangelo felt a younger presence would be better suited to TV.[3] McCoy agreed to move to radio-only broadcasts on the previously establishedSuns Radio Network and was replaced on television play-by-play with Tom Leander, continuing with McCoy's then-color-commentator and broadcast partnerEddie "EJ" Johnson.[12]
Al McCoy continued to broadcast on radio and online web streaming exclusively, paired with former SunTim Kempton (SeeSuns Radio Network).[citation needed]
On the December 30, 2005, game against the Chicago Bulls, McCoy's consecutive broadcasting streak officially ended due to illness when he woke up in Chicago with a hoarse throat. After finishing his pregame show, it was decided to run mostly audio of the TV broadcast with McCoy adding commentary for small moments, fully returning to the airwaves by the next game.[15]
He was honored by theNaismith Hall of Fame on September 5, 2007, when he became the 17th recipient of theCurt Gowdy Media Award for broadcasters at a ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts.[15] He thanked his college professor, his high school basketball coach and Jerry Colangelo in his induction speech, and also highlighted the work of fellow basketball broadcastersMarty Glickman andChick Hearn.[3]
The next month, on October 5, 2007, then-team presidentRick Welts and Suns managing partnerRobert Sarver unveiled the Al McCoy Media Center, its walls and pillars adorned with photos, history, play-by-play quotes, and words of encouragement and respect from fellow NBA broadcasters honoring the life and career of Al McCoy, in the newly renamed arenapressroom.[16]
McCoy returned to television play-by-play for one night on August 22, 2014, broadcasting theWNBA playoff opening game between thePhoenix Mercury hosting theLos Angeles Sparks forNBATV.[17]
On October 26, 2016, during a Suns home game against theOklahoma City Thunder, he officially became the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA History, surpassing Chick Hearn of theLos Angeles Lakers previous broadcasting record.[18] At halftime of the record-setting game, the arena ran a video montage before Suns managing partner Robert Sarver announced that McCoy would become the 15th member of the Suns Ring of Honor, as McCoy wiped a tear from his eye.[18]
He was inducted into thePhoenix Suns Ring of Honor on March 3, 2017, the Suns dedicated their game-winning performance to McCoy, a night which included special messages to McCoy from former SunsSteve Nash andJason Kidd during timeouts, and a halftime honor from the vast majority of fellow Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor members.[19] In his induction speech, McCoy thanked the organization, the fans and emphasized that "every player that has ever put on a Suns uniform... is special to me, always will be," adding that he still very much feels the thrill of the game when the ball goes in the air, concluding,
If you will continue to accept me, and if God keeps smiling on me, I'm just gonna keep going.[19]
On March 2, 2022, he was again honored by the Suns with "Al McCoy Night"[20] in celebration of his 50th Season with the franchise, during a home game against thePortland Trail Blazers. Video tributes played in the arena, on Suns television and posted on social media featured messages fromNBA commissionerAdam Silver, theInside the NBA crew, and Steve Nash along with former and current Suns players. Longtime Suns TV color-commentatorEddie Johnson shared memories of working together with McCoy in his first years on the job, during the last years of thesimulcast. And for one brief moment of a segment, the simulcast was brought back to television for the first time in 19-years as Suns TV ran audio of the live radio broadcast accompanied by live video of McCoy at courtside describing the action. Not interrupting his radio broadcast and during an untelevised timeout, McCoy was given a standing ovation by screaming fans at the Footprint Center as Suns P.A. announced his name to the sold-out arena.[citation needed]
The next month, immediately after the Suns set a new franchise record for the regular season on April 5, 2022, Suns playerDevin Booker went to the side, signed his game jersey (writing "To Al, the legend. Franchise record!") and presented it to Al McCoy at his longtime courtside broadcast position (which would end upon his removal from courtside on October 4, 2022),[21] as he shook both of McCoy's hands and congratulated him, saying "50th season, baby! Franchise record. Love you, man. Appreciate you, for real."[22]
Five days later on April 10, 2022,Mayor of PhoenixKate Gallego issued an officialproclamation declaring the date as "Al McCoy Day" in the city of Phoenix, in honor of his 50th season and "to say thank you for guiding us through so many Suns victories and helping us celebrate with a 'Whammo' or 'SHAZAM!' when we needed it the most."[23]
On December 17, 2022, he served as the Grand Marshal of the 2022Fiesta Bowl Parade.[24]
McCoy was vocal in his opposition of NBA teams andNBA arenas increasingly moving the broadcast locations for radio crews away from thefloor and placing them in locations high above courtside where portions of thecourt are partially obscured.[3] McCoy states in many of these arenas as a result it's difficult to keep track of thethree-point field goal. He often highlights a story of broadcasterJoe Tait telling his listening audience during a live play-by-play call that the three-point shot was good "by a player to be named later," due to the angle inTD Garden blocking vantage beyond the three point arc.[25]
McCoy wrote in hisautobiography that he prefers broadcasting courtside not only for the complete view of the court, but also because it enables him to keep on top of personnel changes, player andcoach interactions, clarification ofreferee calls, and the general flow of the game for the listening audience.[3]
When fellow broadcasting veteranHot Rod Hundley's courtside position for theUtah Jazz was moved higher up in theVivint Arena following the conclusion of theUtahsimulcast in 2005, he retired a mere four-years later by 2009 due to the increased strain on his hips and knees. In an essay included in McCoy's autobiography, Hundley described offering fans seated around him hisbinoculars, writing "It's terrible from upstairs. We make mistakes. On thefloor you would never miss a beat."[3]
At the start of the2010–11 NBA season McCoy began reducing his road games schedule for "select East Coast road trips." By the2018-19 NBA season he had decided to retire from broadcasting road games altogether. When asked in an interview with ESPN announcerDave Pasch why he has elected to stop traveling, McCoy stressed the increasingly poor broadcast locations for radio broadcasters and emphasized,
Over the last couple of years I had decided that I didn't want my career to end when the listeners or the viewers would say "What's wrong with McCoy, doesn't he know who's shooting three-pointers or what's going on?"[25]
On October 2, 2022, ahead of the2022-2023 NBA Season, Al McCoy's Suns home game broadcast location since 1972 and as recent as the2022 NBA Playoffs in May 2022[22] was moved from its longtime courtside position on the floor to higher up in the arena,[14] many rows up at the back of the 100s sections, closer to theskybox-area of theFootprint Center.
Video confirming McCoy's new distant broadcast location was posted to theArizona Sports official YouTube channel on February 24, 2023, recorded during a post-game interview withIsh Wainright.[26]
McCoy was married to his wife Georgia until her death in 2012, and they have three children. He also had seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.[8]
McCoy died on September 21, 2024, at the age of 91.[11]
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Locally, until he retired, withinPhoenix-Metro city limits, Al McCoy's live broadcasts could be heard during Phoenix Suns home games onflagship station 98.7KMVP-FM or streamed online at the KMVP-FM website, ArizonaSports.com, withroad game play-by-play by Jon Bloom.
Nationally, his broadcasts were available onSirius-XM in the48 contiguous states.
Globally, they were available onNBA League Pass Audio, anywhere NBA League Pass is offered.
The Suns Radio Network is also syndicated on variousAM andFM stations across the state ofArizona, as well as portions ofNew Mexico andSouthern California.[33]
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