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Bill King | |
|---|---|
 King in 1994 prior to an Athletics game atOakland–Alameda County Coliseum. | |
| Born | (1927-10-06)October 6, 1927 Bloomington, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | October 18, 2005(2005-10-18) (aged 78) San Leandro, California, U.S. |
| Sports commentary career | |
| Team(s) | San Francisco Giants (1958–1962) San Francisco/Golden State Warriors (1962–1983) Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (1966–1992) Oakland Athletics (1981–2005) |
| Genre | Play-by-play |
| Sport(s) | Major League Baseball National Basketball Association National Football League |
Wilbur "Bill"King (October 6, 1927 – October 18, 2005) was an American sports announcer. In 2016, theNational Baseball Hall of Fame named King recipient of the 2017Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters.
King was the radio voice of theOakland Athletics for more than 20 seasons as well as the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for theOakland/Los Angeles Raiders and theSan Francisco/Golden State Warriors. Earlier in his career, he had been a member of theSan Francisco Giants original broadcasting team (together withRuss Hodges andLon Simmons) when the Giants moved west from New York in 1958, and had called football and basketball games for theUniversity of California.
King was widely recognized by his distinctivehandlebar moustache andVan Dyke beard, as well as his broadcasting catchphrase, "Holy Toledo!".
King was born inBloomington, Illinois, and was stationed on the island ofGuam at the end of World War II when he began his broadcasting career with theArmed Forces Radio Network, converting play-by-play accounts of games as they came in over the wire and broadcasting them in a manner that made it sound as if he were actually at the game. After the war, he began his professional sportscasting career inPekin, Illinois, broadcasting high school football and basketball games as well as Minor League Baseball games. In the early 1950s, King served as the lead play-by-play announcer onWTAD 930 AM inQuincy, Illinois. He later announced basketball games forBradley University and basketball and football games for theUniversity of Nebraska. King moved to the Bay Area in1958, when theSan Francisco Giants hired him as an announcer.[1]
A major turning point in King's career came in1962, when thePhiladelphia Warriors of theNational Basketball Association moved toSan Francisco and hired him as their play-by-play announcer. King announced Warrior games from1962 to1983, through theWilt Chamberlain,Nate Thurmond, andRick Barry eras and the team's first NBA Championship on the West Coast, in1974–1975.[2]
Franklin Mieuli, the owner of the Warriors upon their transfer to the Bay Area, had worked with King on Giants baseball onKSFO and the Golden West Radio Network, serving as executive producer for the broadcasts.
King was not shy about disagreeing with the referee's calls during the course of his play-by-play work, and was a notorious ref-baiter. In his most infamous incident, he used an expletive on the air to describe a referee's call, and the Warriors were charged with a technical foul. He may be the only professional sports announcer ever charged with an infraction during the course of play.[3]
In1966, while continuing to call Warriors games, King was hired as the play-by-play announcer for theOakland Raiders, then of theAmerican Football League, a post he held until after the1992 season. For a time, he commuted to Los Angeles when the Raiders relocated to Southern California from1982–1994. He announced the Raiders' threeSuper Bowl victories, as well as countless other memorable games.
Perhaps King's most famous call came during the Raiders' infamousHoly Roller game against theSan Diego Chargers on September 10,1978. In the final seconds of the game, RaiderquarterbackKen Stabler tossed the ball forward, andtight endDave Casper grabbed it in the end zone for a disputed, game-winning touchdown. King's description:[4][5][6]
The ball, flipped forward, is loose! A wild scramble, two seconds on the clock...Casper grabbing the ball...it is ruled a fumble...Casper has recovered in the end zone!! The Oakland Raiders have scored on the most zany, unbelievable, absolutely impossible dream of a play!Madden is on the field. He wants to know if it's real. They said yes, get your big butt out of here! He does! There's nothing real in the world anymore! The Raiders have won the football game! The Chargers....they don't believe it. Fifty-two thousand people are stunned. This one will be relived forever!
Another famous call came on November 8,1970, whenGeorge Blanda came off the bench in the fourth quarter against theCleveland Browns, threw for a tying touchdown with less than 2 minutes left, and kicked the winning field goal as time ran out. King reacted by declaring "George Blanda has just been elected King of the World!"[7]
Though carrying a substantial workload as the announcer for two professional sports teams, King was persuaded by the new owners of theOakland Athletics to become their lead announcer in1981. King continued to call Raider and Warrior games, though he retired as the Warriors' announcer after1983 and left the Raiders after the1992 season when he and the team's new radio rights holder, Nederlander Sports, couldn't come to an agreement on an extension. According to the Los Angeles Times, Nederlander Sports offered King just $50,000 per season, which King's agent, Hugh Lawrence, said was an "entry level" figure and would have been 47% of what he made the season before.
For the first 15 years as A's announcer, King was paired with another legendary Bay Area sports announcer,Lon Simmons, with whom King had worked briefly with the Giants in1958. He was there during the "Billyball" and "Bash Brothers" eras, as well as theMoneyball era of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Former Athletics announcerGreg Papa, who worked alongside King for 13 years, says of King:
Bill is without a doubt the best radio play-by-play announcer I have heard in all of sports. His energy, preparation, his thoroughness, his word choice—he is without peer.
King was often described as a Renaissance man who was a voracious reader, loved to watch the ballet and opera in his spare time, and studied Russian history. He lived inSausalito, California, and would often go on long sailing trips in the baseball off-season on his ketch, Varuna.[8]
King's trademark phrase was "Holy Toledo", which he used when a stupendous event occurred for the team he was announcing for. Other well known calls are "Not in your wildest alcoholic nightmare would you ever imagine such events unfolding!" which he said during anOakland Athletics game against theTexas Rangers and "Crazy...just plain crazy!" which he voiced whenScott Hatteberg hit his walk-off home run against theKansas City Royals to push the Athletics’ historic win streak to twenty games. He also described a grinningJohn Madden as a "slit watermelon" as a compliment when Raiders won the Super Bowl in 1977 with Madden as a coach.
King died of apulmonary embolus inSan Leandro, California, on October 18, 2005, at the age of 78.[9][10] Although King had long refused to reveal his age, a search of the Social Security Death Index revealed he had been born on October 6, 1927[11] a year also confirmed by his son, Michael.[12]
On November 1, 2005, in conjunction with theOakland A's,Golden State Warriors, andOakland Raiders, a private ceremony celebrating the life of Bill King was attended by family, friends, and the media atThe Arena in Oakland. There were performances by theSmuin Ballet and tributes from Bill's former broadcast partners.Hank Greenwald, who worked with King during his Warriors tenure, was the master of ceremonies.
The most memorable tributes were from Greenwald,Ken Korach, and Raider ownerAl Davis. In his speech, Korach mentioned that King had three rules in his broadcasts. He hated it when an announcer mentioned a "grand slam home run", because saying "home run" was redundant; he disliked the usage "early on", believing that the word "on" was unnecessary and grammatically incorrect; and he never liked to be thanked by his broadcast partner when he "tossed" to him for his innings. Korach said, "sorry partner, but thanks for everything."
Al Davis gave arguably the most commanding and entertaining eulogy. When he first met him at Raider training camp in 1966, Davis didn't know what to make of the small-statured King with his handlebar mustache and beard, who was sitting shirtless on a blanket and holding a yellow pad making notes of what the players were doing on the field. "You've got to be kidding me!" Davis said. "What could this little fella possibly know about football?" Noting that it's a rare day when all three Oakland teams are represented in one room, Davis said, "To think it was Bill King who brought us together. Bill King never played for the Oakland Raiders, nor did he play for the Los Angeles Raiders. Nor did he wear the famed colors of silver and black. If he had worn them, he would have worn them with poise and with pride and with class, because he was a star." Davis added that King gets a cloak of immortality, because time never stops for the great ones. He said it was his dream to have a sold-out stadium seating 1 to 2 million Raider fans, all listening to the voice of Bill King.
Bruce MacGowan of radio stationKNBR also gave a moving speech about how he met King through Lon Simmons and even worked as a Raider statistician in the early 1970s. He once asked King for a ride home and noted how beat-up King's car was. On the drive toMarin County, MacGowan noticed that there was a draft, even though the windows were rolled up. To his dismay, he discovered there was a hole in the floorboard by his feet. MacGowan asked how long King had been driving his car. King replied, "I just got it a week ago. No sense in paying more than $250 for a car."
In the 2006 Oakland A's season, the A's players on their home white jerseys bore a patch depicting an old-style radio microphone with a yellow sunburst around the microphone and the words "HOLY TOLEDO" across the center which was King's signature call on a home run, and at the base of the microphone was the name KING. A sign was placed above the radio booth with the same logo, and was unveiled Opening Night by colleagues Ray Fosse and Ken Korach. Subsequently, the radio booth at theOakland-Alameda County Coliseum is the "Bill King Radio Booth". On Opening Night, a video tribute was played on the Diamond Vision screen, and in lieu of the ceremonial first pitch, Bill King's chair, a baseball, and his headset were on the pitcher's mound.
During the 2017 season at the Coliseum, a sign was installed in the centerfield wall just to the right of the 400 foot marker depicting the worlds "Holy Toledo" in a script font. The sign's lighting effects are controlled by a large button in the home radio booth. WhenKen Korach deems a great Oakland A's play Bill King worthy, he presses the button, and the sign flashes. It can also be used for other occasions during the course of the game, as controlled by the A's production crew.
Besides the tributes, there was a Bill King "uncensored" segment which really opened up some eyes as the audience heard King's off-air banter with his broadcasters, which included some rather colorful language. The best segment was the actual audio call of the "Mother's Day" incident from the Warriors' game at Seattle on December 6, 1968. King was outraged by (ostensibly) poor officiating from officialEd T. Rush in his rookie season. After several calls had gone against the Warriors, King took off his headset, turned off his microphone, cupped his hands and yelled a certain expletive at Rush. Unbeknownst to King, the crowd mic was on and Bill's insult went over the airwaves. The Warriors were assessed a technical foul and ownerFranklin Mieuli later had to pay a fine to theFederal Communications Commission for the incident.
King is one of only three people ever awarded both aWorld Series ring and aSuper Bowl ring. The others wereBob Sheppard, the long-time stadium voice of theNew York Football Giants andNew York Yankees, and sports executiveLarry Lucchino.[13]
As noted in theSan Francisco Chronicle, "King was believed to be 78. The lack of knowledge of his exact age was one of the many quirks that made King one of the great characters in Bay Area sports."[14]
Bill King was a member of the first class of inductees into theBay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2006.[15]
On December 7, 2016, he was named the 2017 recipient of theFord C. Frick Award by theNational Baseball Hall of Fame.[16]
TheNFL Network named King the #6 greatest NFL announcer of all time.
In August 2024, King was inducted into theOakland Athletics Hall of Fame.[17][18]
In September 2013, Wellstone Books released Ken Korach'sHoly Toledo – Lessons from Bill King: Renaissance Man of the Mic.San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins wrote that the book "beautifully captured" King;[19] Lowell Cohn, of theSanta Rosa Press-Democrat, said it was "soon to be a legend among sports books";[20] and Bay Area News Group columnist Carl Steward calledHoly Toledo a "fabulous, engaging read."[21]
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