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Voice Of The Rams
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Al Roseboro, the voice of Winston-Salem State f<
football, is handling the public address duties a
James Parker).
Sports Profile
Roseboro smil
By DAVID BULLA
Chronicle Sports Editor
RICHMOND, Va. - Al Roseboro, the public address
announcer for Winston-Salem State athletics,
has a smile that equals his resonant voice.
Ask Roseboro to spin a Central Intercollegiate
Athletic Association yarn and he grins broadly.
Although there are so many stories to choose from,
Roseboro, whose job is to dispense information
quickly and concisely like an auctioneer, makes a
fast choice and delivers a neat, little expose.
'There was this big, husky kid from Norfolk
u 1 1 1 ? -
jiois a itw jrcais uawn. tuiu nc mauc a move 10 mc
basket for a layup," Roseboro begins. "As he put
his foot out to make his pivot, his pants split. He
went ahead and made the layup, and the fans
started cheering wildly.
"He wasn't a big scorer or anything, so he
thought he was getting his long-awaited applause.
Then he realized what had happened and tiptoed to
the bench, covering the rip~in his shorts."
Roseboro has seen the bawdy comedy, high
drama and dull moments of every C1AA Tournament
since 1961, when he attended his first
"double-AA" as a senior at WSSU. This week, for
the third straight year, Roseboro's voice will greet
CIAA fans attending the conference tourney. He
and Kenny Gilbert will handle the public address
duties at the Richmond Coliseum.
There are five games Wednesday and four Thursday,
which calls for a tag-team approach. Last year,
Roseboro and Gilbert alternated every half. Still,
the first day takes its toll on an announcer's voice.
"Sometimes I realize I'm getting
partial, so I have to realize it's not my
place to judge the officials.99
? AI Rosehnm
"The opening day is quite a task and I started out
lubricating my throat with sodas/' said Roseboro,
a former Ram football player. "But you have to
drink so many that it's harmful to your health, so I
began substituting with water/'
Roseboro, a health and physical education instructor
at WSSU, made the grade that led to his
hiring by the CIAA with a suave tenor voice and
smooth game descriptions. He makes each announcement
as soon as the official has signaled the
scorekeeper. He also bags unnecessary gab.
"My responsibility is to give the right call quickly,"
said Roseboro, a physical education instructor
and volleyball coach. "My most frequent mistakes
are being redundant, in basketball on foul calls and
in football sometimes I repeat who's quarter backing
during a series. That's even irritating to me.
"Sometimes I realize I'm getting partial, so I
have to realize it's not my place to judge the officials.
I may see that they missed an out-of-bounds
call. It is very difficult sometimes, but you have to
wait for the official's call and help him out by making
the announcement correctly and promptly."
C.E. "Bighouse" Gaines, WSSU's athletic director
and basketball coach, said impartiality has
helped Roseboro earn a reputation as one of the
best public address men in the league.
"We don't get many criticisms of A1 from the opposing
teams," Gaines said. "He does his job so
consistently and remains neutral."
Roseboro said his favorite announcer was the late
David "The Zink" Zinkoff, who was mike man at
Philadelphia's Spectrum.
"It wasn't necessarily his voice or style, but he
brought excitement to the game," Roseboro said of
Zinkoff; who died last Christmas Day. "People
knew, no matter how the game went, he'd make it
exciting. They came from all over the East Coast to _
hearWm.*'
Roseboro, who also does the public address work
at North Carolina AAT's home football games,
said there's a special relationship between the crowd
and the announcer.
t
Dotball and basketball and North Carolina A&T
t the 41st annual CIAA Tournament (photo by
es with his voice
"I don't want to talk too much, but when the
crowd gets involved I know there's a certain rhythm
I have to get into," he said. "I like to draw a little
picture for the crowd and no more. People will tune
you out if you talk too much.
"But 1 also will give them information that they
might not otherwise get, like when Alvin Powell
(now with the USFL's Arizona Outlaw!) played
football here. Linemen don't get as much publicity
as backs and he was an exceptional offensive
t ^ ? . *
uneman. uur linemen ao a lot or pulling, so, when
Alvin led the charge, 1 would say something like: I
'That was all-CIAA guard Alvin Powell leading the
charge>on that fine run by such-and-such.' I guess
I do a little public relations work, too."
Last season, Roseboro put a little extra into his I
descriptions of A&T football games by calling wide I
receiver-return specialist Herbert Harbison "Mr.
Excitement." ~
The voice of the Rams said the most important
aspect of his job is memorizing the pronounciations
of all the names he runs across. In football, that can
be quite a chore. There are between 25-30 new
names each week.
"A lot of players may not get too much attention,
so at least you can get their names pronounced
right," he said. "A night or two before the game,
my wife (Agnes) and 1 go over all the names. She
helps me tremendously."
Roseboro, who was program director at the Patterson
Avenue YMCA in the 1960s, first put his
voice to use on a WAAA radio show titled "Let's
Talk It Over" in 1967. The call-in program primarily
dealt with social issues.
It was more than a decade later before he did his
first P.A. work at a sporting event. One of his most
memorable early efforts was his first football game,
the 1979 WSSU-A&T clash in which the Aggies
prevailed 14-7.
"I thought 1 would have problems and I was anxious,"
said Roseboro, who replaced former WSSU
social science instructor Paul Kuhl as the voice of
the Rams. "There was a lot of pressure because
there were 31,000 people and it was our first game
in Groves Stadium.
"But I have the world's best critics, my wife and
Coach Gaines. They saw to it that I made the proper
adjustments."
Roseboro overcame the jitters and performed
well enough to earn the job for keeps.
"A1 can deliver anytime," Gaines said. "He also
puts a little imagination into it."
Roseboro inherited his voice from his father, A1
Roseboro Sr. The elder Roseboro headed the gospel
group the Bell Jubilees, which featured blues singer
Nappy Brown. The younger Roseboro does a little
singing and plays the guitar for fun.
Yet, his favorite entertainment is the CIAA Tournament.
If there's one game he'll always remember,
it's the semifinals of the 1967 tourney at the
Greensboro Coliseum, in which archrival AAT
upset Earl'Monroe-led WSSU.
"We thought we could not be beaten that year
because it was the PearPs senior season," he said.
"He was averaging something like 43 points per
game at the time. He was so exciting and he did a
few spin moves that brought the house down. But
he only got something like 28 points that night and
the Aggies won.
"It was our only loss of the season, because we
went on to win the national rhamninnchin "
Roseboro said, beaming one of his frequent smiles.
Roseboro says one of the best sports voices these
days is ESPN color analyst Dick Vitale, another
perpetual smiler.
"Vitale's taking the place of (Winston-Salem
native Howard) Cosell," Roseboro said. "He tells
it like it is. Some like him, some don't."
Although Roseboro's approach to mike work is
much different from Vitale's gregarious style, one
gets the feeling he appreciates the excitement Vitale
has brought to college basketball.
And that he hopes he does the tame.
*
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Chronicle, Thursday, February 27, 1966-Page B3
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