Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CAVALIERS' RADIO VOICE SWAIN GETS BACK ON THE AIR
Virginia's football team felt sick after the Gator Bowl. Warren Swain felt bad before it as well.Swain, the Cavaliers' play-by-play man, will return to UVa's radio network for tonight's basketball game at Florida State. He missed the Gator Bowl broadcast and Virginia's ACC basketball opener Thursday against Duke after what he called "my annual bowl-game bronchitis."
Swain was experiencing throat problems in Jacksonville, Fla., last weekend before the Gator Bowl. It was the third straight year he has felt poorly at the Cavs' bowl site.
"My doctor said it's a bronchitis triggered by fatigue," Swain said Friday. "Every year we do all of the pre-production work for the bowl game and I get worn down, I guess."
When Swain could not do the game, UVa turned to Steve Melewski of the Virginia News Network to handle play-by-play. Melewski regularly does Richmond Braves baseball play-by-play.
"It was my call whether to go on, and the doctor thinks I just had a bad reaction to medication I was given," Swain said. "I was very groggy, and it got to the point where I had to say, `Warren, you're in no shape to do this.' "
Robert Fish, Virginia's sideline reporter, would have replaced Swain, but Fish was back in Richmond calling the Cavaliers' games in the Times-Dispatch Invitational. Melewski was at the Gator to sub for Fish on the sidelines when he was asked to move to the booth. Fish called Thursday night's basketball game.
After Swain's return from the Gator Bowl, he underwent a blood test and even a brain scan as a precautionary measure because of the grogginess he experienced.
"I'm fine. The doctor still says I just had a bad reaction to medicine," Swain said.
\ On Thursday, sports viewers tuned in to local 6 p.m. newscasts across the nation to find out whether Miami (Fla.) or Washington had been crowned No. 1 in college football. And on WDBJ, the lead story was Bill Elliott's switch to Junior Johnson's NASCAR team - one of the worst-kept secrets in sports.
Not only did Channel 7 lead with Elliott, but the piece consumed at least 50 percent of the sportscast.
Yes, WDBJ sports director John Kernan loves NASCAR. Yes, he works NASCAR events for ESPN. Those facts too often seem to skew the news judgment on the market's top-rated newscast when Kernan is in the anchor chair.
\ The perennial New Year's bowl overload on Wednesday brought several thoughts during remote-controlled viewing:
Because most of those calling games regularly work NFL games and not college football, they constantly use the pros as a point of reference. In many cases, not only are those comparisons invalid, they are worthless. College football isn't pro football. They're different games, with, as some play-callers and analysts apparently don't know, different rules.
One NFL broadcasting team that worked with a collegiate flair and knowledge was NBC's Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy on the Hall of Fame Bowl. In the booth, they were the best team of the day. Put them back on the Orange Bowl.
If a lopsided Rose Bowl seemed compelling, it wasn't only because of the battle for No. 1 that involved Washington. It was the superb play-calling by ABC's Keith Jackson.
When are Al Michaels and Dan Dierdorf going to lose Frank Gifford - the guy who seems to be working "Mundane Night Football" - and his add-little analysis on ABC? Has anyone at ABC told Gifford that he was watching a Sugar Bowl with Notre Dame against Florida and not Florida State, as Gifford kept telling viewers?
Paul Maguire's NBC studio work, particularly his blaming of Miami coach Dennis Erickson for the Hurricanes' continued hot-dogging and penchant for penalties, was one of the long day's highlights.
ESPN's Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried, usually superb on the prime-time CFA telecasts, tried to hype the Peach Bowl instead of letting the game intrigue viewers, which it eventually did.
In the Cotton Bowl, even if Florida State and Texas A&M had a bad game, CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz didn't.
Brent Musburger, despite his past overexposure and his studio persona, is an excellent play-by-play man. His lopsided Florida Citrus Bowl candor - "Let's shove this along; let's get to the Rose Bowl" - was as refreshing as his correcting and bailing out of his analyst, Dick Vermeil.
\ IT'S ON CABLE: The state's air raid sirens will go off Wednesday at 7 p.m., when Dick Vitale works the Wake Forest-Virginia basketball game for ESPN at University Hall. . . . Norfolk's Pernell Whitaker, the undisputed lightweight champion, fights as a junior welterweight for the first time on a Home Box Office card on Jan. 18 at 10 p.m. in Philadelphia. Meldrick Taylor defends his World Boxing Association welterweight crown against Glenwood Brown in the main attraction.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING