Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404020045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Long
In what has become a world of screamers, Billy Packer is a voice of measured excitement. His is a voice of reason, a voice of success, a voice of influence, a voice of survival.
In an era when it seems most college basketball telecast analysts need analysis, Packer does the game. Period. Were two decades ago today, Packer wouldn't be where he is. He's about as flashy as a 1960s Wake Forest playmaker - which Packer was.
As Dick Vitale recently said of Virginia basketball coach Jeff Jones, "He needs a schtick."
Wrong, Dicky. Jones doesn't, just as Packer Packer doesn't. You can be very good at what you do without being a human highlights film. There are more than a few role players at the NCAA Final Four, and Packer is one of them. Most analysts are stars of the show. John Madden. Tim McCarver. Vitale. Paul Maguire.
Not Packer.
"The magic is the tournament," Packer said.
At today's NCAA doubleheader at the Charlotte Coliseum, Packer, 54, calls his 20th consecutive Final Four, and 13th for CBS Sports p.m., WDBJ Channel 7). His first was legendary UCLA coach John Wooden's last game and championship, at San Diego in 1975.
"I don't even really think about this being 20," Packer said a few days ago of the first Final Four in his home state since Greensboro was host to the '74 finals. "Being Polish, and the first being 1975, I thought this was the 19th. Then someone from CBS counted backwards. They must have used their fingers."
Actually, it's his 21st. As a Wake Forest senior, the former All-ACC guard helped the Demon Deacons to their only Final Four in 1962 at Louisville's Freedom Hall. Wake finished third back when consolation games still were played.
His knowledge of the game is rooted in his Pennsylvania childhood. Packer's father, Tony, remains the winningest coach in Lehigh University's history (16 years, 112-213 record). His telecast experience began in February 1972, when ACC network producer C.D. Chesley needed a last-minute replacement to work a Maryland-North Carolina State telecast with Jim Thacker.
Packer was then working in Winston-Salem radio after several years as a Wake Forest assistant coach. Chesley offered Packer $75 for the game at Reynolds Coliseum. He took it. The quality of his work was evident. Three years later, he was working alongside Curt Gowdy for NBC at the Final Four.
"A few things jump out at me about that Final Four," Packer said. "First, Curt asked me to ride with him to the arena. I came down to the hotel lobby and this man said hello to me, and I thought I'd seen this guy before, but I wasn't sure. Curt walked up and said, `Hi, Al.'
"It was Al Davis [the Oakland Raiders' managing partner]. We rode to the final with Al Davis! He drove, and what amazed me was how knowledgeable he was about the game and the teams.
"The other thing was that back in those days networks had unit managers. I hadn't been around network TV, and after watching these guys operate, I figured if I ever got into TV, I wanted to be a unit manager. It was the perfect job. They had an unlimited budget, they sat by the hotel pool, smoking cigars. They ran up bar tabs.
"Of course, they all ended up getting indicted for getting kickbacks from hotels, whatever. They were ripping the networks for whatever they could get. It looked like a great job, though.
"One other thing was kind of interesting to me, too. Hank Nichols, the great referee, was working the first of his seven Final Fours, too. We went to Mass together that morning."
Since then, the tournament has evolved from 32 to 64 teams. It's moved from NBC and $2.5 million in rights fees to CBS and this year's $139.8 million, halfway through a seven-year, $1 billion contract. And Packer is working with his fifth play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, following Gowdy, Dick Enberg, Gary Bender and Brent Musburger.
Packer is proud - as he should be - about having stood the test of time in a very fickle business. He is as much a part of making CBS' regular-season schedule as he is calling it.
He has never won an Emmy, but he's nominated again this year with Madden, McCarver, Hubie Brown and Mike Ditka. Madden has won the analyst award every year it's been presented. Packer may not have an Emmy, but he's a first-rate entrepreneur. The Tour DuPont cycling spectacle was his idea.
He just wants to be like the officials working this weekend's games. "A good referee," he says, "no one notices and remembers him."
He sees the tournament as continuing to evolve. "From a business standpoint, pure business, this tournament may be more important than some others," Packer said. That's because Nielsen ratings will be lower because of the sport's parity and fewer marquee teams and players.
"Kids dropping out of school early for the NBA takes away some of the star recognition from the event," Packer said. "That has to be recognized and addressed. . . . That said, it still has great lures in new, fresh stories. Duke's there, so you have at least one of the same teams as in recent years, but you also have different players."
Packer also realizes he - as others in the 63-game tournament - are playing on a national stage in what used to be very much a regional sport.
"That Final Four in San Diego in '75, it was really just like a nice happening," Packer said. "Syracuse was there, so some people in upstate New York were interested. UCLA was there and had won just about every year, so for those people it was like, `Of course, we're there.'
"Then you had Kentucky and Louisville there, so Kentucky was interested. That's about it. In those days, in our part of the country, the ACC championship was considered more important, because only one team from each league went to the NCAA Tournament.
"After you won the ACC tournament, the NCAA was more like a sigh of relief. Not now."
by CNB