UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, November 5,1993
9.
Oct. 24, 1992
Oklahoma at Kansas
A crowd of 43,500 sees the Jayhawks defeat the Sooners 27-10.
Bob Davis' favorite football moments
Dec. 25, 1992
The Alaho Bowl
Kansas defeats Brigham Young
23-20 on a 48-yard Dan
Eichlott field goal.
Nov. 23, 1991
Missouri at Kansas
Tony Sands rushes for 396 yards; setting an NCAA record for a single game. The Jayhawks won 53-29.
Oct.27,1984
Oklahoma at Kansas
One of the biggest upsets in Kansas football history. KU defeats the No. 2 Sooners 28-11.
Nov. 18, 1969
Kansas at Missouri
In an offensive shootout, Kansas defeats the Tigers' 46-44. The victory was the last game of a 4-7 season.
Dan Schauer/KANSAN
During the football season, Davis hosts weekly radio interviews with coach Glen Mason, live from Applebee's restaurant. 2520 Iowa St..
The Man Behind the MICROPHONE
Continued from Page 1.
throwing his arms above his head, but he says nothing on the air.
Davis can and does get excited during an important play, though. His voice gets louder, he grabs onto the table and sometimes even starts shaking. The listener can almost feel the energy shoot through the airwaves.
A typical Davis display comes with 13 minutes and 21 seconds in the game. Iowa State kicks off after closing the score to 21-14, and Kansas takes over on its own 23-yard line. On first down, Kansas junior quarterback Ashelih Preston hands the ball to freshman running back June Henley:
May Roy indeed it is
Bob: This is a big possession now.
Bob: Not too long ago KU was looking for just some insurance. Now they lead by only seven and better than 13 minutes to play.
Max: And it is really raining hard, and you've got to be careful with that football.
Bob: Toss play. Henley getting to the 25 ...
up to the 30. He breaks to the 40. He's at mid-field. He may go the distance! Down to
the 30 ... down to the 20, to the 10.
Touchdown!
Bob: Holy Smoke!
Max: Wowwee!
Max: Wowwee!
Bob: Man, when he got to that sideline that was all she wrote.
A little humor, description and a lot of enthusiasm. That is how Davis announces games.
Davis gets fans atingle when he calls a play.
Troy Gallagher, Topeka junior, said Davis always got him involved in the game.
Davis takes a shot during an evening basketball match with his son. Davis' favorite time isn't calling a game — it's playing one with his son.
Davis gives Steven a high five after a basket in their backyard hoop. Steven works as a balloon for some of the home Jayhawk basketball games.
"I think he is good because Bob goes off whenever they make a big play," Gallagher said. "He's kind of biased but not that bad. It's fine with me."
The duo of Davis and Falkenstien is a good one, Gallagher said.
"We pretty much learned to work together and not talk over each other," Falkenstien said. "He leaves it open for me to add something after each play."
Kent Pavelka, known throughout Nebraska as the voice of the Cornhuskers, said Davis' style was similar to his. Pavelka does football and basketball play-by-play for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and sees Davis four times a year.
"Max is a little more mellow." Gallagher said. "He kind of offsets Bob."
Falkenstien said it was easy to work with Davis, and it was not something they work on.
"You can take a written transcript of one of our play-by-plays, and by themselves they are pretty accurate," Pavelka said. "But when you add the enthusiasm and voice inflection, it becomes pretty obvious that Bob is a Jayhawk announcer."
"I hope you don't misunderstand this, but
you can be a bit of a fan and a reporter," Davis said. "I think we kind of have the best of both worlds."
The best part for Davis is that it is his job to be a Jayhawk fan. Objectivity is not the most important thing. Atmosphere is.
But to capture the total atmosphere, one cannot be completely biased, Falkenstien said. In that way, Falkenstien likened Davis' style to his.
"I've always had the philosophy that you need to honor the opponent on a great play," Falkenstien said. "He doesn't go right down the middle, but he's fair about calling the game."
With two minutes and 30 seconds left in the game, Fallensten leaves for the locker room to talk with Coach Mason. The crowd is leaving, as the Marching Jayhawks and Davis wrap up a coming victory against Iowa State.
Davis isn't just the voice of the Jayhawks. He is also sports director for KMBZ radio in Kansas City, Mo.
Davis tells the listeners when the next broadcast will be, closes out the show and picks up his game notes. Chalk up another game for the voice of the Jayhawks.
DAVIS' HISTORY
Each game Davis calls is fun for him, and it always has been. And he never found it hard to adjust from covering high school games to college games.
Before joining the Jayhawk Network in 1884, he filled in for broadcasters on stations across the Midwest region. He started doing western Kansas high school football games in Hays. During that time, he also called college games for Fort Hays State. He has been a broadcaster for 26 years.
Davis was hired by the Jefferson City, Mo., company Learfield Communications, a large syndicator of television sporting events such as the Jayhawk Network. Davis then was approved by Monte Johnson, Kansas' athletic director at the time. Johnson said many commentators applied for the job.
"He was probably the best one, and he was available." Johnson said. "I wanted someone who had a good reputation in broadcast and already had a strong following. He was so well known in western Kansas."
His first Kansas football game working with the network and Falkenstien was against Wichita State in 1984. It was a lopsided Kansas victory, and that is all Davis remembers.
"I had done college football for enough years where it was not a new experience," Davis said. "The games are the same whether you're doing a small high school game. It's still a football game. Your approach to it is the same."
Davis is not only a play-by-play amouncer for Kansas football and basketball, he also is the sports director at KMBZ radio in Kansas City, Mo. He does the morning sports reports twice an hour starting at 5.
Even though the network is statewide, it didn't faze Davis when he started covering Kansas games.
"You don't even think about that," he said. "What's the difference between doing it on 30 stations or one station? It's the same."
Other jobs for Davis include being a host for talk shows with Mason and Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams. Davis said he thought the coaches enjoyed the shows.
But his job as the Jayhawks voice is something Davis has wanted to do since the eighth grade. He said covering basketball games and football games were not the same.
"Football is farther away, and the weather can be a factor," Davis said. "In basketball, you're closer to the play, and there is constant action. They both have their ingredients that make them fun to do. You don't get as cold at basketball games as you do at a late-season football game."
Like many Kansas students, Gallagher listens to Davis during basketball games even though many are televised.
"I watch basketball games on TV and turn down the volume," Gallagher said. "Announcers on TV suck."
"I remember my first basketball game here. I had a bad cold and could hardly talk," Davis said. "The field house, it's still one of the great places in the United States to watch a game."
Davis' first Kansas basketball game was in the Great Alaskan Shootout against Maryland.
He practiced play-by-play while watching a game as a child.
Growing up, he had a cousin in radio, and his dad had been a sportswriter. He lived in Independence, Mo., but his family moved to Manhattan, where they stayed for about two years. The summer before he started junior high. Davis' family moved to Topeka.
"I have trouble sitting down watching a game on TV and doing play-by-play," Davis said. "But I guess you'd think of that when you're a youngster."
"I had the sports interest, and I developed the interest in radio, too," Davis said. "I thought it seemed like a logical combination. It was kind of what I wanted to do."
Davis' interest in both grew as he went to college at Washburn. He majored in history and took speech classes because there wasn't a broadcast program at the time. In his first year after graduation, Davis followed his broadcast goal by covering games in Hays.
Bob Davis' favorite basketball seasons
1985-1986 (35-4)
Final Four, No. 2 in Associated Press final poll
1987-1988 (27-11)
National champions
1989-1990 [30-5]
Lost in 2nd round of NCAA tournament. No. 5 in final poll.
1990-1991 (27-8)
1992-1993 (29-7)
Final Four, No. 9
in final poll.
Lost in NCAA championship game. No.12 in final poll
Dan Schauer/KANSAN
"I had an interest in it, but I had to do it on my own," Davis said. "Just because your dad did it doesn't mean that, A, you'll like it, or B, you'll be good at it. Not everybody does what their dad does."
That's what they say, but another Davis also wants to be a sports journalist.
DAVIS: FAMILY MAN
"He goes to all the games," Davis said. "He's got media guides and press releases that I give him in his room."
Davis' 12-year-old son, Steven, is primed and ready for a successful writing career.
Steven is almost as busy as his father. He takes piano lessons, and he is a member of his church choir. He plays sports, mostly basketball, baseball and golf.
Under street lights on Chisholm Drive father and son can be found throwing a Nerf football around on some nights. Davis will throw it, and the sixth grader will run under it for a catch.
As the football gets harder and harder to see, it is time to go inside. If Steven doesn't have homework, or even if he does, the two are downstairs watching TV. There are two recliners, one for dad and the other for his son.
"It's a good time for us to be together," Davis said. "The TV gets a lot of work on ESPN and Prime Sports, but if Mom gets in here it might be on AMC."
Homework is always something Steven must do, especially mathematics.
"Math is my favorite subject," Steven said. "I'm in seventh grade math. I think I like it, because I kind of have to work extra hard. I usually do my homework when I'm sitting watching TV."
Steven agreed with his dad, saying, "Yeah,
she likes to watch old movies."
Davis said his son learned to add and subtract before he attended kindergarten.
"As a baby, he sat on somebody's lap and actually watched the games," Davis said. "He kept score in the program when he was 5 years old."
Davis, second from left, becomes the Jayhawk's biggest fan on a Saturday afternoon.
He started keeping score during Jayhawk basketball games two years ago. However, sometimes his job as a Jayhawk ballboy interferes with this.
"People are saying, 'Are you going to follow in your dad's footsteps?' he said. "At first I didn't know, but I decided I wanted to write sports a couple years ago. Broadcast is my second choice."
The early decision to be a sportswriter came about two years ago, Steven said.
"The Christmas of '91 was when I got my first score book," Steven said. "I used up all the pages when we went to the Final Four."
Even though Davis is an announcer, his son's decision is all his own.
"He knows the negatives," Davis said. "Working late at night and waking up early in the morning. He has to make up his mind himself, but I think he has a chance to be a writer."
For Davis the decision came a bit later, but he has planned to have this job all his life. He is now the voice of the Jayhawks.
"I don't have any other marketable skills," he said. "It's what I've always wanted to do somewhere."
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