30 SEASONS OF GEORGE BLAHA
BY BILL DOW
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
January 18, 2006
Blaha signs autographs. Tom Wilson, Pistons president and CEO, calls him "a celebrity in his own right."
"Four and 26 to go, Chauncey on the sideline, lobs to Rasheed, Rasheed turns and faces, FIRES OFF THE GLASS AND HE HIT IT! COUNT THAT BABY AND A FOUL!"
In his 30th NBA season, with more than 2,600 games under his belt as the voice of the Pistons, George Blaha's up-tempo and unique play-by-play calls have thrilled fans since the days a once-struggling franchise sometimes hosted 4,000 diehards at Cobo Arena.
"I agree with people who tell me they like George's broadcasts because they're never boring. He can make a preseason contest sound like Game 7 of the NBA Finals," said Joe Abramson, in his 23rd season as Blaha's home game statistician. "He also does it without damaging the integrity of the game, because as George will tell you, he's not the show, the players are."
Blaha, 61, was raised in Iowa until moving to Grayling at age 13. He was a Minneapolis Lakers fan during the NBA's infancy and loved to practice play-by-play calls while spinning the arrow on his "All Star Baseball" board game.
"By age 10, I knew I wanted to be a sports broadcaster," said Blaha, who handles play-by-play duties on television or radio for all 82 regular-season Pistons games, plus preseason and postseason games. He can be heard on WDFN-AM (1130) and be seen on Channel 20 and Channel 4.
He didn't begin to seriously pursue his dream until graduating from Notre Dame and starting an MBA program at Michigan (a degree he finished). He wrote to Ernie Harwell for advice, and the former Tigers announcer suggested Blaha take a broadcast course.
He took the lessons, and then began announcing high school football games in the Thumb area for free. In the early '70s, he landed jobs in Adrian and then Lansing, where he broadcast MSU football games before taking a morning-drive news position with WCAR in Detroit.
When Pistons announcer Paul Carey decided in 1976 to concentrate on Tigers broadcasts, WJR newsman Tom Campbell suggested Blaha as a replacement to sports director Frank Beckmann.
Blaha got the job, and vividly recalls his first WJR broadcast from Cobo Arena.
"When I saw Bob Lanier and the Bullets' Wes Unseld come out for the opening tip-off, I thought, 'My God, this is a man's league, I better get ready,' " Blaha said. "After the game I was so excited that while driving home to Lansing I somehow ended up in Grosse Pointe."
The birth of 'Blahaisms'
Blaha has witnessed a once-struggling franchise and league grow by leaps and bounds in 30 years.
"At Cobo, we used to have some pretty small crowds, but the fans were real aficionados. If you were there, the game was your passion," Blaha said. "The league was surviving but when Dr. J (Julius Erving) joined the NBA and the milestone collective bargaining agreement was reached that addressed revenue sharing, salary caps, and drug enforcement, the NBA really took off. The NBA in the 1980's is as good a decade as in any sport."
When the Pistons' "Bad Boys" captured back-to-back titles in 1989 and '90, Blaha's popularity soared with fans fond of his trademark "Blahaisms" ("2 and 20 left in the third," "he fills it," "don't look now but we've got a two-point game.")
Blaha said his colloquialisms were born of the need to be brief about a sport that some say is the most difficult to broadcast.
"I think it's easier on the fans to say a 'high glasser' than to announce 'it's a jumper off the upper portion of the backboard,' " Blaha said. "In basketball you have to find some brief sayings because these guys go up and down the court so incredibly fast."
Tom Wilson, Pistons president and CEO, has long appreciated Blaha's value to the franchise.
"George really captures the magic of the sport and because he loves it so much he's been able to transmit that to the listeners," Wilson said. "Like Ernie Harwell, many people have grown up with him, and hearing his play-by-play is comforting and just makes you feel good."
A team 'ambassador'
Blaha's toughest time of the year is fall, when he announces MSU football in addition to Pistons games.
One weekend last November, Blaha did a Pistons game in Boston on Friday night, an MSU game at Purdue on Saturday afternoon and a Pistons game that night at the Palace.
He's not complaining.
"With an overlapping schedule like that, you just run on adrenalin and do the best job you can," said Blaha, who keeps his throat soothed with lozenges and stays in shape by exercising four days a week with free weights and a treadmill. "It's not like you're going to watch paint dry. I'm just so fortunate to broadcast my two favorite sports, NBA basketball and college football."
When he's not on the road, or preparing for games at his Troy home with his wife, Mary, and their dog, Misty, nearby, Blaha is often recording numerous radio commercials, or making appearances at charitable and community events for the Pistons and Michigan State. He also is active with Vista Maria, a home in Dearborn Heights for abused and neglected girls ages 11-17. He hosts an annual golf outing, called "High Hopes," for the home.
"George is not only our voice, but in many ways he's our ambassador," Wilson said. "When you go places with him, there's a certain magic with people. He's a celebrity in his own right."
Although Blaha enjoys spending the off-season at his new summer home on a lake near Gaylord, he's not ready for retirement.
"Forty years might be a nice number, but I can't see stepping down before then," he said. "All I ever really wanted to do was broadcast games and bring some joy to hard-working people in a working man's town.
"What better place than Detroit?"
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Originally Posted by Anthony
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