Al Ciraldo? What was he like?

Ramble1885

Ramble1885

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I recently had the pleasure of coming across this on Twitter and reposting it to YouTube.

Al wasn’t as popular as the Larry Munson’s and John Ward of his day but he is an icon whose legacy is still alive today. However, I‘m so young I missed his heyday by a long time. I grew up with Wes Durham as a wee kid (we still are treated to his great work when we play on ACCN), Brandon Gaudin gave us good memories in his short time here, and I’m very pleased with the work Andy has done. Andy and Joe are a perfect duo for Tech football!

The point of this thread is to share memories about Al and his broadcasts. Now I do know about Al’s most famous partner, Kim King. I have a connection with King in that my grandfather was a Freshman at Brown High when he was a Senior. Kim is a legend and because he outlasted Al, his work with Wes in the late 90’s and early 00’s I have listened to.

Reason I do this thread now is that Al spent 43 years (1954–1997) at Tech, and yesterday marked 43 days until as he would say “TOE MEETS LEATHER.”
 
Ramble1885

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croberts said:
Sorry guys. I thought he was absolutely terrible. My father and grandfather both loved him though.
Wes Durham is by far the best we have had in my opinion.
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Wes is my favorite as well because I grew up on him and also because of his energy. Me also being a Unc fan and his father being the voice of my mother’s childhood doesn’t hurt.
 
Vespidae

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One of my frat brothers was a spotter and worked with Al in the booth. He said Al was the nicest, most cordial man he ever met. Just class.

Al worked mostly in the radio era and visualizing plays was more important than describing technical details. Which, for the most part, Al got 100% wrong. Al would describe the play and Kim King would completely contradict him. Al would just laugh and move to the next play.

Today’s broadcasters are clinical and antiseptic. Folks like Ciraldo are long gone. It was very common to put a broadcast game on TV and stick a radio on top for Al’s color.

“Toe meets leather” is iconic. My personal favorite was “And we have … the Kick! It’s a long, high end-over-end spiral.”
 
slugboy

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I don’t think I ever understood a play from Al’s play by play calls. There was almost no college football TV until the mid-80’s or later, so either you saw the game in person or you listened on the radio. WGST powered down at dusk, so unless you lived next to the broadcast tower, you weren’t hearing a night game.

He was kind of our Harry Carey: loved the team, called the game, made no sense, was a key part of the experience.

We missed a lot of bunnies on field goals.
 
Tommy_Taylor_1972

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I met Al in Sep 1968 when I reported to Tech on basketball scholarship. He had nicknames on the radio for many of the basketball players, such as Rich Yunkus the "Benton Bomber" from Illinois, Bob Seemer "Buffalo Bob", Frank Samoylo "the Blackhawk of the Hudson" from NY. I was called "Little Tommy Taylor from Whigham Georgia" and the "Whigham Flash". Coach Hyder had a part in Al coming to WGST (W-Georgia School of Technology) and thus Georgia Tech in 1954, having moved to Atlanta in 1949. Whack met Al in Akron, Ohio when Whack was playing for the NY Yankees minor league baseball in 1937, with Al being radio announcer for the Akron Yankees. Whack encouraged Coach Dodd to ask Al to do radio broadcasts for Tech athletics, while continuing to be sports director for WGST. Then WGST was located in the Alexander Memorial Coliseum complex.
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g0lftime

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I had coach Hyder as my basketball PE instructor in 1965. He divided us into groups of experienced and inexperienced players. I was in the experienced group. We played 4 man full court in the practice area of Alexander. I ended up on a team with 3 guys I didn't know but we all had played a lot of HS ball. We never lost a game that entire quarter and coach told us we had played really well as a team. I was about as proud of that complement as any I have had in my life. It still amazes people when I tell them my BB PE instructor was also the head coach.
Ciraldo lived in the Lakeside HS area off Fair Oaks. He was considered their best ad salesman while he was at WGST. He was the voice of Georgia Tech as far as I'm concerned. I also like Wes. Wish he still did our games.
 

Oakland

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Vespidae said:
Today’s broadcasters are clinical and antiseptic. Folks like Ciraldo are long gone.
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Most sports broadcasters today sound almost the same. I wonder if a voice like Al Ciraldo would be in great demand today or casted off. Anyone remember Pick a Dixie football that WGST would broadcast at night. Most big games played in the south on Saturday nights were featured. LSU used to play a lot of night games.
 
LongforDodd

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g0lftime said:
I had coach Hyder as my basketball PE instructor in 1965. He divided us into groups of experienced and inexperienced players. I was in the experienced group. We played 4 man full court in the practice area of Alexander. I ended up on a team with 3 guys I didn't know but we all had played a lot of HS ball. We never lost a game that entire quarter and coach told us we had played really well as a team. I was about as proud of that complement as any I have had in my life. It still amazes people when I tell them my BB PE instructor was also the head coach.
Ciraldo lived in the Lakeside HS area off Fair Oaks. He was considered their best ad salesman while he was at WGST. He was the voice of Georgia Tech as far as I'm concerned. I also like Wes. Wish he still did our games.
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They had the biggest house in Breckenridge (sounds like you might Know that). Did you know that when the fam sold it, a dwag fan bought it and immediately put a dwag flag on the side of the carport?
 

g0lftime

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LongforDodd said:
They had the biggest house in Breckenridge (sounds like you might Know that). Did you know that when the fam sold it, a dwag fan bought it and immediately put a dwag flag on the side of the carport?
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Former Georgia Banking Commissioner lived near Al. My wife was close friend of that family's daughter and I visited there many times. My wife was in the original Lakeside graduating class.
 
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