Ga. Broadcasters H.O.F.: The Great Al Ciraldo, Sr.

DeepSnap

DeepSnap

GT Athlete
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462
Location
Hartselle, AL
Should've happened a long time ago..... Big Al always knew every player by name when he saw them in uni's or civvies, whether you were a walk-on or an All-American. whenever and wherever he ran into you. When you think of some the ones from the CCCI 70 miles to the NE who were already in, it's a shame it's taken so long, but glad it's done.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

LatinxBreakfastTacos
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3,265
Congrats Al. Extremey well deserved. Your voice was what I will alwys remember from my youth of the young "left-hander" and Rich Yunkus.

Al raised his family in the neighborhood next to mine. He had the nicest house in that neighborhood. When the family decided to sell the home after Al's passing the buyer was a dwag fan and immediately put a dwag flag on the side of the garage in plain view. Disgusting!!
 
Buzzbomb

Buzzbomb

Mello Yellow-Jacket
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12,014
LongforDodd said:
Congrats Al. Extremey well deserved. Your voice was what I will alwys remember from my youth of the young "left-hander" and Rich Yunkus.

Al raised his family in the neighborhood next to mine. He had the nicest house in that neighborhood. When the family decided to sell the home after Al's passing the buyer was a dwag fan and immediately put a dwag flag on the side of the garage in plain view. Disgusting!!
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I thought I would share what I posted OAS tonight. Didn’t realize a Mutt bought the property. Haven’t been there in years. Here is my post/short tribute to him:

Big Al had a large house in the Toco Hills area off LaVista near Clairmont Rd. It seemed like a huge mansion to me, because I mostly lived in small apartments or the occasional house we could afford to rent. Mrs. Ruth would greet me at the door and politely tell me he was in the office/study. Honestly, the best part of my youth were the lunches with Mr. C. and my stepdad who was born on the Tech Campus on Cherry St. Baker had three furniture stores and was his first advertising accounts with WGST. Bake agreed to carpet the dressing rooms and put RCA Televisions in, if Tech would give Mr, C. a shot. Obviously, he was a natural in our growing city.

When my phone would ring at work, that booming voice would say: “Hello Kirk, this is Al Ciraldo.” Ice water would run through my veins, or it felt like it anyway. Chills. Just the same greeting as when he would first come on the air for basketball or football. Most folks don’t know that he was a tremendous baseball announcer. He shared those Akron Zips tapes with me. He was the first broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves with Jack Hurst(“keep your eye on the ball”). It got to be too much on Big Al trying to sell advertising, announcing GT games and 162 MLB games. I miss him and Baker every day.
 

grandpa jacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
639
Buzzbomb said:
I thought I would share what I posted OAS tonight. Didn’t realize a Mutt bought the property. Haven’t been there in years. Here is my post/short tribute to him:

Big Al had a large house in the Toco Hills area off LaVista near Clairmont Rd. It seemed like a huge mansion to me, because I mostly lived in small apartments or the occasional house we could afford to rent. Mrs. Ruth would greet me at the door and politely tell me he was in the office/study. Honestly, the best part of my youth were the lunches with Mr. C. and my stepdad who was born on the Tech Campus on Cherry St. Baker had three furniture stores and was his first advertising accounts with WGST. Bake agreed to carpet the dressing rooms and put RCA Televisions in, if Tech would give Mr, C. a shot. Obviously, he was a natural in our growing city.

When my phone would ring at work, that booming voice would say: “Hello Kirk, this is Al Ciraldo.” Ice water would run through my veins, or it felt like it anyway. Chills. Just the same greeting as when he would first come on the air for basketball or football. Most folks don’t know that he was a tremendous baseball announcer. He shared those Akron Zips tapes with me. He was the first broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves with Jack Hurst(“keep your eye on the ball”). It got to be too much on Big Al trying to sell advertising, announcing GT games and 162 MLB games. I miss him and Baker every day.
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Pretty sure that home was on Dresden Drive, he was truly one of the most kind, moral and dedicated individuals i ever met. He would leave me basketball tickets at will call. One man GT can really be proud of.
 
Buzzbomb

Buzzbomb

Mello Yellow-Jacket
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12,014
@grandpa jacket ; I believe Dresden is on the other side of I-85. It’s been so many years since I’ve been over in that vicinity. Remembering that I turned off LaVista Rd. to the right beyond Shallowford Rd. coming from the North, but before N. Druid Hills(can’t recall if I passed over Clairmont Rd. or not)Rd. My memory is getting worse for those details. It was a massive property for that area/subdivision.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

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3,265
The home I was referring to was in a neighborhood known as Breckenridge. At the time, it was considered upscale compared to our neighborhood of 3/2 ranches built in the early 60's. I didn't know Al Jr but if he went to his neighborhood HS he would have gone to Lakeside. The neighborhood is about halfway between Toco Hills and Northlake Mall off of LaVista Road.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

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grandpa jacket said:
Pretty sure that home was on Dresden Drive, he was truly one of the most kind, moral and dedicated individuals i ever met. He would leave me basketball tickets at will call. One man GT can really be proud of.
Click to expand...
Al lived on the other side of I-85 from Dresden. Take Shallowford to the south. It dead-ends into Briarcliff. Right on Briarcliff and the neighborhood is way back behind Lakeside HS.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

LatinxBreakfastTacos
Messages
3,265
Buzzbomb said:
I thought I would share what I posted OAS tonight. Didn’t realize a Mutt bought the property. Haven’t been there in years. Here is my post/short tribute to him:

Big Al had a large house in the Toco Hills area off LaVista near Clairmont Rd. It seemed like a huge mansion to me, because I mostly lived in small apartments or the occasional house we could afford to rent. Mrs. Ruth would greet me at the door and politely tell me he was in the office/study. Honestly, the best part of my youth were the lunches with Mr. C. and my stepdad who was born on the Tech Campus on Cherry St. Baker had three furniture stores and was his first advertising accounts with WGST. Bake agreed to carpet the dressing rooms and put RCA Televisions in, if Tech would give Mr, C. a shot. Obviously, he was a natural in our growing city.

When my phone would ring at work, that booming voice would say: “Hello Kirk, this is Al Ciraldo.” Ice water would run through my veins, or it felt like it anyway. Chills. Just the same greeting as when he would first come on the air for basketball or football. Most folks don’t know that he was a tremendous baseball announcer. He shared those Akron Zips tapes with me. He was the first broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves with Jack Hurst(“keep your eye on the ball”). It got to be too much on Big Al trying to sell advertising, announcing GT games and 162 MLB games. I miss him and Baker every day.
Click to expand...
See my post below. Yes it was very large home. Nice memories you have of knowing him and Ruth.
 

g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,051
LongforDodd said:
Al lived on the other side of I-85 from Dresden. Take Shallowford to the south. It dead-ends into Briarcliff. Right on Briarcliff and the neighborhood is way back behind Lakeside HS.
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My wife is from that part of Atlanta. She was in the first graduating class of Lakeside. Lakeside had some really good football teams under Creel.
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

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g0lftime said:
My wife is from that part of Atlanta. She was in the first graduating class of Lakeside. Lakeside had some really good football teams under Creel.
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Yes Lakeside was built as the neighborhood HS for one of the first suburbs in the early 60s. There were kids all over the neighborhoods. Creel was fortunate to come coach there with all of the kids and athletes that grew up there. Most of their sports team were successful for a long time. It was a great area to be raised in. Halloweens and Christmas’ were outstanding
 
Buzzbomb

Buzzbomb

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Under the heading: “I Have Done This Job For Four Decades Because I Love It.”
Before GT joined the ACC, Mr. C. sat in this wooden box high above the rafters of AMC to bring us the games. It had a banner with WGST 640 AM on it, which made it look glamorous. It was filled with wires, splinters and a few hard chairs.
One night I decided to brave the rain & the lighting to climb the METAL ladder Big Al climbed every contest Tech played in hoops. If I hadn’t told him I was joining him, no way for me. He would say I know you want to yell for the Jackets, however it will go out over the air on the radio. Preferred my season tickets on Row 2. Not sure how he did it for so long, working Mon.-Fri. pounding the pavement, the travel and breaking in other announcers. At Duke(Cameron Indoor Stadium), you felt like you were watching from the moon or Clemson Memorial for football. He really was an amazing, super kind and loving man.
 

SandySpringsJacket

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
272
He had that wonderful staccato type cadence. For basketball, i remember “charity stripe” and “bunny shot”. For football, it was “hold onto your seats brother and sister”, “there’s a thriller brewing”, “toe meets leather,”, stanzas for quarters, and starting the broadcasts dramatically with….”Grant Field, Atlanta, Georgia, hello again football fans”….
 
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