Post #193732 by cynfulcynner on Wed, Oct 19, 2005 9:09 PM

BILL KING: 1927-2005
Erudite voice of Bay Area sports

Bill King, who described in his distinctive rapid-fire style some of the greatest moments in Bay Area sports history and connected with generations of local sports fans, has died.

King, 78, died in San Leandro Hospital early Tuesday morning of a pulmonary embolism. He underwent surgery on Friday to repair his artificial hip but developed a blood clot.

He was the radio voice of the pro basketball Warriors from their 1962 arrival in the Bay Area through 1983, the pro football Raiders from 1966 through 1992 and the baseball A's from 1981 through this past season. Radio station KNBR, which was King's professional home for a large part of his career, devoted its entire programming Tuesday afternoon to replaying memorable play-by-play calls and interviewing colleagues.

King was almost as renowned for his handlebar mustache and wide-ranging interests as he was for the trademark "Holy Toledo'' exclamation he used to punctuate exciting plays.

"We've lost a unique person, no doubt about that,'' said former broadcaster Lon Simmons, who shared the A's booth with King from 1981 through '95.

King was the audio link to the Warriors during their championship season of 1974-75. His calls of great Raiders moments from their heyday of the 1970s are still often replayed. And he was behind the microphone during the A's run of three straight World Series appearances, 1988-90.

"He was the essence of what a sportscaster should be,'' said Hank Greenwald, who was King's broadcast partner on the Warriors before Greenwald became the voice of the Giants in 1979. "He had the ability to capture what was happening and enable listeners to see it as vividly as if they were in the arena themselves.''

"His name should be on the wall of the (Oakland) Coliseum with (Rollie) Fingers and (Catfish) Hunter and (Dennis) Eckersley and the rest,'' said Ken Korach, King's A's broadcast partner the past 10 years. "He's meant more to the organization than anyone. He touched so many lives -- he was like a member of the family for millions of people.

"I thought he was the greatest sportscaster this country every produced.''

Former Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who hired King to announce for the team when it moved to San Francisco from Philadelphia, said, "He had incredible eye-to-brain-to-mouth coordination. He was able to see everything so quickly and tell you about it. He was just phenomenal.''

Even the players appreciated that.

"I cannot believe that there ever was a better radio basketball play-by-play man than Bill King,'' said former Warriors forward Rick Barry, who hosts a talk show on KNBR. "Nobody, nobody had the vocabulary. ... It was like poetry almost. ... You could visualize with Bill. He created television in your mind.''

Former A's President Sandy Alderson said, "He was probably the best I've ever heard at describing a sporting event, ever, on the radio. He was so adept at all three sports. There was so much information packed into his description. And it wasn't about him, it was about the game. He had a tremendous respect for the responsibility he had.''

In an interview with The Chronicle in 2003, King was asked what was the greatest satisfaction he got from his job.

He replied: "There's no greater satisfaction than at a critical moment ... you have the right words, and you see it right, and you call it right, and that's when you walk out of the booth feeling, Wow, it was a great day to be here."

A native of Bloomington, Ill., King began his sportscasting career doing minor-league baseball and high school sports in Pekin, Ill. He went on to call Bradley University (Peoria, Ill.,) basketball before moving to the Bay Area in 1958. His early work included filling in on Giants broadcasts when Simmons was doing 49ers games.

"He was broadcasting the Giants from Candlestick on the final day of 1962 when they beat Houston and clinched the tie for the pennant,'' Simmons said.

King also broadcast Cal football and basketball during that period, as well as some games for the San Francisco Seals of the minor league Western Hockey League.

He made his big splash with the Warriors, becoming famous for keeping up with the action and firing barbs at the referees.

"He used to really get on the refs,'' Mieuli said. "The league couldn't do anything to him, but they fined the team. I would get the bill, but I believed in free speech.''

King's criticism wasn't one-sided.

"He wasn't a homer,'' said former Warriors coach and player Al Attles. "He was very passionate about his job, but he was fair and objective. If you did something wrong, he wasn't afraid to say so.''

He added the Raiders to his job list in 1966.

"Bill was a great friend, a brilliant performer and an exceptional man," Raiders owner Al Davis said in a statement. "I say this with great admiration and love that Bill becomes one of the people that I give the cloak of immortality. Time never stops for the great ones."

"Everybody talks about his great voice and his ability to describe and that was true,'' said Scotty Stirling, King's onetime broadcast partner on the Raiders and later general manager of the Warriors. "But what I remember most is his preparation. He would study everything about an opponent and learned enough football so he could see a team line up and know where the play was going to go.''

Broadcaster John Madden, who was the Raiders coach during much of King's time there, agreed. "He didn't just show up in shorts the day of the game and do the broadcast,'' Madden said. "He would come to training camp, get to know the players and the coaches. He was thorough.''

When the Walter Haas family bought the A's in 1981, one of the first things it did was to hire King and Simmons to create one of the highest-profile broadcast teams in professional sports.

"The one thing I regret is that he passed before he got a chance to get into the baseball Hall of Fame,'' said Simmons, who had that honor, the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters, in 2004.

For three years, King was the lead announcer for the A's, Raiders and Warriors. "I don't see how anybody could do that, but he did,'' Greenwald said. "And his work didn't suffer. Broadcasting was his passion. What he really needed was to be at a microphone.''

King finally gave up the Warriors following the 1982-83 season and the Raiders nine years later. He stayed with the A's for 25 years. Although he was unable to travel for much of the 2005 season after injuring himself in a fall during spring training, King worked the entire home schedule that concluded last month. His final broadcast was from Seattle on Oct. 2.

His beard and carefully curled-up mustache gave him a unique look in the traditionally clean- shaven world of broadcasting. And his interests included opera, ballet, painting and Russian history and literature.

"He loved the ballet more than he loved sports,'' Stirling said. "He would always make a point to see it when we were in New York or Chicago and certainly at home in San Francisco.''

And King didn't merely dabble. "Everything he did, he really got into it,'' Simmons said. "He taught himself how to paint, and a lot of what he did was pretty good. ... And for me, eating is something you do three times a day because you're hungry. For Bill, dining was an adventure. He loved ethnic foods and wines. He studied that, too.''

Madden said that King was a born traveling companion. "On road trips I would talk with him to get my mind off football, and he could talk about anything,'' Madden said. "He was as well-versed a person as I've ever been around.''

King's wife Nancy Stephens died last year. He is survived by his stepdaughter Kathleen Lowenthal and her husband Barry of Woodacre, stepson John Stephens of Sausalito and grandchildren Julia and John Lowenthal. Memorial services are pending.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Smuin Ballet, 300 Brannan Street, Suite 407, San Francisco, CA 94107 or the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, P.O. Box 809, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956.
Bill King, 1927-2005

Hometown: Bloomington, Ill.

Local residence: Sausalito

Play-by-play: San Francisco/Golden State Warriors, 1962-83.

Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, 1966-92.

Oakland A's, 1981-2005.

Also: King began his career on Guam with Armed Forces Radio, and started broadcasting sports in the late '40s in Pekin, Ill., calling minor-league baseball and high school football and basketball. He came to the Bay Area in 1958 and was hired by KSFO to work on Giants broadcasts. He also called Cal football and basketball games, and did color commentary for the San Francisco Seals hockey team.

Source: Oakland Athletics, Chronicle staff
'Holy Toledo': The words of Bill King

Here is Bill King's description of the "Holy Roller" play when Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler fumbled the ball forward, and ultimately Dave Casper grabbed it in the end zone for a game-winning TD at San Diego on Sept. 10, 1978:

"The ball, flipped forward, is loose. A wild scramble. Two seconds on the clock. Casper grabbing the ball. It is ruled a fumble. Casper has recovered in the end zone. The Oakland Raiders have scored on the most zany, unbelievable, absolutely impossible dream of a play. Madden is on the field. He wants to know if it's real. They said yes, get your big butt out of here. He does. There's nothing real in the world anymore. The Raiders have won the football game.''

This is King's call of George Blanda's game-winning field goal for the Raiders against Cleveland on Nov. 8, 1970, during Blanda's stretch of heroics at the age of 43:

"Here it is. Snapped, spotted. It's kicked. That's got a chance. That is ... good. It's good. Holy Toledo, the place has gone wild. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. There are three seconds left in the game. There are three seconds left in the game. Well, if you can hear me, this place has gone wild. The Oakland Raiders 23, the Cleveland Browns 20. George Blanda has just been elected king of the world.''
King was at his best during a game's most dramatic moments.

Here is his call of Scott Hatteberg's pinch-hit homer that gave the A's a 12-11 victory over Kansas City on Sept. 4, 2002. It capped Oakland's American League-record 20-game win streak:

"Now the pitch. Swung on, there's a high drive, hit way back, right-center field. That one is gone, and it's 20 consecutive victories for the Oakland Athletics on an unbelievable night when they lost an 11-0 lead and now they win it.''

Here is his call of Miguel Tejada's game-tying homer at Seattle on Sept. 26, 2002. The A's would win in 10 innings, clinching the AL West title:

"Sasaki ready and pours it in. Tejada swings and lifts it high in the air to right, down toward the corner. Ichiro going back, and that ball is gone. A home run for Miguel Tejada, his 200th hit of the season, and the A's have tied the game against Sasaki. Holy Toledo!''

King's rapid-fire delivery in basketball was unmatched. The following is from the 1975 Western Conference finals, when the Warriors -- with Charles Johnson (CJ) and Rick Barry -- overcame Chicago en route to the NBA title:

"Here's CJ, top of the key. Works the dribble to the left. Backs into the left corner. Causes a switch. Over to Barry. Barry, guarded by Van Lier, the smaller man. Barry, dribbling, to the baseline. 13-footer. He had a good look. Good. 94-90. Barry now is on a runaway tear.''

Courtesy of Bruce Macgowan, Jeff Swisher and KNBR archives (Raiders, Warriors) and Robert Buan (A's).

Chronicle staff writers Steve Kroner and Susan Slusser contributed to this report.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/19/MNG3NFAOF71.DTL