This coming Friday night I will start my eight season as the play-by-play guy for the North Lamar Panthers football team. Next month I will start season number two as the play-by-play guy for the Texas A&M Commerce Volleyball Team. I’ll also do high school basketball, softball and baseball as well this year. Around this time of the year I always have to pinch myself and ask if this is really happening to me. In order to understand why this is amazing to me, you have to understand the history.

When I was a teenager, my parents moved the family to North East Texas. When this happened, they decided to not pay for television service. So for the next four years, I had to be creative with the way that I consumed different types of media.

I am a huge sports fan. Part of this is because of this four year period of my life. During this time, I consumed sporting events via the radio.

I listened to Mark Holtz and Eric Nadel every chance I could get. They described Texas Rangers baseball in such a way that I felt like I was sitting right behind home plate watching the game. They would give the dimensions of the stadium and I knew exactly how far the ball would have to travel to be a home run. I was captivated.

Even though I’m a die-hard Buffalo Bills, I listened to every Dallas Cowboys thanks to Brad Sham and Dale Hansen. Once again, they described the action in such detail that I felt like I was at the game. I had never attended a pro football game to that point, but those two made me think I had.

The Dallas Mavericks at that time were my favorite team to follow on a consistent basis. I loved basketball. I consumed every basketball game I could. It was an absolute thrill when I got to watch a basketball game on television, but I loved the radio broadcasts. I can’t even tell you who the broadcasters were for the Mavs radio. All I know is that Dallas was terrible. They won 11 games and 13 games in back-to-back season (92-93 & 93-94) but I didn’t care. I sat there and listened to every game. I remember being able to hear the shoes squeak on the floor in the background. I remember the horn sounding to signify the end of the quarter or half. I laid there in my bed listening night in and night out. Most of the time the house was quiet because everyone else was in bed asleep.

In 1994, I started consuming Dallas Stars the same way. I listened to Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh call all the action. Once again, they described the play on the ice in such a way that made me want to keep listening. Every shot and every hit was magnified because of how much they loved the sport and how great they were at telling the listeners about it. Most people know my love for hockey and a lot of it has to do with these two broadcasters back in the day.

Fast forward to today. I am still a huge fan of consuming sports via the radio. I would prefer to listen to Brad Sham call the Cowboys game to this day over listening to the television play-by-play guys. He has not lost one step in his ability to make listeners feel like they are at the game. Hockey is a different animal because the radio and television crew are the same. If you’re listening on the radio, you are also hearing what is being said on the television set.

Eric Nadel is still doing Ranger play-by-play and he is still the same as I remember from my teenage years. The way he describes the color of the glove the pitcher is holding right before he delivers the next offering to the batter is seamless and effortless.

And then there is the Mavericks. I will admit that this is the only sport that I am fine with either television or radio. The reason I say that is because I believe the Mavericks have the absolute best in both places. The television crew of Mark Followill, Derek Harper and Jeff “Skin” Wade are outstanding. The radio side, though, features Chuck Cooperstein and Brad Davis. Both of these crews do an outstanding job of calling basketball games.

I have had the opportunity to work along side Followill, Harper, Cooperstein and Wade when I was covering the Mavericks for Dallas Sports Fanatics. I sat in the interview room with them as the head coach talked about the game and took questions. I was probably more awe struck about the broadcasting crew then I was the Mavs head coach sitting right in front of me. One time Followill walked in to the room and said, “Hi Greg.” I thought I had finally arrived.

I had the privilege of meeting Brad Sham while covering an XFL game in Dallas last spring. I let him know that he has influenced me in so many ways and that I do what I do today because of him.

Truth is, everyone name I mentioned above is why I do what I do today. I don’t do it for them. I do it because they are the reason I love broadcasting sports. If you hear me describe jersey colors and numbers its because that’s what I heard them do. If I’m describing the crowd at the stadium its because I heard it from them. They taught me how to describe the play as its developing.

I never went to school for this. I didn’t sit in a classroom. I learned how to broadcast sporting events from a radio. So if you’re in the car and you hear me broadcasting a game, just know I’m doing what I absolutely love to do. I just hope I’m doing it half as good as any of these guys.