GOZIPS.COM COLUMNS
"Pardon My French" - with Steve
French
ZIPS ATHLETICS RAISING THE BAR
This has been the best athletics year in the history of the
University of Akron. Period.
There have been great team and individual performances. The men's
basketball team had another breathtaking (and heartstopping) run to
the NCAA Tournament, its second in three years. The men¹s
track team won its first MAC Indoor title. The tennis team has had
the best results in its
history the past two seasons, ranking in the top 70, and recently
rang in the month of May with its first ever MAC Championship. The
mens' golf team blew away the field at the Illini Invitational,
rubbing out nine Big Ten teams, seven of which were ranked. The
mens' soccer team won the national championship.
Oh yeah, what was the last item again? That national championship
thing.
It is the greatest achievement in school history, and with all due
respect, nothing else comes close. If every other Zips' team and
athlete had finished last in everything during the 2010-11 academic
calendar, it still would have been The University of Akron's best
year. That's how big
this national championship thing has been.
Consider these numbers (sorry, I love numbers). It was Akron's
first national team title ever. No other Division I school in Ohio
has a national title this year, including The School down
south.
No Mid-American Conference school has won a team title in 46 years.
Only two schools in the MAC have won titles while conference
members. By comparison, Ohio State has one football national title
since 1970. No Ohio school has won the NCAA men's basketball
championship since 1962. To summarize, this national championship
is off-the-charts huge.
Soccer, by the way, is not some niche sport. There are 204 colleges
handing out Division I soccer scholarships. That's 84 more than
football and about 130 more than wrestling. Only 48 schools make
the NCAA Tournament. And one is left standing at the end.
That one, of course, was Caleb Porter¹s Zips. In its
tournament run, Akron beat two teams each from the Big East and Big
Ten, and one from the Pac-10. That last one would be the Cal Golden
Bears, in a shootout after a 3-3 tie, in the quarterfinals. That
game at Lee Jackson (now Cub Cadet) Field may have been the most
remarkable sporting event ever on campus. Two months later, 12 of
the 22 starters in that game would be Major League Soccer draft
picks. And it¹s always fun to watch California boys
shiver!
The Zips would go on to have five student-athletes drafted in the
first seven picks, something you may never see again. How about
four Academic All-Americans? And a second-straight Herman Trophy
winner in Darlington Nagbe (by the way with Steve Zakuani in 2009,
it should have been three in a row).
I've been broadcasting Zips' sports since the mid-80s. It is still
tough to wrap my mind around all that's happened. Twenty years from
now, when we look back on this past soccer season, it will still
boggle peoples' minds.
This past year, I broadcasted two television games on STO and six
more on FoxSportsradio 1350-AM. Plans are in the works for 2011.
One more number (sorry): 39. Akron has gone 39-straight matches
without a loss at home. That ties the NCAA record. The Zips will
try and break that mark on Aug. 27 against Cleveland State, the
only team to beat them in the run of play the past two seasons.
That's in 52 games, folks. National Champions. That will always
sound good. And it's ours, forever.
Steve French has been behind the microphone for 20-plus seasons
as the
radio play-by-play ³Voice of the Zips² for men¹s
basketball, football and
men¹s soccer. When not broadcasting Akron games, French
serves as sports
director at WNIR 100 FM ³The Talk of Akron² and is
part of the station¹s
highly-rated morning drive program.
"Well Dunn" - with Joe Dunn
The American Airlines charter flight raced down the runway at
Akron-Canton Airport in the early afternoon of March 16 on the way
to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
On board was the Mid-American Conference champion University of
Akron basketball team and coaching staff. Zippy and the
cheerleaders, the 29 member Akron pep band, athletic department
administrators and two lucky radio announcers named Joe Dunn and
Steve French had also been invited.
Yes, we were all going to the "Big Dance" and our date with the
"Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame.
Head Coach Keith Dambrot had surprised the players by letting them
sit in the first class section of the plane. As I walked to my seat
I passed a smiling Josh Egner. I couldn't help but wonder how many
players had won a state championship last season and were now going
to the NCAA tournament the following year. What were the odds
on that happening?
As the big plane rolled to a stop at O'Hare we could see three
buses waiting to take us to the Chicago Hilton on South Michigan
Avenue in downtown Chicago. Ten minutes into a 40 minute trip
through rush hour traffic our driver informed us that the air
conditioning was not working.
The final 30 minutes of the trip were pure torture. The Zips had
been one of the hottest teams in the country the last week of the
season, but this was ridiculous.
Conversation at dinner centered on the Virginia Commonwealth
basketball team and head coach Shaka Smart. Smart had been an
assistant coach at Akron and still talked with Dambrot on a daily
basis. They were due in Chicago later that night after beating USC
in a first round game in Dayton the night before. Basketball
experts said VCU had no chance of winning in Chicago.
It's interesting who you meet in a hotel lounge. A Purdue fan had
arrived from California and told us the Boilermaker fans would be
up on their feet cheering for the Zips. She said Purdue fans hated
Notre Dame ever since Digger Phelps refused to play them during his
tenure in South Bend.
She also said her boss had played football for Akron in the late
80's. I never heard of him. A sparkling new bus arrived early
Thursday morning to take the Zips to their morning practice at the
University of Illinois-Chicago. The bus driver told us the air
conditioning on his bus was working just fine. He said his company
had received a call regarding the bus that had picked us up at the
airport yesterday afternoon. It's amazing how much power the NCAA
has.
Our next stop was the United Center where Akron was scheduled for a
noon "open team" practice. All teams were given 40 minutes to
shoot around and get used to the playing floor. Steve French and I
stopped by the media center to pick up our credentials and then
headed down to press row to find our broadcast location.
Veteran sports announcer Wayne Larrivee stopped over to say hello
and ask about Akron players and coaches. Larrivee, who is the radio
voice of the Green Bay Packers, was scheduled to do the national
radio broadcast with former Georgetown coach John Thompson on the
Westwood One radio network. Larrivee was a class act who stopped
over to thank us again on Friday. He even remembered our names.
I¹m still waiting to meet the TV announcers. Stephen Griffin,
the father of Jackson basketball players Stevie and Miles, had told
me during the season that I sounded like Milwaukee Brewers
announcer Bob Uecker. I told Larrivee the story and he said I even
looked
like a young Bob Uecker. Was that a compliment?
Later that night Steve French called the front desk at the Hilton
to find out where we could get a "Chicago Hot Dog". She told us a
place called Al's Beef was very good and just a short walk from the
hotel. French had been on a diet all season long so I was surprised
when he ordered two "Chicago Dogs" with fries. I promised not to
tell his wife.
After an early breakfast with the team on Friday morning French and
I took a cab to the United Center to set up our radio equipment for
our broadcast back to the Akron-Canton area. Steve and I both
noticed how close the chairs were on press row and how little space
we had to work with. I could tell French was wishing he had ordered
only one ³Chicago Dog² the night before.
The Texas A&M radio crew arrived a few minutes later to set up
for their game with Florida State. The Texas announcers had us
laughing with all the stories about college basketball in Texas.
Akron had played the Aggies in College Station the year before and
stayed close until the final minutes of the game.
Josh Egner was the first Zip to come on the floor before the game.
The NCAA had placed guards on the basketball racks until 30 minutes
before tipoff, so Egner sat on the bench and waited. Ben Hansbrough
was the first Notre Dame player to arrive on the court. Hansbrough
tried several times to get basketballs from the NCAA guards but was
rebuked every time. He proceeded to walk around the floor like a
caged tiger, jumping up and hanging on the rim several times,
before racing over to the ball rack with 30 minutes on the pre-game
clock.
Fans begin to pour into the United Center an hour before tipoff.
Notre Dame fans had gobbled up all the available tickets in Chicago
and could be seen sitting in every area of the arena. We were told
about 1,000 Akron fans were expected to be in the seats for the
game. Of course, we knew the Purdue fans would be on our side and I
was guessing Texas A&M and Florida State would turn on the
Irish if the game got close.
The Zips fell behind early, but a great run late in the first half
cut the Irish lead to four. Akron¹s senior guard Daryl Roberts
had a wide-open three in the final seconds of the half but left it
short. Akron had not played well, but was still in the game, down
34-30 at halftime. The Notre Dame faithful were nervous.
The first seven minutes of the second half cost Akron the game. The
Zips could not score and fell behind by double digits before going
on another run to cut the Notre Dame lead to five at 49-44. Irish
fans had visions of another early exit from the NCAA before putting
the game away in the final four minutes. The Akron team that had
shot the ball so well at the Mid American Conference tournament the
week before was left thinking "what if" after the game. What if the
Zips had made the shots they normally make?
The Irish were ready to get beat and came back with another sub-par
performance two days later in a loss to Florida State. When the
Zips were 12-10 midway thru the season, nobody was thinking about
the NCAA Tournament. Akron had to win four games in five days to
capture the conference championship. When teams get hot and
start believing, anything is possible. The trip to Chicago was a
learning experience for young Zips like Josh Egner, Alex Abreu and
Zeke Marshall.
Next season can't come soon enough for the Zips and their fans.
This column appeared in the April 2, 2011, edition of The
Suburbanite Newspaper and on TheSuburbanite.com. It is reprinted
here with permission.
Joe Dunn, a former staff member of the Akron Athletics
Department, serves as courtside commentator for Zips men¹s
basketball radio broadcasts and fills the role of sideline reporter
during UA football games. An expert on the Ohio prep sports scene,
Dunn is co-host of BigTime Sports Ohio, a weekly television show
covering high school sports throughout Northeast Ohio.
