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Lawrence Harry "Larry" Munson (September 28, 1922 – November 20, 2011) was a Bulldogs football games from 1966 to 2008. He also handled the play-by-play for UGA basketball and Atlanta Falcons radio broadcasts and hosted sports-related talk shows.
Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Munson attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis and Minnesota State University Moorhead. While at MSUM, he played basketball as a Center (basketball) and guard and football as an end and tackle.[1]
Munson served as a United States Army medic in an Army Hospital during World War II.[1] Upon leaving the military, he spent all $200 of his mustering-out pay to enroll in a Minneapolis radio broadcasting school.[2] His first job was at a Minneapolis arena announcing the names of boxers and wrestlers for $15 a week.[3]
After an on-air job at the KDLR AM radio station in Devils Lake, North Dakota, Munson moved on to AM radio station KFBC in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as a sports reporter in 1946.[2] At KFBC, Munson met and became friends with co-worker Curt Gowdy.[4] At that time, Gowdy was also the football announcer for the Wyoming Cowboys. Later in 1946, Gowdy took a job in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as the announcer for a minor league baseball team and successfully recommended Munson as his replacement for the Wyoming Cowboys job. When Gowdy became a New York Yankees announcer in 1948, he recommended Munson again to replace him in Oklahoma City.[4]
Munson broadcast in Oklahoma until 1952 when he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, for an announcing job with the Nashville Vols minor league baseball team on AM radio station WKDA.[5] During the baseball off-season, Munson convinced local Nashville radio station WSM (AM) to broadcast Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball games with himself as the announcer. The basketball broadcasts were immediately successful, and WSM added Vanderbilt Commodores football games to its schedule as well with Munson as the broadcaster.[6] Munson, along with local sportsman Herman Waddell, created a local television show about hunting and fishing called The Rod & Gun Club on NBC affiliate WSM-TV, a local Nashville station.[7]
In 1966, the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team hired Munson as part of their initial broadcast team, the franchise having moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta.[7]
The first year the Braves were in Atlanta, the television broadcasts were on WSB-TV. An occasional guest color commentator was former major leaguer Dizzy Dean. One memorable Friday night during a rain delay, Dean warbled several verses of the Wabash Cannonball and purchased peanuts from a vendor in the stands, much to Munson's on-air amusement.[8]
In March 1966, Munson was in
Some of Munson's well known calls include:
Munson died in Athens on November 20, 2011, after complications from pneumonia.[20][21] Some 3,500 fans attended a tribute ceremony at Sanford Stadium on December 10, 2011.[22]
In the spring of 2008, Munson suffered a subdural hematoma and required emergency surgery. After undergoing rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, his family announced that he would be returning to call the home games in the fall of 2008. However, on September 22, 2008, Munson and his family announced that he would be retiring from the booth effective immediately. The road crew of Scott Howard and former UGA quarterback Eric Zeier finished out the season calling all games on the Georgia Bulldogs Radio Network.
Approaching his 85th birthday in 2007, Munson was in failing health and planned to call only UGA home games that season. Prior to the 2007 season, Munson had missed only one game as announcer, a 34-3 loss to Clemson on October 6, 1990: he was recuperating from back surgery and Dave O'Brien substituted.[19] Munson also called the Georgia-Georgia Tech game which was at Georgia Tech in 2007.
Munson's gravelly voice was one of the most distinctive in all of U.S. sports announcing and was regarded as endearing by Georgia Bulldog fans. Unlike many of his peers, Munson avoided any pretense of journalistic objectivity or accuracy during his broadcasts. He was an unabashed Bulldog fan who almost always referred to the Bulldogs as "we." However, despite his open and unashamed homerism, he generally espoused a dour or pessimistic view of the team. For that reason, his broadcasts were considered among the modern generation of sportscasters as not only acceptable, but sometimes even more authentic than contemporary sportscasting. His unique turns of phrase – which were virtually always made offhand – became a part of Bulldog fan vernacular.[18]
[17] Munson has received numerous awards honoring his accomplishments. In 2003, he received the
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Cold War, Battle of Stalingrad, Nazi Germany, Battle of the Atlantic, Second Sino-Japanese War
United States Air Force, American Revolutionary War, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina
Babe Ruth, Subway Series, New York Mets, Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra
Tuna, Recreational fishing, World War II, Seafood, Squid
National Football League, Atlanta, San Diego Chargers, New York Giants, Matt Ryan
Open access, Jacksonville Jaguars, Florida Gators football, College football, Tampa, Florida
/ia Bulldogs football team, Vanderbilt University, Texas A&M University, University of Florida, University of Kentucky
Minnesota, Minneapolis Public Schools, %s%s, United States, Theodore Roosevelt
Cartoon Network, Atlanta, Dvd, Paris, Homeschooling
Harmon White Caldwell, Charles Melton Snelling, Mercer University, Southern Conference, Southeastern Conference