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John H Ward (April 22, 1930 – June 20, 2018) was an American sportscaster, best known as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...
(UT), primarily from 1965 until 1999, and known to fans as the "Voice of the Vols".


Background

Ward grew up in South Knoxville. His father, Herschel, was principal at the
Tennessee School for the Deaf The Tennessee Schools for the Deaf (TSD) is a state-operated residential and day school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who reside in the state of Tennessee ranging from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 also includes a post-secondary transition ...
, and interpreted radio broadcasts of Vols football games for students. John later described his father as "a great communicator, much better than I ever was." John graduated from Knoxville High School in 1948, and graduated from University of Tennessee-Knoxville with a degree in Political Science in 1952. He earned a
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
degree in 1954 at the
University of Tennessee College of Law The University of Tennessee College of Law is the law school of the University of Tennessee located in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1890, the College of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a charter member of the Ass ...
. Rather than practicing law, he decided to go into
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
and
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
. Ward's first broadcast of a university basketball game for the
Vol Network Vol or Vols may refer to: * Vol (command), a computer operating system command * Vol (heraldry), a heraldic charge * Volatility (finance) * Volume (disambiguation) * Volunteer (Irish republican) * Nashville Vols, an American minor league baseball ...
came in 1958. (Under the leadership of football coach
Robert Neyland Robert Reese Neyland (; February 17, 1892 – March 28, 1962) was an American football player and coach and officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He served three stints as the head football coach at the Univ ...
, sports broadcasting rights had been taken in-house.) Shortly thereafter, Ward joined the
army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
. After returning to Knoxville, Ward went to work at the Lavidge and Davis advertising agency. In 1964 he began handling the duties as announcer-host-coordinator for University of Tennessee coaches' television shows in football and
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
. His broadcasting career blossomed when he became the Vols' radio play-by-play voice, first, for basketball in 1965 and three years later for football (1968). The first Tennessee football game for John was scheduled on September 14, 1968, with Tennessee against Georgia in Knoxville where the game ended in a tie 17-17. The season was successful for coach Doug Dickey (8-2-1) but Tennessee lost in the January 1, 1969, Cotton Bowl 36-13 to Texas

Ward was a brother of the
Lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ri ...
chapter of
Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and col ...
at the University of Tennessee.


Career

In addition to his duties with the Vol Network, Ward covered events for ABC-TV and
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
. For his entire tenure as the voice of Vol football, his color commentator was former Vols tight end Bill Anderson. They were the longest-running broadcasting partnership in college football at the time. For most of his tenure as the Vols' radio voice, he could be heard across much of the eastern half of North America on Nashville's
WLAC WLAC (1510 AM) – branded ''Talkradio 98.3 & 1510'' – is a commercial talk radio radio station licensed to serve Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station covers the Nashville metropolitan area. The WLAC studios are located ...
, a 50,000-watt clear-channel station. Among Ward's trademark calls: *"It's football time in Tennessee!": How he began each broadcast of a Volunteer football game * "Give ... him ... SIX! TOUCHDOWN TENNESSEE!": His normal touchdown call. He often prefaced this by counting runners toward the goal line with "Four, three, two, one..." * "Did he make it? HE MADE IT!": After a made field goal * "BOTTOM!": After a made basket in basketball. After the 1998–99 football and basketball seasons, in which the Volunteers won the National Championship in football, Ward and Anderson retired, and were replaced by
Bob Kesling Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...
and Tim Priest, respectively. In his final season as "Voice of the Vols," UT named the fourth level of the East Skybox at
Neyland Stadium Neyland Stadium ( ), is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Foot ...
"The John Ward Broadcast Center." Ward's final football broadcast was the
1999 Fiesta Bowl The 1999 Fiesta Bowl, the designated BCS National Championship Game for the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season, 1998 season, was played on January 4, 1999, in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium. The teams were the 1998 Tennessee Volunteers f ...
, the first BCS national championship. Tennessee defeated Florida State to win its second undisputed national championship. Earlier in that season, Ward called Tennessee's last-second victory over
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, in which a missed Gator field goal gave the Vols their first win over the Gators in eight years. His final basketball broadcast for the Vols came in the second round of the 1999 NCAA men's tournament, with Tennessee's loss to Southwest Missouri State University on March 21. In later years, Ward still did some commercial radio advertisements and
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s heard statewide. The John Ward Broadcast Center in Ward's honor in 1995. Ward is a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998,
Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs and Country ...
recorded a promotional single in tribute of Ward's retirement that same year, titled "Touchdown Tennessee".


Personal life

John Ward married Barbara Mae Tallent on Saturday, December 23, 1961, at the First Christian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. (The Knoxville Journal (Knoxville, Tennessee)25 Dec 1961, Page 6). John and Barbara never had children. In 1994, they donated an estimated $2 million to the UT athletics department. Barbara died July 20, 2017, following a traffic accident.


Death

Ward died on June 20, 2018, at the age of 88. John is buried at Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery, Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, next to his wife Barbara


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, John 1930s births Date of birth missing 2018 deaths Atlanta Falcons announcers Tennessee Volunteers basketball announcers Tennessee Volunteers football announcers College football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States University of Tennessee alumni United States Football League announcers