HSGN's Top 10 Twin Cities Play-By Play Announcers of All Time

They are the people who provide the sounds of Minnesota sports, describing the action to fans unable to attend the game.  Here's HSGN's list of the Top 10 Play-By-Play-Announcers of All Time.  

1.  Ray Christensen:  Name a team prior to the advent of the Wolves, Wild and Lynx and chances are that Ray Christensen has called the action.  In addition to calling the Twins, Minneapolis Lakers, Vikings, Millers and Saints, he's best known for his work over 50 years as the voice of University of Minnesota football and basketball.  He was blessed with one of the best radio voices in this market and when you first tuned into the game, you could tell by the tone of his voice if the Gophers were winning or losing.  

2.  Herb Carneal:  For 42 seasons, he was a familiar voice to baseball fans throughout the Upper Midwest as he described the day to day action of the Twins.  Through three World Series in 1965, 1987 and 1991, Carneal was there calling the games in a simple, straightforward manner.  No home run call and free of cliches, Carneal who joined the Twins in 1962 was a soothing and refreshing voice to many who tuned in along the Twins radio network.  

3.  Al Shaver:  He came to Minnesota from Canada in 1967 to become the voice of the Minnesota North Stars.  For 26 years, he brought knowledge, enthusiasm and a solid rhythm of the sport to hockey fans across the state.  In addition to his North Stars duties, he was the play-by-play voice for KSTP-TV's coverage of the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, earning outstanding reviews from John Carman in The Minneapolis Star.  When the North Stars departed for Dallas in 1993, Shaver was hired by KSTP-AM to call Gopher hockey until he decided to retire to Vancouver Island.  Shaver's legacy lives on with his son Wally as the current voice of Gopher hockey and grandson Jason is in the booth for thee AHL's Chicago Wolves.  

4.  Dick Bremer:  For 38 years, Bremer has been the voice for televised Twins games, many of them with Bert Blyleven.  He was a sports anchor at WTCN-TV (now KARE) and also the play-by-play man for KMSP-TV's coverage of the state basketball tournaments.  He's currently the longest serving play-by-play announcer for a single team in this market.  

5.  Joe McConnell:  A versatile broadcaster, McConnell has served two stints with the Vikings and also joined Carneal on Twins radio broadcasts.  But wait, there's more.  McConnell is also an outstanding basketball announcer.  Though he never was a Wolves broadcaster, he was the lead voice of the team's produced NBA Radio coverage that included the All Star Game that was held at Target Center.  Though he frequently got excited after a big play, he was everything a radio play-by-play man is supposed to be,  the eyes of the listener.  

6.  Kevin Harlan:  The original radio and TV voice of the Wolves before going on to bigger opportunities calling basketball and football for CBS and the NBA on TNT.  But his masterpiece is his work on Westwood One's coverage of Monday Night Football.  He is the best national broadcaster for football because like McConnell, he paints an outstanding word picture for listeners.  If you never heard him call a football game on radio, turn on 100.3 FM on Monday nights.  You will be impressed.  

7.  Ted Robinson:  Another broadcaster with a Twin Cities resume' that has gone national.  He also is a very versatile broadcaster, calling the Twins, Gophers and the state basketball and hockey tournaments.  He also filled in on a Wolves radio broadcast while Harlan did the TV portion.  He later went on to do Olympic diving, speedskating and baseball for NBC as well as a sport he has described for more than 30 years, tennis.  He has been the voice for the French Open and Wimbledon and currently calls matches for The Tennis Channel.  

8.  Halsey Hall:  One of the earliest sportscasters in the Twin Cities, Hall was the long-time voice of the Minneapolis Millers as well as Gopher Football.  When the Twins came from Washington in 1961, he was one of the original broadcasters along with Bob Wolff and Ray Scott before Carneal replaced Wolff in 1962.  He was the first broadcaster to use the phrase "Holy cow!" before Phil Rizzuto and Harry Caray.  Hall's legacy lives on as the name sake of the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (where the author of this blog has been actively involved since 1985.)  

9.  Dave Lee:  Best known as host of the morning show on WCCO Radio.  What a lot of people probably don't know about Lee is that he is an outstanding sportscaster.  When Christensen retired after a 50 year career on Gopher football and basketball, Lee replaced him.  He was the anchor of the best radio broadcast team in this market, working with Dave Mona and former Gopher running back Darrell Thompson before Learfield Sports broke up the team and hired Mike Grimm.  In addition to calling St. Thomas football games, Lee has broadcast the state basketball tournaments and Prep Bowl for KSTC-TV.  He's a broadcaster who never dominates the game and has good chemistry with his on-air sidekicks.  

10.  Sloane Martin:  An up and coming broadcaster, Martin is on this list because she is a groundbreaker in Twin Cities sports broadcasting.  She's the first female voice for a major league sports team and the first to broadcast the state hockey tournaments as well as the Prep Bowl.  She has an outstanding future ahead of her in this market but she is to this area as Beth Mowins and Pam Ward are to ESPN.  A bright future of Martin.  

Those are the 10 best play-by-play voices of all-time in the Twin Cities.  It was a tough choice to pick seven of the ten but these are soe of the greatest broadcasters in Twin Cities sports.

1971: The Last Minnesota High School Football Season Without a State Tournament

 For the first time since the start of the state tournament format in 1972, there will be no state tournament and Prep Bowl due to the COVID 19 pandemic.  However, the last season without a state tournament was 1971 and HSGN will go back to the last full season without a state tournament.  

It was the fall of 1971, Bud Grant was coaching the Minnesota Vikings, All in the Family was a groundbreaking sitcom on prime time TV and Minnesota high school football was in the final season minus a state tournament.  What was high school football in Minnesota back then?  Here are some of the top teams around the state.  

Starting off with the Minneapolis City Conference, the Washburn Millers under head coach George Wemeier were one of the area's dominant teams.  Not only did they go unbeaten in eight games, they won six of eight via shutout, thanks to a very solid defense.  In addition to the Millers, there was also the Edison Tommies, located in the northeast part of the city.  Because a lot of the schools home fields did not have lights, some games were played under the bright lights at Parade Stadium, which would later become the site of the Class AA championship games.  

Like the boy band of the 80s, there were new kids on the block in 1971.  Head up Brooklyn Blvd. to Brooklyn Park and there would be the home of the Park Center Pirates.  The Pirates went 6-1 in their maiden voyage and tied with the Fridley Tigers for the Skyline Conference title.  Park Center's head coach would later go on to a long and successful tenure with the Brainerd Warriors, Ron Stolski.  The other newcomer, though in its second season was the Armstrong Falcons, based in Plymouth and part of the Robbinsdale district.  Back then, Armstrong as well as Robbinsdale and Cooper would play their home games at Mielke Field, now the site of a Cub Foods store.  The Falcons were led by Jerry Haugen, who led the Lake Conference with 124 points, second to Jerry Pelletier of Bloomington, who later played for Minnesota.  

And speaking of Robbinsdale, the Robins were one of the top teams in the Lake Conference.  Head coach Irv Nerdahl, in his 30th season leading the Robins would help guide the school to its 10th Lake title and their first unbeaten season since 1960.  Robbinsdale also got statewide TV exposure when they were on WTCN's(now KARE) high school game of the week.  They faced the Bloomington Jefferson jaguars, coached by Bruno Waldner and won 20-14.  

Over in the capitol city of St. Paul, there was a three way deadlock for the city conference title with Harding, Murray and Highland Park finishing with identical 7-1 records.  

What about some schools outside the Twin Cities area?  In the Big Nine Conference, there were the Albert Lea Tigers, who were undefeated in 1970 and under the veteran leadership of Jim Gustafson.  Also in the southern portion of Minnesota, there was the small town of Bricelyn, where the Braves went unbeaten to extend their winning streak to 19 games.  

The 1971 season would be monumental for Montevideo, unbeaten and on a quest for their first undefeated season since 1917 and their first West Central Conference title since 1951.  

But the team that the Minneapolis Tribune would dub the mythical state champion was located in northwestern Minnesota.  The Moorhead Spuds, coached by Jim Gotta since 1959 went unbeaten and lost only one game in three years.  One member of the Spuds, Brad Atchison would be the starting quarterback on the Spuds first state tournament team in 1972, losing to the Minneapolis Washburn Millers at Met Stadium in Bloomington.  Atchison would later be the head coach of the Willmar High School girls basketball team.  He headed the Cardinals for 35 seasons until he retired in 2012.  

So that was what the state of Minnesota high school football was like in 1971.  The following season, the Minnesota State High School League enacted a five class (now seven) state tournament format.  Championship games would be at sites throughout the state until the Prep Bowl debuted in 1982 at the Metrodome.  But in 1971, when state titles were nonexistant, it was just the regular season and that was it.  

An Abrupt End to the Fall Sports Season

 The fall high school sports season in Minnesota has been a whirly twirly topsy one with late starts, postponements and cancellations due to the COVID 19 pandemic.  But it all came to an abrupt end on November 19 since Governor Tim Walz instituted a four week pause on youth and high school sports in the state.  

This also meant the football and volleyball seasons would end without a true state champion.  For football, it would be the first time since the state tournament era began in 1972 that there will be no state tournament.  

Even the Prep Bowl, which has been held since 1982 will not take place in 2019 the two days after Thanksgiving and that will leave US Bank Stadium, the current Prep Bowl site empty.  

Since the football season has no state champion since 1971, HSGN has been in the process of researching a future article about the last pre state tournament season.  It should be online prior to Thanksgiving.  

Now where does that leave the upcoming winter sports season?  Will winter sports begin as scheduled,or will some games need to be rescheduled due to the start of practice before the season begins?  Or will our Governor extend the moratorium on high school sports if the number of COVID 19 cases doesn't improve?  

It's a hard question to answer but we will likely know by December 19 if wrestlers, basketball and hockey players as well as skiers, swimmers and gymnasts can start their respective seasons.  How about state tournaments?  Find out in several months.  

2020 Section 5AAAAA Football Preview

 Since there will be no state football tournament this season due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the 2020 football season will wrap up with section play, including St. Louis Park's section 5AAAAA.  Here's a preview of this season's section pairings.  

Looking at the upper bracket, the top seeded Spring Lake Panthers get an opening round bye.  The Panthers have won five straight games since losing their season opener to the Becker Bulldogs.  Four of their five victories have come by way of a shutout.  Spring Lake Park runs a high powered offense that runs the football a lot.  Aaron Payne has led the Panther rushing attack with five touchdowns.  Nate Litke and Aaron Clausen have four touchdowns apiece.  

Spring Lake Park will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between the fifth seeded St. Louis Park Orioles and the fourth seeded Irondale Knights.  It's been a rough road for head coach Jason Foster in his first season leading the Orioles.  The one bright spot came on November 7 when St. Louis Park upset the unbeaten Orono Spartans 35-27.  But four days later, the Orioles fell to earth with a 37-14 drubbing from the unbeaten Chanhassen Storm.  Up in New Brighton, the Irondale Knights played only four games this season due to their games cancelled against Henry Sibley and Armstrong due to the coronavirus.  The Knights shined brightly with wins over the Park Center Pirates and the Eastview Lightning.  Reuben Kings and Jordan Shaw anchor the Irondale backfield that combined for three touchdowns against the Lightning.  Can the Orioles head into a rematch with the Panthers?  It should be an interesting game this coming Tuesday night.  

Looking at the lower bracket, the second seeded Cooper Hawks also get a quarterfinal bye.  The Hawks finished their regular season with a record of 3-3, coming up short on November 11 against the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights 36-34.  Cooper is led by quarterback Joseph Russell and running back Camden Royal who has five touchdowns this season.  

Who will head to New Hope for the semifinals?  It will be the winner of the quarterfinal game between the sixth seeded Park Center Pirates and the third seeded Minneapolis Southwest Lakers.  It's been a dismal year for the Brooklyn Park based Pirates, going 0-6 in the regular season.  They lost their season finale to the Hopkins Royals 38-14.  Quarterback Marcus Freeman and running back Desmond Scott would tally for Park Center.  The Lakers enter section play with a 4-2 record, losing to a pair of perennial powers the St. Croix Lutheran Crusaders and the Minneapolis North Polars.  Southwest is a team that also likes to run the ball, averaging 219 rushing yards per game.  Nick Flaskamp is the Lakers leading rusher with 1103 yards and nine trips to the end zone.  Flaskamp also excels on defense, recording 93 tackles in 2020.  

Get ready for exciting section play beginning Tuesday, November 17.  

Chanhassen Storm Storms Past SLP Orioles

 For the second straight night, a storm hit St. Louis Park.  It wasn't five inches of snow that pelted the Twin Cities Tuesday night, it was the Chanhassen Storm led by Eli Mau's three touchdowns en route to a 37-14 over the host St. Louis Park Orioles Wednesday night.  

Mau would account for both Storm touchdowns in the first quarter.  He scored the first on a five yard pass from Riley Funk and the second on a fur yard run to put Chanhassen ahead 14-0.  

Both teams tallied in the second quarter.  Mau scored his third touchdown of the game on a three yard run to put the Storm ahead 21-0.  There would be no shutout on this chilly Wednesday night as the Orioles would get the zero off their end of the scoreboard.  Setting up the offensive drive was McCabe Dvorak recovering a Chanhassen fumble.  Then came a 45 yard touchdown run from Zeke Oppegaard and Chanhassen led 21-7 at the half.  

McCabe Dvorak would also be a factor in St. Louis Park lone third quarter touchdown.  His brother Will threw a high and long pass down the right side of the field to McCabe and he hauled in a 68 yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 21-14.  Could another upset be in the works for the Orioles?  The answer would be no when Brady Grandstaff did a very grand thing and reached the end zone on a one yard touchdown run to extend the Chanhassen lead to 28-14.  

The Storm would go up by 21 in the fourth quarter when Funk on second and goal at the Oriole 10 yard line threw a touch pass to Brandon Radtke.  They would wrap up the scoring on Gabe Porthan's end zone sack of Will Dvorak for a safety.  

Chanhassen concludes the regular season with a 5-0 record.  St. Louis Park ends the regular season with a record of 1-5.  Both teams enter section play next Tuesday, November 17.  

Chanhassen Storm-SLP Orioles Football Preview

 After a successful Saturday matinee in Long Lake, the St. Louis Park Orioles football team has a short time to prepare for Wednesday night's regular season home finale against the Chanhassen Storm.  

And yes.  The Saturday matinee football game for the Orioles against the unbeaten Orono Spartans turned out to be a huge success as St. Louis Park battled back from a 21 point deficit in the first quarter to score 28 in the second to upset Orono 35-27.  Will Dvorak threw two touchdowns to his brother McCabe and and 79 yard completion to Deontez Ross, Jr.  Zeke Oppegaard scored on a one yard touchdown run.  The only other Spartan touchdown came in the third quarter on a 99 yard fumble return by Graham Beltrand to cut the lead to 28-27.  But good things came to the Orioles in the fourth quarter when Will Dvorak threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game, an eight yard strike to Jordan Moore-Gooden to oust Orono.  The St. Louis Park defense was stellar on that warm Saturday afternoon, recording six sacks and Christian Arteaga had 13 tackles.  Congratulations Jason Foster!  You finally made it to the win column in your first season as head coach.  

The Orioles will face another unbeaten team in the Chanhassen Storm.  Though one of their games got canceled due to COVID-19, the Storm stormed their Highway 5 rival last Friday night, the Waconia Wildcats 34-0.  Senior running back Tucker Pinkerton ran for two touchdowns, a 69 yard run in the second quarter and an eight yard run in the fourth.  The Chanhassen defense held sophomore running back Maxwell McEnelly to 72 yards.  

The keys to the game for the Orioles are for Will Dvorak to continue his momentum at quarterback and for the defense to put pressure on Storm quarterback Riley Funk.  

The Storm's keys to the game are for the offensive line to continue to create opportunities for Pinkerton to get long runs and for the defense to slow down the Orioles running game which hasn't been much this season.  

Wednesday's weather picture will be chillier, with a high in the 40s.  Bundle up.  Game time is 7 PM.  

The Passing of Alex Trebek

He was the host of more than 8,000 episodes of the iconic game show Jeopardy for 37 years.  

If you came up with the correct question as "Who is Alex Trebek?', you're right.  Trebek passed away on November 8 at the age of 80, following a lengthy battle with Stage Four pancreatic cancer.  

Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada on July 22, 1942 and graduated from the University of Ottawa with a major in philosophy.  He got into broadcasting as a way to help finance his studies.  

He began his broadcasting career working for the government ownd Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963 as host of an American Bandstand show titled Music Hop.  Before he came to the United States, he worked at the CBC in both radio and TV, including a high school quiz show titled Reach for the Top.  

In 1973, Trebek got his big break when his friend and fellow Canadian Alan Thicke to become the host of the NBC game show The Wizard of Odds. Though the show only ran for one season opposite CBS' hit game show Gambit, it would not be the end of Trebek's hosting career.  He would go on to host High Rollers, Double Dare (before a kids game with the same name became popular), The $128,000 Question, Pitfall, Battlestars, Classic Concentration and the 1990 incarnation of To Tell the Truth.  

But the show that made Trebek a household name was Jeopardy.  In 1984, Merv Griffin hired him to host the revival of the answer and question game that was last seen in 1979.  After a slow start, the show picked up higher ratings when local stations aired the show in prime time access slots along with another Griffin creation Wheel of Fortune and the show's popularity took off.  

In addition to hosting Jeopardy, Trebek did a lot of work for charitable organizations, including the United Negro College Fund and World Vision.  He was also the long time host of The National Geographic Bee that has aired for years on both PBS and the National Geographic Channel.  

Though diagnosed with Stage Four pancreatic cancer in 2019, Trebek continued to host Jeopardy, including the Greatest of All Time Tournament that featured Ken Jennings,  James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter.

The big question is who will replace Trebek when Jeopardy resumes taping shows to air in 2021.  It's not HSGN policy to speculate on a possible replacement but one candidate comes to mind, Mo Rocca.  He's a regular contributor to the CBS News show Sunday Morning, the NPR radio quiz Wait Wait! Don't Tell Me and also hosted the National Geography Bee.  Who will take over Trebek?  No need to phrase your response in the form of a question because it's a tough clue for Jeopardy fans.  

May he rest in peace.  

SLP Orioles-Orono Spartans Football Preview

 A Saturday matinee wraps up the St. Louis Park Oriole football team's road schedule as they head down Highway 12 to Pesonen Stadium in Long lake to face the unbeaten Orono Spartans.  

Last Friday night, it was another rough road for the Orioles as they were routed by the Spring Lake Park Panthers 49-6.  It was the fourth consecutive game that St. Louis Park has allowed more than 40 points.  They have given up an average of 48 points per game this season.  The one bright spot for the Orioles against the Panthers was a 25 yard touchdown pass from Will Dvorak to Brady Walsh in the second quarter.  But it was all Spring Lake Park who was led by Nate Litke's three touchdowns and 105 rushing yards.  

Looking at the Orono Spartans, they won their fourth straight game with a 26-6 win over the Waconia Wildcats last Friday.  The Spartan defense put the clamps on the Wildcats superb sophomore running back Maxwell McEnelly, holding him to 53 yards.  It was his first game this season under 100 rushing yards.  Orono has a double threat quarterback in Teddy Deters, who threw two touchdown passes to Noah Arneson and ran for one score.  Defense has also played a key to the Spartans successful season, led by Joey Tilzer's 16 tackles last week and Bradley Walker and Nick Hartmann had 10 tackles apiece.  

The key to the Orioles will be for Will Dvorak to try and solve the very tough Orono defense and give Walsh and the other receivers opportunities to put the ball in the end zone.  They also need to get a better running game than last week as they got only 22 yards from Zeke Oppegaard.  

The Spartans key to the game will be for Deters to have another balanced game on offense and the defense to play tough on Will Dvorak.  

It will be a very bright weather picture this Saturday in Long Lake. Get your shorts out of storage for a noon kickoff.