Final-ly Four: At Long Last, Bill Raftery Gets the Call
Bill Raftery and Yogi Berra walk into a bar.
Before we continue, it’s important to note that what comes next is not a joke. Though it is easy to imagine how it might be.
Anyway, this is about 15 years ago, and two of the greatest one-liner artists of their generation have just wrapped up a round of golf on a hot summer day. Their paths had converged at the tiny Essex Fells Country Club in the well-heeled New Jersey suburb, with two other notable sports names: CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz and former NBA All-Star Kelly Tripucka. No one is really sure how the foursome came together, just that it did. A friendly match over 18 holes – Raftery and Nantz versus Berra and Tripucka – with a postscript in the club’s restaurant.
It was supposed to be a quick bite and a drink.
“More one-liners than you could count,” Nantz recalls. “Raft and Yogi? Together? I mean, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
There’s no such thing as a routine day in the company of Bill Raftery. (And there’s certainly no such thing as a “quick bite and a drink” either.) The post-golf B.S. session at the club ran hours over schedule. Raftery was late getting home. So were Nantz, Tripucka and Berra. As Nantz recounts the story of the day, he stops to laugh – at the hilarity of having shared golf, dinner and drinks with Raftery and Berra – and remarks at how perfect the story was. Not because of the company or the jokes or the bad golf swings, but because he didn’t expect it.
He had just been a guest of Raftery, who was invited by Tripucka, who belonged to the club. Then they get there and their fourth is the Yankees’ Hall of Fame catcher. Who else could make that happen? Classic Raftery.
Because things just sort of happen around him. Like timing the jump from college coach at Seton Hall to TV color guy for the fledgling Big East Conference. Like becoming one of the most-recognized voices in college basketball over the course of three decades with CBS, ESPN and Fox Sports 1. Like the catchphrases he yells during telecasts – “Onions!”, “Man-to-man!” and “A little kiss!” – working their way into the sport’s lexicon.
And now, calling his first Final Four on television.
This weekend, he will be broadcasting live from Indianapolis as part of the three-man booth for TBS and CBS’ coverage of the Final Four. It’s something that Raftery never pursued or angled for or even asked about. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen. If it wasn’t? Well, he was never destined for it. But as is often the case with Raftery, it just kind of fell into his lap.
“I never considered it. Honest to God, I never thought about this,” he says. “I just never wanted something that wasn’t mine. I never thought that way. My motto has always been ‘Just do it the best you can and whatever happens, happens.'”
By the time the 1980-81 season had ended, Bill Raftery was feeling tired.
He had just completed his 11th season as the head coach at Seton Hall, but for the first time since 1973, his team endured a losing campaign. The Pirates were 4-10 in Big East play that year (11-16 overall) and the young coach was already wondering if this was worth it. Seton Hall was a small, Catholic school with little resources or serious commitment to basketball. And yet, it was part of a league where it had to play budding behemoths Georgetown, Syracuse and St. John’s twice a year. Still, he had been coaching since 1965 (he was at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, New Jersey before moving to South Orange), what else would he do? What else could he do?
Dave Gavitt, the commissioner of the burgeoning Big East, had that already figured out. He offered Raftery the chance to do color commentating for the league’s games on ESPN. The network was looking for someone with a personality (check), who knew the game (check) and could promote the league (check).
“By the second year, I was starting to get the sense that there were going to be a lot of great players, and there already were a lot of great coaches,” Raftery says. “You could tell that people were going to start doing this. Ex-players and coaches were starting to do TV. I just figured it would be a good move.”
Gavitt gave him 48 hours to decide. Raftery chose TV over Seton Hall – two weeks before the start of the season. His players were crushed, offered to transfer wherever his next destination was. Those who knew him wondered if he was making a sound career move.
But Raftery knew coaching wasn’t for him in the long run. Just to be safe, he took a job working at a local bank, in case the TV gig didn’t pan out. ESPN put him on for nine games during the 1981-82 season. They liked what they heard. Nine games became 12. Twelve became 15. Fifteen games spilled over into to some non-Big East telecasts. Raftery was becoming a popular analyst, for his smart commentary, but also his witty and winning personality. Everything was going smoothly until January 25, 1988, when Pittsburgh forward Jerome Lane caught a pass on a fast break against Providence.
Lane leapt and shattered the backboard with a dunk, ripping the rim off in the process. Raftery’s response on TV?
“SEND IT IN, JEROME!”
In an instant, he was a cult hero.