Jim Nantz’s closing faculty basketball task fittingly will happen in his hometown — properly, certainly one of them, at the least.
The 2023 Ultimate 4, held at NRG Stadium in Houston, would be the final time faculty basketball followers will hear the famed CBS play-by-play announcer. That it is available in Houston, the place Nantz attended faculty and spent the earliest days of his broadcasting profession, is a becoming farewell to an iconic a part of March Insanity.
Whereas Nantz has myriad ties to the Bayou Metropolis, he additionally claims a number of cities as his hometown, together with his hometown and the town the place he spent a very good portion of his childhood. Maybe none is as nice as the connection he has with Houston, or its groups.
With that, The Sporting Information seems to be at Nantz’s ties to Houston, and the a number of cities that maintain significance to the CBS sportscaster:
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The place did Jim Nantz go to school?
Nantz attended the College of Houston, the place other than his research he was additionally a member of the Cougars’ males’s golf group. He even roomed with future professionals Fred {Couples} and Blaine McCallister.
Whereas in faculty, Nantz labored part-time at KTRH Radio whereas additionally internet hosting the Man V. Lewis TV present on KUHT-TV Public TV. He graduated from Houston in 1981 with a bachelor’s diploma in radio and TV broadcasting. Instantly following his commencement from Houston, he spent the primary years of his broadcasting profession working for KHOU 11 in Houston.
Matt Musil, who labored briefly with Nantz whereas the latter was nonetheless in Houston in 1981-82, wrote in 2019 that Nantz can be paid $25 per broadcast he labored as a fill-in anchor. As Musil tells it, he’s additionally the one who spurred Nantz to take his first large leap within the broadcasting enterprise, after the previous turned down a job with KSL-TV in Salt Lake Metropolis.
Wrote Musil:
I wound up turning down the provide, however the information director there requested me if I knew some other younger TV sportscasters who can be good for the job. I knew a number of guys working within the enterprise, however I instantly considered Jim first.
He had labored so exhausting stringing tape at KTRH at sports activities occasions and labored exhausting for us getting $25 per newscast that I used to be assured that he not solely had the potential expertise for the job, however he had the drive and need to succeed. …
Properly, certain sufficient, he went for the interview. They supplied him the No. 2 sports activities job at KSL and it included the colour commentator job with the Jazz.
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The place is Jim Nantz from?
A number of cities maintain significance for Nantz, together with his birthplace of Charlotte, N.C. He additionally lived in New Orleans from the time he was 6 years outdated via 9, a formative time that Nantz mentioned was “deeply significant” to him as a baby.
“This was the second place I ever lived,” Nantz advised Baton Rouge’s Advocate newspaper in 2022. “It was actually significant. Deeply significant.”
From there, Nantz moved to New Jersey, the place he ultimately attended Marlboro Excessive College (Marlboro, N.J.). There, he was co-captain of the basketball group and the highest participant on the golf group.
Following his faculty profession in Houston, Nantz ultimately moved to Salt Lake Metropolis to work for KSL-TV, the place he did commentary for Jazz video games and play-by-play for BYU soccer.
He labored that job till 1985, when he joined CBS in what would turn out to be one of the crucial storied sports activities broadcasting careers of the final a number of a long time.
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Jim Nantz ties to Houston
Nantz attended the College of Houston as a scholar, the place he naturally got here to like Cougars athletics — notably basketball, which from 1982 via 1984 glided by the title “Phi Slama Jama.” That group made the Ultimate 4 three straight seasons, shedding to Michael Jordan’s North Carolina in 1982 earlier than falling to N.C. State and Georgetown within the nationwide championship recreation in 1983 and ’84, respectively.
Musil wrote that he even snuck Nantz into the Cougars’ 1983 Ultimate 4 video games in Albuquerque, N.M.:
“He known as me and requested if I assumed I may get him into the sport,” Musil wrote. “I mentioned certain and I advised him the place to fulfill me. He obtained a journey to The Pit on the group bus, however he had no ticket or media move to enter the sector … so I let him in a again door. Actually. Instances have modified a bit of proper?”
Nantz additionally has an affection for former Houston coach Man Lewis, who coached the Cougars from 1956 via 1986, encompassing Nantz’s faculty profession within the late ’70s and early ’80s.
In talking to the Houston Chronicle, Nantz remembered the time he was part of a 2011 celebration of Lewis in Houston, which was the positioning of the Ultimate 4 that yr. Nantz additionally hoped to announce on Monday that the previous Cougars coach was nominated for the Naismith Nationwide Basketball Corridor of Fame.
Lewis missed the reduce in 2011, and did not make the Corridor of Fame till 2013.
“So lots of the legends of Cougar basketball got here again to lift cash and honor Man V.,” Nantz advised the Chronicle. “It was particular, however I used to be so upset when he didn’t make it into the Corridor of Fame. Houston would have been the proper place for it to occur. It made for a tough day.”
Nantz’s final video games in Houston might provide comparable difficulties as he broadcasts March Insanity for the final time. However contemplating his ties to the town and college, there may be maybe no higher place for him to finish his faculty basketball broadcasting profession.