The Voives of Panther Backetball

Eastern professors Mike Bradd and Jack Ashmore reflect on Eastern's best teams and players of the last 20 years

By: Ben Turner/ Verge Editor

Posted: 2/13/03

Everyone who follows sports knows the voices of the game that have become celebrities because of their broadcasting careers. John Madden, Harry Caray, Howard Cossell and Marv Albert are household names. Fans who follow one particular pro or college team also become accustomed to the squad's commentators.

The voices of Eastern basketball are more than just commentators, they are also Eastern professors. Mike Bradd and Jack Ashmore are faculty members in the speech communication department. They've been broadcasting Eastern basketball games on local radio stations since the mid '80s.

Ashmore is an Eastern graduate (class of '76) and is originally from Oakland, Ill. He started announcing Charleston High School games at 19 and still does all the home and away games on WEIC. Because of his busy schedule, he can only do color commentary for Eastern home games.

Bradd graduated from Bradley University in 1980 after growing up in Cooksville, just west of Bloomington. His first job after college came at WLBH in Mattoon as news director. Bradd started doing Eastern games during the '84-'85 season, although at the time he was asked to do color as now retired play-by-play man Marc Stuart was wrapping up his career.

Bradd took over play-by-play in the fall of 1988 and Ashmore has provided color for the majority of the home games since. For road games, Bradd will either work by himself or Dave Kidwell or Pat Osterman from the sports information office will fill-in. Kidwell said Bradd is always 100 percent prepared and his presence on road games is just to give Bradd periodic short breaks.

A few different stations have carried the telecasts during their careers. Starting out on WLBH, Eastern games have also been carried on WCBH (before it became The Party and was a classic rocker out of Casey), one year games were split between WEIU and WEIC, WACF from Paris, and this is the third season WHQQ has carried the games.

Bradd said Double Q is the ideal station for the games because it is located in Coles County and the Cromwell group can cross promote the games on their three other local stations. Kidwell agreed saying the Cromwell group stations can advertise the games to the most diverse demographics.

"Ideally, we'd love for everyone of all ages to listen, but the ratings show WHQQ's demographics are similar to those who would listen to the games on the radio," Kidwell said.

Bradd and Ashmore have different influences because each grew up in different areas of Illinois.

"I listened to the stations out of Bloomington. They always had really good play-by-play people," Bradd said. He credited Jim Durham as his earliest influence. Durham did play-by-play for Bloomington high school teams while Bradd was growing up before moving on to The Bulls and later to TNT to broadcast NBA games.

"Art Kimble was the first guy to pay me to do games. I've borrowed a lot of stuff from him over the years," Bradd said. Kimble is known throughout the state for broadcasting the basketball state tournament on television. Bradd worked with him in college at WJBC in Bloomington.

Ashmore on the other hand admitted his influences were more from the pro level. Vince Lloyd and Lou Bodreau broadcasting Cubs games, Harry Caray while he worked for The Cardinals and even Skip Caray calling St. Louis Hawks basketball games before they moved to Atlanta.

"My influences were a little less local. I thought that would be a great way to make a living," Ashmore said.

Bradd and Ashmore try to keep up-to-date on what's happening in the professional sports world. This fall they jumped at the opportunity to see The Bears in Champaign, each purchasing season tickets. Although Bradd asks "Are The Bears a professional team?"

Some of the other sports are a little harder to keep up with.

"I don't follow the NBA at all, it's such a blur. Around here we never followed hockey a whole lot, although I kind of like hockey," Bradd said. "I follow baseball and football but not as much as a lot of students do."

When it comes to amateur basketball, each broadcaster has their specialty. Ashmore is well versed on the happenings at the high school level, while Eastern men's basketball head coach Rick Samuels keeps Bradd updated on what's happening throughout the division one collegiate level. Samuels votes in the weekly coaches poll and keeps a close eye on who's hot and shares his knowledge with Bradd before tapping their pregame interview.

"Because of this job, I can probably tell you more about mid-majors, people like Butler or how some middle-size school's doing versus who's leading in the Big 12," Bradd said. "Jack knows way more about high school than I do, I have to ask him about high school stuff. I can't tell you who's good. I don't see that many games anymore."

Samuels has been head coach longer than Bradd and Ashmore have done games together, a rarity in today's coaching-carousel climate. In his 23rd year, Samuels has the third longest tenure of active division one coaches.

During their 15 years of broadcasting, Eastern has had its fair share of quality players as well as changed conferences. Eastern became a division one basketball school prior to the '81-'82 season and used to play in the Mid Continent Conference with the likes of Western Illinois, Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, Illinois at Chicago and Cleveland State. Today Valparaiso and Western are the only remaining members as many of the schools now play in the Horizon League. Bradd said the rivalries were better when Eastern was part of the MCC, but now they should call it the All Continent Conference thanks to the likes of Southern Utah and Oral Roberts being members.

"It was a good league for Eastern for several years and then when it changed it was something we had to get out of as quickly as we could," Ashmore said.

Bradd echoed those sentiments and said the amount of travel was getting out of hand. He remembered one road trip that took the team to Troy State in Alabama and Central Connecticut. Eastern joined the Ohio Valley Conference before the '96-'97 season

Kevin Duckworth is Eastern's most recognizable basketball product after he was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft and played in the NBA finals with the Portland Trailblazers. Ashmore said the '85-'86 team, which Duckworth was part of, probably was the best Eastern squad since going to division one, but both men agreed Duckworth may not have been the best player on the team.

Small forward Jon Collins was a two time MCC player of the year and was drafted in the sixth round of the '86 NBA draft. Both broadcasters agreed Collins is Eastern's most underrated player.

Ashmore nominated guard Jay Taylor as a debatable choice for the most talented player ever to don an Eastern jersey. Taylor won MCC player of the year in the '88-'89 season and scored 47 points against Chicago State. Bradd said that former guard Kyle Hill was Eastern's most spectacular player thanks to his ability to make "Sportscenter type" plays. Taylor and Hill rank second and third respectively behind current star Henry Domercant on Eastern's career scoring list. Domercant is a great player, but may not be as physically gifted as some of the others.

"Henry is a talented kid but he has maximized his potential through hard work and I have a lot of respect for that," Bradd said. "He hasn't had as much scoring help as Duckworth and Hill, so it's remarkable to watch what Henry's accomplished against defenses that are geared to shut him down."

The NCAA tournament expanded from 32 to 64 teams following the '83-'84 season. Eastern won the '85 MCC tournament, but the league was too new and the tournament winner wasn't guaranteed an automatic berth. To compound the frustration, Cleveland State beat Eastern by four in the final of '86 MCC tournament, received an automatic berth and reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, one of the first mid-majors to make a splash in the NCAAs.

Eastern has made two trips to the NCAA tournament during Bradd and Ashmore's time behind the mics.

In 1992, the berth came as somewhat of a surprise after an experienced Eastern squad had a disappointing regular season but got hot at the right time and won the MCC tournament. Eastern got shipped out to the West Regional and played as a 15 seed in Boise.

"In 1992 it was like God decided Eastern was only going to go to the NCAA tournament one time, so he's going to send them where all the big guys are," Bradd said. "Bobby Knight was there and we played Indiana, Shaquille O'Neal, John Thompson with Georgetown. The who's who of college basketball."

In 2001 after Eastern came back from a substantial double-digit lead to beat Austin Peay in the championship game of the OVC tournament, earning an automatic bid to their second NCAA tournament, this campus had a unique aura for the week prior to spring break. From tourney t-shirts flying out of the Union Bookstore to fans making their plans to join the team in Kansas City, the basketball team's accomplishment was the biggest thing on campus.

"The most fun team was two years ago. That team had great chemistry and they played a fun style," Bradd said. "They had two great scorers who were two of the top five in the nation. There would be three or four plays every game where you'd be like 'wow that was great play.'"

"Those were special years because of the national attention thanks to ESPN and CBS making the tournament one of the most highly covered sports events in the world," Kidwell said. "It's a weeks worth of national attention which a school our size could never create any other way."

"[In '92] we weren't expecting to go and we got sent so far that really not many fans could go. Last time we didn't go as far, a lot of Eastern people went and it was a lot of fun from that respect, Bradd said."

Bradd and Ashmore's sports broadcasting superseded their time as Eastern professors. Bradd became a member of the speech communication department in 1990 and Eastern brought Ashmore aboard in 1992. Bradd said broadcasting the games helped him make some contacts but, otherwise, it's a pretty separate deal. "Most of what we do here doesn't help in the classroom," he said.

But yet on the contrary, attending class taught be someone who is actively involved in the field about which they are teaching students is more rewarding. Who would you rather learn from: those who have done or those who have only taught?

Feedback from students is typically non-existent but members of the community have expressed their thanks for the on-air service. Ashmore receives a little more due to his work with Charleston high but sometimes Bradd will receive some from assistant coaches who don't go on road trips or Coach Samuels' wife.

"It's a commercial venture, money is made on the sale of the broadcast," Ashmore said. "It's nice when people can't go to a game, they let you know they appreciate the broadcast."

The life of a college professor can be hectic but rewarding. Finding time to broadcast the school's sporting events and teach classes is a balancing act many people would like the opportunity to perform. Although they do get paid and it is time consuming, it's just as much fun as it is work. Isn't that one of the reasons why many of us are attending college-to get into a line of work we enjoy?

"There have been nights where I just as sooner stayed home, but I never felt that way once I got there," Ashmore said. "Once I arrive at the game, I am always looking forward to calling it and I suppose the day it stops being fun is the day I'll quit."