Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Older Bullets fans regain their voice Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 15:00:28 EST Message-ID: Lines: 106 \SE D;SPORTS;PRO BASKETBALL \HD Older Bullets fans regain their voice \BY David Hutchinson \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT BOSTON BOSTON - Announcer Jim Karvellas and the Bullets go back. They go way back. They go back to Day One, before Baltimore and before Washington, when the franchise was born as the Chicago Packers for the 1961-62 season. Karvellas was the first public address announcer for the Packers at the old Chicago Stockyards. "I got $5 a game," Karvellas recalled. "I was a sports fanatic, although I didn't even know the players on our team. But I wanted to get in the sportscasting business. I really learned the NBA sitting at that [PA] table. In many ways, I had a one-year rehearsal." Thirty-one years later, Karvellas, 56, ranks second only to Los Angeles Lakers legend Chick Hearn in tenure among NBA broadcasters. And tomorrow night, before a game against Minnesota at Baltimore Arena, Karvellas and the team will be honored during a 30th anniversary celebration of the franchise. "It's like I'm coming back to my roots. Everything good that happened in my career, I attribute to the Bullets," said Karvellas, who has returned this season as their voice of the Bullets on WDCA-TV after spending 12 seasons doing radio and television for the New York Knicks. "To come back after 30 years . . . I feel like I'm starting over ," Karvellas said. "But it's not just me being honored - it's a celebration for all the [Baltimore] people who remember Earl Monroe, Kevin Loughery, Wes Unseld. All the people who remember the good old days." In those days, Karvellas always referred to the Bullets' players by their nicknames while making his play-by-play TV calls. And he kept fans mesmerized with his signature shouts of "bull's-eye!" "As a kid, I listened to Buddy Blattner, the voice of the old St. Louis Hawks," Karvellas recalled. "He would sometimes say 'bingo!' when a player scored. I used to always wait for him to say that. "So I wanted to come up with something and I tried 'bull's-eye' one game. Of the eight listeners we had, seven of them said they like it. So when we went to Baltimore the next year [1963-64], it was perfect." Bull's-eye. Bullets. Get it? Karvellas stumbled into the job as the PA announcer in Chicago. After leaving the Army, he was working in the ABC-TV mail room in his native Chicago in 1961. Needing extra money, he worked part-time as an usher at live broadcasts. One day Packers public relations director Jack Burnett brought in rookie Walt Bellamy to do a show promoting the expansion team. Moments before Bellamy was to go on, he disappeared. Burnett went nuts. Karvellas quickly found the player buying a cigar, rushed Bellamy to Burnett and the show went off smoothy. Wanting to repay Karvellas, Burnett hired him as the club's PA announcer. After that first season, Karvellas found an innovative way to become a broadcaster: He bought the club's broadcast rights - for $1 - and worked the second season when the club became the Chicago Zephyrs. But just as he was getting settled in Chicago, the club moved to Baltimore for the 1963-64 season. At the urging of his wife, Lori, and friends, however, he flew to Baltimore and talked his way into the job as the Baltimore Bullets' radio announcer. Karvellas kept the job until 1972-73, when the club moved to Washington and wanted to hire a new voice. He did sports for a television station from 1973-76 and was heavily involved in professional soccer, owning part of the Maryland Bays. In 1978, he returned to the Bullets, working their playoff games. He returned again for the 1979-80 season before moving to the Knicks. Karvellas remained in New York until last season, when the Knicks chose not to re-sign him. His salary was an issue. And some say an on-air exhange with partner Walt Frazier during the Knicks-Detroit Pistons playoff series also played a part in the decision to let him go. Karvellas was planning to relax when Channel 20 producer Marty Corwin called and asked if he was interested in working with the Bullets. HTS, which carries the Bullets' home games on cable, and Channel 20, which does their road games, wanted separate broadcasting identities, and they couldn't accomplish that with Mel Proctor as play-by-play man for both. "I was concerned about Mel," Karvellas said. "I respect him. I wanted to be sure they didn't submarine anybody to get me the job." Besides, Karvellas just happened to be handy. He had kept his home in Silver Spring despite working in New York. He says he loves the area. "And there was the nostalgia factor," Karvellas said. "Every time I saw the Bullets or anyone connected with them, they made me feel good." Now Karvellas is making Bullets fans feel good. Again. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM