vSIMPLE continued from page 21 stadium at Crane-Youngworth Field. That, to me, is just perfect for broadcasting. It’s 20 rows up, just the right amount of room. It’s a good view of everything. They get the new turf in next year. I can’t think of any other place — certainly for a high school, I’m not talking USD or SDSU — certainly for a school district facility, that’s any better in South Dakota. JVG: For me, for a single game, it would probably be Williams Arena, when the Coyote men won there in double overtime a couple years ago. The atmosphere. Minnesota had gotten off to a rough start that year. I don’t think the place was rocking like it usually is, or can be. But, as far as an overall venue — I’ve done games there since 1984 — it would be the DakotaDome for football. Even for basketball, for the chance to sit courtside and do games there, it’s always been a favorite. JT: Duke, obviously, would be up there for me. That’s just an iconic place. The sentimental one would be when we went to Lincoln, at Nebraska. Growing up in the state of Nebraska, even though it wasn’t Devaney (the Bob Devaney Sports Center) — I had done games at Devaney for high school sports. Pinnacle Bank Arena had just opened, and you’re sitting, for me, not far down the line from Matt Coatney, who was doing the Husker women and still does, a guy I made contact with a long time ago. To be in that venue, you’re on the other side, but there’s over 7,000 people there for a regular season game between Nebraska and South Dakota. To me that was pretty cool. Everybody has goals and, for me, to do Nebraska games one day was kinda like, the idea. To do it in that with building with Nebraska building, but for the other team, was a unique experience. JDC: I won’t say “worst,” but what’s the strangest setup you’ve had to broadcast a game from? SK: I’ll give you mine. Before the days of cell phones, at Sioux City Heelan, the Bucks played at Sioux City Heelan. Got there, and no phone line. The year before, there was. My own stupid fault, I didn’t get there early enough. Bottom line, I sat at a little school desk out in the hallway, outside of the athletic director’s office, and used his telephone. I had a couple of parents at the end of the gym, down the hallway, do flashcards of the guys, what number was scoring baskets, and I did the whole broadcast just guessing. And for the opponents, I took the program, and they would flash the score. And during time outs, I would run up and see the score. Basically made up the whole game, but parents helped out. Then at halftime I ran out to the official scorebook, see how far off I was. So I made up the whole game. You could still hear the buzzer and the whole crowd, because it was about 30 feet away. JVG: I had kind of a bad experience at Midland University, at the time it was Midland Lutheran College. The phone line that I was supposed to use had somehow gotten disconnected. It was like a two-way, one that went between Fremont High School, Midland and the station. It had gotten disconnected somehow at the Fremont High School site, and it was dead. I sat there through the whole first half. They have a great facility now, but they used to play in a fieldhouse where the softball coach, who I also think was the SID (Sports Information Director) at the time said, “Look, what I can do is, my office is just off the fieldhouse area. I’ve got this length of phone cord. I can set up a table. It will be in an open area on one end of the court, but anywhere from 20 to 25 feet from the end of the court.” 22vHISVOICEvJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 At halftime, I managed to get a scoresheet, or halftime stats, then I picked up the broadcast from there. You’re far away, ground level, and trying to make stuff up. I got sorry notes for about a month from those people down there. But that was, for just sitting there and not thinking about it, then actually to get the game in, was kind an unusual thing. JT: Was his name Kramer? JVG: Kramme. Heath Kramme. JT: For me, one of the most unique was when I was in college, covering Doane in the GPAC softball tournament in Sioux City. Doane had lost a game and got put on a field that really wasn’t near the other groupings of fields. And the closest power was in the middle of a park. I went around and asked nicely to GPAC Commissioner Corey Westra, the SID at the time at Dana, Doane’s SID and others, even a couple of softball players’ parents had extension cords. Seven extension cords later, it got me, probably, about 30 yards from the backstop. So we set up shop there. Then you dealt with, hoping people would realize you’re trying to do a broadcast and not stand behind the backstop and block the view. That was probably one of the more challenging to get on the air. We were discussing, maybe doing it from the car in the outfield, if had an adapter that would go into the cigarette lighter so we could power everything, but we rounded up enough extension cords to get close. SK: And everybody got there extension cords back. JT: They did. SK: Which one is yours? The green one or the red one. In other words, usually equipment is the issue. JVG: I’ve done baseball games from the front seat of a van many times, parked right next to the backstop. That’s just how it is sometimes. JT: We’ve all done it from scaffolding of some sort. Back of a pickup in Wynot for a high school playoff game a few years ago was fun. JVG: I did that in Coleridge a few years ago, back in the 80s. SK: I remember doing that in Coleridge, and I remember you (Van Goor) maybe Kearney. It was a Crofton game, I broadcast from the front seat of a vehicle, and you were upstairs. JVG: I was upstairs. SK: You were up, looking like that could go at any minute. JVG: I know. That was a mistake. You were in the endzone in the front seat of your car. SK: Yes. (Thayer laughs) You may have a better view, but you might not make it through the two hours. JVG: And I had the, who was that gentleman from Crofton that was doing the filming? SK: It wasn’t that many years ago, really. JVG: I see his face, and he’s going, “Why is this thing moving?” I’m just, “don’t think about it right now. Don’t move. Don’t move.” And it worked out. JT: I had a playoff game in Colorado, at Hotchkiss, which is on the western slope. They had just built a brand new field, but had no pressbox or anything. So they put up scaffolding. It was surprisingly nice, the western slope during playoff football time, but the wind was blowing so the whole thing was swaying. My color analyst was a pretty big guy, took us a little bit to get him up there. We’re in the middle of the game, and somebody else had come up, and apparently didn’t shut the trap door. I stepped back in the middle of the broadcast SK: Oooh vSIMPLE continued on page 23