Jim Hawthorne Retiring after 2015-2016 Basketball Season

I grew up listening to John Ferguson & Walter Hill on Saturday nights. Even after I relocated to CO I could still listen to them on a 50k watt station out of Shreveport (I think).
I've heard a little of Hawthorne. Not in the same league as Ferguson.

 

Hawthorne was on with Charles Hanagriff a little while ago. Before the interview Hanagriff talked about how relevant the radio broadcast was for basketball and baseball as compared to football. Since now all the games are on TV a lot higher percentage of people listened to former LSU play-by-play announcer John Ferguson than listen on the radio now. Basketball and baseball are different because more people are listening in their cars as they go places and even now not every baseball game is on TV.

Hawthorne said that his greatest moment as a broadcaster was when Warren Morris hit the walk off homer in the 1996 CWS. I have to confess that I didn't hear that live as I was watching it on TV. Same as with a lot of great moments that I saw on TV and only heard Hawthorne's call on it later - The Bluegrass Miracle, Anthony Wilson's shot at the buzzer vs Memphis State to send LSU to the 1986 Final Four, Last second game winning touchdowns too numerous to mention including the Earthquake game. All of them I saw on TV if I wasn't actually at the game. When I was just a wee tad my Dad would take me to football games and he would sometimes bring a transistor radio to try to listen to the broadcast while we were in the stands. It was pretty hard to understand what with the crowd noise and the poor quality of the radio but it still made the game more enjoyable. Now there are replay screens everywhere.

 

Patrick Wright handles the womens games and does a great job, they may want to keep him there. Some talk of busting up Football, Basketball and Baseball. Former LSU player Coogan might get a look. Hanny does a good job with the Baseball, and would do well there.

 

when she was in her prime. i remembered she married mario lopez who cheated on her like almost during the honeymoon and that was that.

hawthorne isnt past his prime. hes still the same hes always been basically. not great. good in basketball. so-so in football. terrible in baseball. its way back there, it has a chance.......double play.

 

kevin ford is terrible in hoops. negative, depressing, whining. hope hes dropped.

hanagriff who i know and like because hes a good dude, is too deadpan for any regular sporting event. just lifeless because thats his personality. ronnie rantz used to be pretty good and who was that dude who was with him. decent.

patrick wright is ok and coogan i suppose. but ben mcdonald is excellent in giving the game within the game. probably not getting him off sec network or espn. whichever hes on.

 

Rantz, Lynn Rollins?

And yes, Ben Mc does a great job. Brian Kinchen did a little football before he got released.

 

Announcers tend to work until they are older than dirt. Vin Scully will be 87 this baseball season and he is still going strong. Dick Vitale will be 76 in June. Lee Corso is 79. 80 year old Dick Enberg is still doing San Diego Padres games. Marv Albert is 73. Verne Lundquist, 74. Bob Uecker is 81 and Brent Musberger is 75. Al Michaels is the baby of the group at 70. If I was Hawthorne and wanted to cut back and take it easy I would still keep doing football and quit the basketball and baseball.

 

She can carry my balls anytime she likes.

 

people age differently obviously. vin scully, bob euecker and al michaels are still excellent.

dickie v's ok. not sure about marv, YES!

lundquist never was good so i cant blame age.

not sure when i last remember enberg doing anything so i dunno about him.

its normal for fans to complain about broadcasters but im going to miss hawthornes voice because after so many years you expect it and it becomes like family in a way. not perfect, but part of it.

 

Anybody have a take on who the replacement (s) should be?

For baseball and for lack of a better choice I would give the job to Hanagriff. @tirk is right when he says he is too deadpan and lifeless but his style is better suited for the pace of baseball than Hawthorne's ever was. Maybe if he was told to inject a little emotion into it he would be OK. For the analyst Ben McDonald would be the best choice but they won't be able to get him away from his current job. I think Ryan Theriot might be pretty good at it.

I don't really have any good ideas on who LSU could get to do basketball but if it was up to me and I could get anybody I wanted I would hire Marv Albert. Just because I have always liked the way he called basketball and would get Shaq as the analyst.

I can't think of any local guys who I would want to listen to do football. The ones I have heard do high school football are mostly terrible. But if I had to pick an early local front runner it might be Matt Moscona. I have heard him do a couple of Catholic High games before last season and he isn't great but he isn't horrible either. I hope it doesn't turn out to be Moscona but he is well known by everybody at LSU and I could see Alleva doing it.
I don't know how long Doug Moreau plans on staying around. No way they would be able to get Marcus Spears away from the SEC Network but he would be great at it.