Cesmat – Reflecting on the loss of a friend…

“Brad, you should talk with Bill Walton about being your analyst on the University of San Diego basketball games.”

Legendary NBC broadcaster Charlie Jones was on the other end of the phone, having called in on the Mighty690’s back line. This was 1989. I was 24 years old. The radio station had secured a small(4 games)broadcast deal of USD games. They gave me the play-by-play position and the games would be broadcast on the legendary 50,000-watt station. As far as I knew, I was going to be broadcasting solo. No engineer, no color analyst, no stats person. Once that call came in from Charlie things changed. 

I agreed with Charlie to talk with Bill, who gave me his number. After a brief chat, I agreed to visit Bill’s home near Balboa Park. I remember walking in, and the high beam ceiling is where the phone and phone books were placed(Bill’s eye level). I was shown to the backyard and heard a voice to the left, “Brad, over here.” Bill waved me over to his hot tub, and I sat on the edge, visiting with him about the broadcasts. We agreed to give it a go, and the radio station was more than pleased that we were the tandem. 

On the night of the first game, San Diego played Portland. I asked Bill to arrive by 5:30. The USD campus is up on a hill overlooking Mission Bay and could be a bit of a headache to get into and out of. Bill didn’t arrive until a few minutes before tip-off. As the national anthem was playing, Bill leaned into me and asked if the head coach of Portland was Larry Steele. I nodded. He removed his headset, went over to his former Portland Trailblazer teammate, and hugged it out. Once the game started, Bill’s brutal honesty came right out (the words “terrible” and “horrible” were part of his description). USD lost the game, and their head coach, Hank Egan, aired me out the next day for agreeing with what Bill said. We finished out the season and Bill was on to much bigger jobs, but it was a fun experience for both of us. The LA Times did a big piece on Bill in 1990; here’s. a snip…

When I had the opportunity to leave San Diego for Phoenix, I spoke with Bill several times about why I was attracted to leaving my hometown. He was a terrific sounding board.

When his son Luke played for the University of Arizona, Bill wore a mic, sat in the student section, and let us shoot him(great TV) On one occasion, we did a sit-down at center court in Tucson after a Wildcat victory, and he asked if I needed anything else. I brought up that I’d like to talk with his son Luke, and Bill said, “Wait here.” A short time later, he brought Luke out and the three of us recorded a good 10-minute segment. 

We met up for dinners at the Pac-12 basketball tournament in Las Vegas a few times. I’d find Bill at the MGM Garden in an empty arena with his notes spread out everywhere for the next day of games, and we’d catch up. Same in Tempe before the Arizona State games. . He was super supportive of what I decided to do with my career by opening Sports360az but he felt that I could be an asset to an athletic department outside of broadcasting. At one game, Bill approached Ray Anderson and said ASU should hire me. Ray just laughed.

The time Bill called to ask about taking his rental car out on the Apache Trail was a good one. “Please don’t do that”, was my response. 

I thought it was odd when Bill didn’t make it to Tempe for the Arizona vs. Arizona State game in late February. It was also alarming that he wasn’t in Las Vegas for the final Pac-12 Tournament. Today’s news was heartbreaking for so many reasons. I went back through text exchanges, and they were very positive and funny. Not going to delete them. Sad day…