John Ferguson

Hawthorne's pretty awful but I'm not all that familiar with Ferguson

LSU has never had a great play by play man who could match the likes of Jack Cristil at Mississippi State or Larry Munson at Georgia. The one we have now just happens to be particularly bad.

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listening to ferguson on Jones to Davis touchdown against Ole Miss. How much better was he than Harthorne!

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As is often the case, nostalgia makes things of the past seem much more iconic than the were at the time in reality.

You see this alot in athletics. Time has been very kind to Ferguson's legacy.

I grew up listening to games on the radio as very few were on t.v. back in the 70's. I can remember my brother and I laughing at Ferguson's gaffe's loudly and often. Great voice, and yes he served in the military, but dude could butcher a game every bit as much as Jim if not more.

He actually came back in or around the early 90's to serve at the Saints play-by-play guy and it only lasted a year I think, because it was brutal.

He also did the SEC basketball games of the week with "String music" Joe Dean in the 70's.

He did have some memorable pet lines. "He was in the moonlight" and "he's negotiating his way down field" were two I recall.

I have fond memories because he was part of my youth, but not because he was a peerless play-by-play man in the Vin Scully mode.

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I have fond memories because he was part of my youth, but not because he was a peerless play-by-play man in the Vin Scully mode.

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MF'ing This.

Typical Ferguson Gaffe:

"Ensminger goes back--lofts a pass down the middle--INTERCEPTED BY THE MAROONS--------and Hokie Gajan is tackled after no gain up the middle"

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radio guys are personalities. who the hell wants to listen to an antiseptic robot, even if they are more "precise". i loved ferguson and i love hawthorne. their "mistakes" are fine with me.

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True enough, I tend to agree. Personality and charisma drive fan loyalty in most cases, not precision execution.

Just ask Milo Hamilton..who thinks he was/is what an announcer should be (he's not, but don't tell him). The Cubs went and got Harry Carey who butchered more lines than Hawthorne and Ferguson combined but the Cub fans loved Harry and were ambivalent to Milo.

Milo held bitterness for Harry, the Cubs and their fans since even writing a scathing chapter on Carey in his book after Harry's death.

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I don't get the hate for hawthorne at all..i know LSU fans like to bitch about everything, but he's really not that bad of an announcer

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Well, he does make a lot of verbal gaffes and and seems to have some vision issues, depth perception in baseball seemingly his biggest.

But that doesn't bother me. It kind of makes me laugh but doesn't infuriate me.

Football is mostly either on t.v. or I'm there these days, so I rarerly hear him in that venue. And I don't follow baseball nearly as much as I do football and hoops so I hear him only when I'm in my car during a baseball game.

I probably listen to his basketball calls more than any other sport and that's probably his worst of the 3 IMHO. Pretty tough to listen when it was he and Ford bickering with each other for two hours.

He's more deferrent to Blanton, but it's still tough becuase Blanton's just learning the ropes of the business and struggling a bit himself.

John Ferguson calling play by play is what I was raised on listening to Tiger games in the 60's and 70's.

He called Saints games for WWL for awhile too.

They both have their screw ups.

I remember one Ferguson did where the QB dropped back to pass and Ferguson thought it was going to be intercepted...he calls

"INTER-------Complete! at the 45 yard line 1st and 10 TIGERS!

cool thread

Verne Lundquist is hated by most on this site, but when he did Dallas Cowboys' play by play in the 70s and 80s he was great, along with Brad Sham. I dont think Sham is as good as Verne was, just as I dont think Jim is as good as John was.