Hall-of-Fame sportscaster calls life as he sees it

Last year, legendary sportscaster Bob Costas had a question for Arizona’s Gary Bender during his induction into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

“How did you get from Ulysses, Kan. to here?”

The question might’ve seemed simple, but the answer was much more complicated.

Bender grew up in Ulysses, population 2,000 and attended a one-room schoolhouse. “The farm was 40 miles from nowhere,” said a smiling Bender. He continues: “My job was to milk the cows before school. When I was in the seventh grade, while alone and plowing furrows with the tractor, in order to survive the long summer days, I would first sing the National Anthem, then, I would announce, ‘This is the Liberty Broadcasting System.’ Then, I would do a commercial, intoning ‘Lucky Strike, LSMFT,’ (remember that slogan?) after which I would do a play-by-play commentary of a sport.”

In 1950. a major drought hit the Kansas farmlands. Bender relates how the dust rolled in in thick, black waves, making the farms as dark as night.

In order to keep his family going, Bender and his father started making Spudnuts, and opened a donut shop. They sold enough donuts to get the family out of debt.

Senior Bender went back to coaching, and Bender played on his father’s team. He received a football scholarship to Wichita State University and earned his BS, then went on to the University of Kansas where he earned his MS. Newly married, he became a graduate assistant while his wife, Linda, taught school.

Writing his thesis while living in a bus, he went to a local radio station to apply for work as a sportscaster. The station manager said, “I’m the sportscaster here, don’t need you, but we need a teacher at our local school.” So, Linda was hired.

In time, Bender got his first job as a disc jockey, hosting a show called “Perky’s Party Line.” Bender says with a wry smile, “My claim to fame was a late Saturday night show called ‘Big Ben and Ed the Redhead,’ a country/western show. I sang!”

With the Vietnam War on, Bender spent six years in the Air National Guard. While in basic training, he got his first job as sports director in Topeka. From there, he became the radio voice of the Kansas Jayhawks.

“Out of the blue”, relates Bender, “a sports agent called and told me to send him a tape. At the same time, Bob Rosen, well-known sports agent was in a restaurant in New York City discussing the need for a TV sportscaster. Unbelievably, a gentleman at the next table overheard the conversation and said, ‘I have just the man for you — Gary Bender.’”

This was the big breakthrough for Bender into network television. He was with CBS for 12 years, ABC for seven years and Turner Sports for five years.

Among his colleagues doing play-by-play for NFL and CBS were Sonny Jurgensen and John Madden — both of the Pro Ball Hall of Fame.

In 1982 and 1983, he called NCAA college basketball games for CBS Sports including the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Baseball Tournament. In 1988, Bender did play-by-play for the American League Championship Series alongside Joe Morgan and Reggie Jackson. He worked the backup Monday Night Baseball broadcasts as well as serving as a field reporter for ABC’s 1987 World Series coverage. Bender also called NFL games for TNT from 1992-1994 teaming with Pat Haden.

“The Olympics of 1988 in Calgary were one of my most memorable assignments. I was to interview speed skater Dan Jansen,” says Bender. Jansen was competing in the 500-meter event the very day his sister died. He crashed into the wall twice, and left the ice in tears. Bender rushed to the locker room only to be stopped by the Canadian Police. Even though he had proper credentials, they wouldn’t let him by. So Bender circumvented the building, found a door around the corner of the building and got to interview Jansen.

“A proud moment in my life,” says Bender. He adds, “This story is humbling. God allows ordinary people do extraordinary things.”

In his career, Bender has met and worked with many notable people including Peggy Fleming, Eric Heiden, Reggie Jackson and Johnny Unitas, among others.

Today, Bender is the television play-by-play announcer on Fox Sports Net (FSN-Arizona) for the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, working alongside former Suns star, Dan Majerle. Bender is also the author of the biography “Call of the Game,” in which he shares his life story, tips on how to be a better broadcaster, and his Christian testimony. This book is suggested reading for aspiring sportscasters.

Phoenix is home to Bender and his wife, Linda. His son, Trey, is a sportscaster and played Pop Warner Little Scholars. His daughter Amy is a sports reporter for Channel 5, Phoenix, and his son, Brett, lives in Phoenix.

“In 45 years of broadcasting,” says Bender, “my goal in life is to take off my headset and say, ‘I nailed it!’”

Lois Weinert is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.