It's not video -- but it's something

[DirSport]

As promised:
https://soundcloud.com/user-125347718/u ... s-11251994
Posing the question: The most important victory in UMass basketball history? Sure, there's Georgetown, but .... Sounds like a topic that deserves its own thread, hmmm?

Presented in its entirety (minus commercials, natch). Skip ahead to approx. the 17:30 mark for the start of game action. A few minutes late in the second half are missing, if you're really wondering why the score jumps suddenly from 81-65 to 91-73. I loudly wondered the same thing a couple of days later, while copying the broadcast from reel-to-reel to cassette.

This was the first UMass game where Jack Leaman and I worked together. Also the first game of Jack's 10 seasons on the broadcasts, along with Marc Vandermeer and Bob Behler. Coach and I had previously done several seasons of high school games on WHMP.

[DirSport]

Somewhat slower going lately, but I have still managed to put up the Charlie Ward/Florida State game from Feb. 1994, the sneaky good and important game vs. Maryland in Baltimore in Dec. 1994, and the "protest game" at Rutgers in Feb. 1995, suspended by a student demonstration at halftime and finished 3+ weeks later in Philadelphia. In all, 32 games are now posted. Damn, that's coming up on one-quarter of the entire inventory.

I'm not enjoying going through my parents' house for a whole host of reasons, but these finds, at least, make me smile.

[DirSport]

Update: Although there may be a few more additions from time to time, the work on the Soundcloud page is essentially done. There are now 39 games posted, including the last seven of the 94-95 season -- all three A-10 Tournament games followed by all four NCAA Tournament games. I finished with the game once characterized around here as "The Game That Shall Not Be Named," vs. Big Country Reeves and Oklahoma State, but I went there, dammit.

Any project like this, looking back a quarter-century and more, will inevitably have some annoying gaps. For me they're the 1993 A-10 Tournament final vs. Temple and the 1995 regular-season home game vs. Temple (a one-pointer, what else was new?). With both of those games, I'm missing the second half. If I can ever locate them, they will go up eventually.

I had a thought of rewinding back to the 89-90 season, when I did the color commentary working with Tim Ashwell, and pulling up the 3 OT game vs. Temple at the Cage (don't know if I have all of it on tape) and that year's A-10 Tournament games & NIT game at Maryland. We'll see.

As mentioned before, any reactions, input or requests are most welcome. I'm no broadcasting hero, but I tried to do justice as best I could to some really exciting teams and times. Have fun with it.
https://soundcloud.com/user-125347718/s ... broadcasts

[Juice Stand]

Well done George. I have a lengthy road trip coming up this summer and these will be required listening.

[DirSport]

Seems like the bots have been busy over here lately, to jack up this thread to 2300+ views.

I've been adding games to the Soundcloud page here and there, for a current count of 64. That includes two versions of the '95 game at West Virginia, one of them the famous "Comeback" edit. Also, three games that didn't count in the standings -- the trip to France in December of '94 for the Buckler Christmas Challenge, where UMass dropped games to two French teams and an Italian team.

In all cases I've tried to go with variously exciting and meaningful games, in one fashion or another. They're not all wins, as we know, and there are a number of dogs that didn't make the cut. I've been fortunate that the vast majority of the cassette tapes have held up well until now. Even so, there are exceptions, and I've had to use Audacity's effects features to try to clean up some muddy or distorted audio. By the way, Memorex dBS tapes really suck. I strongly recommend Maxell for all your mid-1990s recording needs.

My previous post from late June indicated I was pretty much done with the project, and then I went back and hit it hard some more for the last couple of months. Thanks, COVID World. Now, it finally looks like a wrap.

[capezona]

Thanks for doing this. I'm really enjoying the games.

[xlgman]

Thanks for this! Just listened to that WVa game and it really brought back great memories.

[MikeUMA]

Thank you, George, for building that archive. I've been adding your recordings onto some 90s game pages that I've been building recently.

Just found that you posted a recording of the intro before the first Mullins game. Added that too!
https://umasshoops.com/wiki/doku.php?id ... er#opening

[DirSport]

Nice work Mike. Looking forward to seeing and hearing the finished-product pages, and glad I could contribute with an added audio dimension. By the way I still owe you a pic of the 90-91 "Men At Work" team poster. Have not forgotten, I promise.

[MJatUM]

This continues to be one of the best sites on the internet. Well done you guys.

[DirSport]

It's taken over a year and predictably my obsessive self wouldn't exactly let this thing go, so now the finished product -- for real -- features 132 of the 135 games over the four-season period from 91-92 through 94-95. A handful of them sound at times like they were broadcast underwater, but I put them up anyway.

What's missing, you may wonder? The 1/7/1993 game vs. Cincinnati in Springfield, the 3/11/1993 A-10 tournament final vs. Temple, and 2/15/1994 at St. Joseph's -- where some kid sitting behind John Feudo and me on press row spilled a can of soda onto our phone jack on the floor and screwed up the broadcast to no end. You'll recall, that was a 1-point loss to St. Joe, barely 48 hours after "L'Affaire Chaney" at Mullins.

As a newlywed of some 13 months, I have my bride to thank for her patience and support through this whole process. I will say she's gotten a kick out of hearing my 26-to-29-year-old voice, as opposed to the 50-something dude she now puts up with on the daily.

[Old Cage]

George - The UMass Library sports archivist should know about this! The only name I know is the head guy:
Rubinstein, Aaron (Head) [email protected]

I think that I have mentioned this to you before, but you have amassed a really interesting piece of UMass sports memorabilia.