For Chick Hearn, No. 3,000 Is in the REFRIGERATOR

By LARRY STEWART

Jan. 19, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There is a lot more to Chick Hearn than refrigerators, popcorn machines, dribble-drives, yo-yoing and his streak of consecutive games.

The man behind the voice that has been bringing the Lakers to us for the last 38 years is a study in loyalty, a man devoted to his craft, his employer, his friends, and, more than anything else, his wife Marge.

Consecutive game No. 3,000 gets put in the refrigerator today when the Lakers play a Martin Luther King Day game against the Orlando Magic at the Great Western Forum.

Hearn hasn’t missed a day’s--or night’s--work since Nov. 21, 1965, when bad weather grounded him after a football game in Fayetteville, Ark.

Cal Ripken’s consecutive-games streak is at 2,478, A.C. Green’s at 934. So on numbers, Hearn is the king of the iron men.

Hearn is also a broadcasting legend, a true icon. He may not be the most polished broadcaster, just the most entertaining.

“You just never know what he’s going to say,” said commentator Stu Lantz, who has been working alongside Hearn for 11 years. “Every game, he comes up with something.”

Recently, after the Lakers’ Rick Fox threw up a wild shot, Hearn said, “That was a prayer. The only way that goes in is if you throw a little extra in the collection plate.”

Hearn earned his year’s pay, maybe more, when he and Lantz had to fill time when the Laker game in Chicago on Dec. 17 was delayed 20 minutes because of a broken shot clock. Hearn was priceless.

“Isn’t that the way it goes?” he said. “You plan everything and then the turkey burns.”

When the officials talked about putting a clock on the floor, Hearn said, “Will they have enough cord to reach it?”

Lantz suggested they could use a car horn to signal that 24 seconds had expired. Hearn suggested they might have trouble getting a car into the arena.

“Maybe they could use a motorcycle horn,” he said. “I have one on my motorcycle.”

Finally, a new board to run the clock was brought out.

“Hey, that’s a nice board,” Hearn said. “I have one at home.”

Lantz, Hearn’s Ed McMahon, said, “What do you use it for?”

“When I mow the lawn. It tells me when to turn the lawn mower off. Or when Marge is cleaning the pool. She can only work 30 minutes at a time.”

Marge often fits nicely in Hearn’s one-liners. Years ago, after being presented with a cruise that was a cut below first cabin, someone asked where they were going.

“As far as Marge can row,” Hearn said.

Any story about Francis Dale “Chick” Hearn is also a love story. Chick and Marge were juniors at East Aurora High in Illinois and they had a class together.

“I used to pass him the answers,” Marge said.

“She’s still passing me the answers,” he said.

Hearn also says of Marge, “I don’t know what I would have done without her. She is definitely the woman behind this man.

“She is a saint. She is the most giving person I have ever known. If your arm is hurt, Marge is the person you’d call to take you to the hospital. If you needed money, she’d give you her last dime.”

Chick and Marge have been married for 57 years.

And they are how old?

“I’m six months younger than Chick,” Marge said. “And wouldn’t you love for me to tell you how old I am?”

Hearn’s age is a mystery and he wants to keep it that way. It’s part of his mystique. And you know what? It’s more fun trying to guess than really knowing.

He’s in his 80s, everybody pretty much agrees on that. Some say early 80s, others say mid- to late 80s. Whatever, he is a medical marvel.

How long will the streak go on?

“I don’t know,” he says.

Does he have a chance to reach 3,500?

“No, no,” Hearn said. “That would be impossible. That would be at least five more years.”

When will he retire?

“When it’s no longer fun,” he said.

Asked what he likes most about his job, Hearn said, “The camaraderie, being around the players, the coaches, the crew, the fans.”

Said Lantz, “Chick is great with the fans. It doesn’t matter what arena we are in, everyone knows Chick and everyone loves Chick.”

Hearn looks back and realizes he has been blessed. He is an L.A. legend, a basketball legend, a star among stars. In L.A., he’s as big a name as Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy or Shaquille O’Neal.

But fame is not what drives him. It’s the love of the game and the love of his craft.

“Chick is a perfectionist,” Lantz said. “He wants to be perfect and he wants everyone around him to be perfect. I knew that when I took the job.”

Susan Stratton, longtime producer and director of the Laker telecasts on Channel 9, is as close to the Hearns as anyone and said, “Chick is a very complex man, a very bright man. He’s also a very decent man, he really is. And Marge is a saint.”

That’s what everyone says about Marge.

Hearn will be remembered for his streak, no question, but his real contribution to basketball is a whole new lexicon.

At the top of the list of Chickisms is “the refrigerator.”

Hearn doesn’t remember the first time he put a game in the refrigerator.

“It was at least 10 years ago, oh, maybe much longer ago than that,” he said. “It just popped out, like a lot of things do. It just didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.”

It was years later that he added “the door is closed, the light is out, the eggs are cooling, and the butter is getting hard.”

That came from the late Gladys Worthy, James’ mother.

“Chick and my mother struck up a friendship, and she used to write to him occasionally,” Worthy said. “She suggested in a letter to Chick that he add that phrase whenever he puts a game in the refrigerator. I don’t know where she got it, whether it’s a Southern saying or what.”

Said Hearn, “Mrs. Worthy definitely gets credit for that, bless her heart. The ‘jello is jiggling’ came later. A fan wrote to suggest that.”

There were times in recent years that Hearn’s critics began to wonder if it was about time for him to call it a career. He was getting Eddie Jones and Kobe Bryant confused, he was calling Travis Knight Travis Grant.

But have those critics been listening lately? Hearn is back on top of his game. The fastest voice in the NBA is better than ever.”

“This, by far, is Chick’s best year in quite a while,” Lantz said.

Bill Sharman, former Laker coach, general manager and president and now a special consultant to the team, said, “I’ve been in pro ball since 1950 and I’ve heard a lot of announcers, but no one is close to Chick. He’s dramatic, humorous and informative and he has a passion for the game.”

Hearn has enjoyed the glory, the fame, the traveling with one of the top teams in sports, but there have been some tough times for him and Marge. Their son, Gary, died at 27 in 1972. Their daughter, Samantha, died at 41 in 1991.

“Chick and Marge are such decent people, they didn’t deserve that,” Stratton said. “Not that anybody does, but particularly not Chick and Marge.”

But now there is a new love in the Hearns’ life, a great-granddaughter. Kayla, 2, is the daughter of Shannon Newman, Gary’s daughter. Shannon and her husband, Louis, live in Placentia and have become regulars at the Forum. Shannon’s mother and Gary’s widow, Beverly Rikel, lives in Anaheim.

Shannon lived with the Hearns at their Encino home when she was in seventh and eighth grade. Growing up without a father wasn’t always easy, but the Hearns stuck by her.

“Marge and Shannon were always close,” Hearn said. “Marge was always there with a shoulder to cry on.

“And now Kayla is the light of our lives. Marge is crazy about her.”

Chick and his family will be honored at halftime of today’s game. Worthy will emcee the ceremony, which will be televised on Fox Sports West. Hearn will also receive a special Victor Award from the City of Hope.

Then he’ll go back up to his perch high above the Forum floor and finish calling his 3,000th consecutive Laker game.

* RANDY HARVEY: Broadcasting dreams have died hard or taken another path because of the Southland’s remarkable icons. C2

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Iron Men

How Chick Hearn’s consecutive-game broadcasting streak compares to the longest playing streaks in the major sports:

BASEBALL

* 2,478--CAL RIPKEN

1982-present

NFL

* 282--JIM MARSHALL

1960-72

NHL