For CBS announcer Jim Nantz, Houston basketball nurtured his life and passion
This is no ordinary Final Four to CBS announcer Jim Nantz. This one is personal. He shared why this week with The Times’ Sam Farmer. In Nantz’s words:
The basketball program at Houston has been a huge part of my life. I wouldn’t be in this business if it weren’t for the Houston basketball program.
I was masquerading as a golfer, living with the premier guys on the golf team. I came to school with the intent of majoring in communications and trying to figure out a way to work for CBS one day. That was my goal since I was 11 years old.
The great man, legendary Houston golf coach Dave Williams, wanted me to be on his team. My game wasn’t any great shakes, but it was decent enough that I could masquerade as a golfer. That way, he could justify putting me in the dorm in the company of the decorated recruits from my class, so I would be a “good influence” on them, do things the way that the coach would want his kids and his star players to approach their day-to-day schedule: Get up, get cleaned up for school, go down to the cafeteria, eat a healthy breakfast. It wasn’t waking up five minutes before a class and throwing on some warmups and sprinting to the class to get in the door in time.
Reminders of UCLA coaching great have followed the Bruins during their unexpected trek from the First Four to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.
I was just a geeky, goal-minded guy, and that’s why the coach put me in the room with Freddy Couples and Blaine McCallister and John Horn, who played on the tour for a couple years.
One day during my sophomore year, the coach paraded me down to basketball coach Guy Lewis’ office and said, “This boy wants to one day work for CBS. If you’ve got anything for him to do, I’d sure appreciate it.” Next thing you know, I’m the public-address announcer for the home basketball games. I did that the rest of the way through school, and a year out of school. After that, I didn’t do it anymore because I got hired by the CBS affiliate in Houston, then went to Salt Lake City to do the Jazz games with Hot Rod Hundley and anchor on the CBS station.
But that job as the PA announcer rolled into hosting the Guy Lewis television show, which aired on the NBC affiliate into Houston. So it was a big opportunity for me. That was my entrance into television.
I remember the feeling of being the PA for the first time. I couldn’t believe it, it was just so powerful. People would react to you. I’d introduce the starting lineups, and you’re basically cueing them: “And now, let’s meet your University of Houston Cougars!” I came up with the name Clyde “The Glide” for Clyde Drexler, and he remains a dear friend to this day. I wound up writing the forward to his book.
After I graduated and set course on my career, I went up to Salt Lake City when I was 23 and left the market. When Houston played in Albuquerque in The Pit, I had to watch the Saturday semifinal game against Louisville, which is where we went on this complete dunking blitz. That absolutely sealed the legendary status of Phi Slama Jama.
Now we’re heading to Monday night’s championship game against NC State, and I went to my news director at KSL in Salt Lake and said, “I have to be there on Monday. I know I’m scheduled to work, but I have to be there.” And he said, “OK, I get it. We’ll cover for you.” So I flew down to Albuquerque and reported directly to the Houston hotel.
I stayed on the floor with the players that afternoon, went in and out of the different rooms the players were in. Clyde was rooming with Michael Young, etc. I rode over to the championship game on the Houston team bus.
Then, of course, they had that shocking and stunning defeat with the dunk by NC State’s Lorenzo Charles at the buzzer.
I rode back on the bus in silence and shock with the rest of the team, hung out overnight with the team until I took a 6 a.m. flight back to Salt Lake.
Fast-forward a few years later, and Freddy, Blaine and I created a charitable foundation called the Three Amigos. We wanted to do some things together, including reaching into our own pockets and making a difference in charities that were meaningful to us. I chose Alzheimer’s disease, not knowing that one day my father would be afflicted with it. But our coach, Dave Williams, had it at the time, so I wanted to honor our coach.
Junior guard David Singleton’s joyous style and team-first attitude has made him a favorite of UCLA fans. One admirer even ended up with a pair of his shoes.
Freddy wanted to honor his parents, both of whom lost battles to cancer. And Blaine’s wife, Claudia, still has an extremely rare eye disease that’s left her legally blind. He wanted to raise money for a completely underfunded research project for that. Then we decided there would be a fourth charity that would get an equal 25% share of anything we raise. About that time, I’d heard about Grant Hill, not knowing that one day he’d be my teammate, endowing a scholarship to Duke. I thought that was one of the nicest things I’d heard. Then Terry Donahue, who was working with me at CBS, told me he was doing fundraising work at UCLA.
So we said, “We need to do something like this. We need to lead. We’ve got a chance to be examples here.” So we did. We endowed the first golf scholarship in the history of the school. We endowed it in perpetuity, so it’s paid off forever. The golf program there has a history like UCLA basketball.
When we finished that one, I said, “Guys, we need to do another one.” The basketball program didn’t have a single scholarship that was endowed. Three golf geeks, and we wanted to show the basketball program how it’s done. So we endowed the first basketball scholarship.
UCLA’s stars in the classic 2006 NCAA upset of Gonzaga had no idea the game would go down in history as the Adam Morrison Crying Game.
I’ve had a lot of people say, “Hey, congratulations. Your alma mater is in the Final Four.” Well to me, it’s more than being an alumnus of the school. It’s very personal. This basketball program has really positively impacted my life. Those Phi Slama Jama days, those players were my friends and they still are.
When Kelvin Sampson was hired in 2014, we were doing an event at the football stadium because Houston had completely renovated it. The school came and said, “Hey, we have some naming opportunities. How would you like to have your name on the press box?” I said, “Well, what I’d really like to do is have my mother’s name on the press box.” I had created the Nantz National Alzheimer’s Center and named it in honor of my dad, and my mom, who just turned 90 this past week, I wanted her to have something.
I loved the fact that the press box in the football stadium overlooked the skyline of downtown Houston. Anybody sitting in the Doris Nantz Press Box would be looking over a cityscape of a city that gave this family tremendous opportunity. I wanted my mom to be remembered all those years later, even if nobody knew the story but me.
We were having a ribbon-cutting event and I kept it from my mom. I pulled off the ruse that we were going to go and get a special tour of the new stadium, and I wanted her to see it. We walked in, and there at the entrance was the sign, the Doris Nantz Press Box. There was a little reception with the athletic director, the university president, and Kelvin Sampson was there.
At one point, Kelvin came over to me and said, “I’ve been made aware how important this basketball program is to you. I just want you to know, we’re going to win. We’re going to get this program back to the Final Four. You’ve got my word.” I said, “Sheesh, Coach, you really think we can do this?” He said, “I know we can. You’ve got my word. We’re going to get there.”
And here we are.
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