Practice is over. Now the real season starts for Fox Sports. Gone from Soldier Field are veterans Pat Summerall and John Madden. In their place for Sunday’s Bears-Buccaneers telecast will be rookies Joe Buck and Tim Green, not only one of the youngest broadcasting teams in NFL history, but probably the only one pairing English majors as well.
“The chemistry between us came out when we did our audition together,” said Buck, 25, at Fox’s final rehearsal last week at Soldier Field. “It developed so well that we quit after only a quarter.”
“I was surprised at how much fun it was,” added Green, 30. “It’s a great opportunity for guys like us. Really, to start out, you couldn’t start in a better situation. In a different way, it’s as exciting and as thrilling as playing.”
Green spent eight years as a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons before retiring after last season. In addition, he did a weekly commentary on National Public Radio the last three years and has done sports reporting for a Syracuse, N.Y., TV station since 1987. He has written two novels. The latest, “Titans,” is due out Oct. 1. But little prepared him for the booth.
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“I never saw a game from there,” Green said. “You feel like everything is moving at once.”
“What came out (of the audition) was how much he could see,” Buck said. “He was on the same page as Madden.”
Buck has spent the last three summers working with his dad, Jack, on St. Louis Cardinals broadcasts in addition to being the radio voice of Missouri basketball. The switch to football “is a difficult transition, but the same as from baseball to basketball,” Buck said. “In baseball, you can almost put your feet up and fall asleep.”
Buck also has benefited from the baseball strike. He has had more time to prepare for his Fox debut.
“It’s terrible what happened to baseball,” he said, “but it’s been great for me. I’m fortunate it worked out the way it did.” Not as fortunate are Sunday’s Fox telecast plans. Producer Michael Burks’ crew will have to work from the ABC production facilities because there wasn’t enough time to move them out and move in the Fox trucks after Saturday night’s Northwestern-Notre Dame telecast. “ABC has been extremely cooperative with us,” said a Fox spokesman.
New partner: Mike Ditka-in between WSCR-AM and WFLD-Ch. 32 local gigs-begins his second season as an NBC Sports studio analyst, but the former Bears coach is a veteran when it comes to this year’s “NFL Live” cast. The only other returnee from last year is Will McDonough. Newcomers range from co-hosts Greg Gumbel and Ahmad Rashad to analyst Joe Gibbs to reporter Jim Gray. All this on top of fresh competition from Fox Broadcasting’s Hollywood-ized “NFL Sunday.”
“It’s competition, sure,” Ditka said, “but we have an obligation to do the best job we can with our product. I feel very comfortable with the people I’m working with.” As for Fox pregame rival Jimmy Johnson, Ditka said, “There’s going to be a personal competition to see whose hair looks the best. If I can make my hair look as good as Jimmy’s, I’ve got it made.” And as for working with Gumbel, “If Greg does as much for me as he did for Terry (Bradshaw), I’ll be a star.”
Personnel moves: Jim Memolo permanently joins WSCR-AM morning host Tom Shaer as a sidekick starting Wednesday. Memolo had briefly left the station to join One-On-One Sports but returned. “Tom Shaer has done a great job providing an entertaining and informative show,” said program director Ron Gleason, “but with interaction such a key element to the format, Tom and all of us agree adding the humor and opinions of Memolo will only enhance the The Score’s overall sound each morning.”
Programming notes: Wolves vice president Wayne Messmer and play-by-play man Judd Sirott are guest celebrity DJs 2-6 p.m. Friday on WCBR-FM, which will be the radio home for the IHL expansion team. Messmer also joins wife Kathleen to co-host “Chicago Baseball Weekly” at 10 a.m. Saturday on WCBR. . . . WMVP-AM’s “Talking Baseball” moves to 9:30 a.m. Saturdays this week as Cheryl Raye co-hosts with Bruce Levine. . . . Bill Baker and Tim Maher cover the ASA men’s 16-inch championship game in Mt. Prospect at 3 p.m. Monday on WKKD-FM. . . . Idled Cubs first baseman Mark Grace joins WGN-AM’s Bears pregame, halftime and postgame coverage Sunday. And, as if the station’s Bears programming isn’t long enough, Randy Minkoff and Hub Arkush will recap the day’s pro football games using audio highlights from around the league on “Football Tonight” at 6 p.m. Sundays. . . . NBC’s Bob Trumpy and Fox’s Howie Long co-host “Inside Pro Football,” an hour-long program syndicated by Evanston-based Inside Sports Broadcasting that debuts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on WMVP-AM. . . . All Rockford Royals playoff games in the Class A Midwest League will be broadcast by Dan Bernstein and Jeff Cummings on WLUV-FM. . . . Repeats of “Pro Football Weekly,” hosted by Dan Roan and Arkush and originally seen on WGN-Ch. 9 late Saturday nights, will air on CLTV at 10 a.m. Sundays starting this week.