Joe Posnanski on Billy Packer
I'm a little younger than Poz and was probably not quite that big a college basketball fan; I was more a UCLA fan, even before I went, maybe Long Beach State or CSUF, since occasionally they would have someone on the team from the neighborhood. Still, I watched my share. Says Poz:
And it occurred to me for the first time in a long time: Damn, I was a really, really big college basketball fan.
Billy Packer was as big a part of my life as family members. Well, bigger than some family members.
Yes, I know, a salute to Billy Packer, who died on Friday, probably should be more about Billy Packer himself. He was a fine player at Wake Forest ā led the Demon Deacons to the Final Four one year ā and he was a longtime and legendary college basketball announcer. His old partner Jim Nantz can speak better to that: āHe was a genius. There was no one who would look at the field ā in this case, look at the court ā and see everything. ā¦ I think when you look at the pantheon of great analysts, youāve got John Madden and youāve got Billy Packer.ā
But, I simply cannot untangle Billy Packer from my own experience. See, I was in high school when we moved from Cleveland to Charlotte, and I was extremely awkward, and this was Charlotte long before the Hornets or Panthers. I viewed myself as a big sports fan, someone who could tell you a million things about MLB or the NFL or the NBA.
But that stuff simply didnāt have any currency in Charlotte. I did not know anything about the sports that kids in Charlotte cared about then. I didnāt know anything about NASCAR. I didnāt know anything about pro wrestling. And, mostly, I didnāt know anything about college basketball.
āWhoās your team?ā someone asked me on maybe my second or third day in school. When I said I liked Cleveland teams, they were like: āNo, whoās your ACC team?ā
And I didnāt even know what ACC meant.
What followed was a crash course on ACC basketball with Professor Packer presiding. I would watch ACC games with the intensity of Peyton Manning studying film. Billy Packer was not the only broadcaster, but he seemed to be the one who did the biggest games, he and Tim Brant mostly though I think Packer worked with other announcers at times.
His voice became my winter heartbeat. Name an ACC team from those days, and I can instantly tell you something about them ā¦ because Billy Packer taught me.
For me, it wasn't nearly as specific, but listening to Billy Packer was a big part of my life as a kid, when a whole lot of my time was watching whatever sports I had ready access to.
