Jerry Baker (announcer)

Transcription

The UK Home Football season is about to begin. Someone has to tell us who made the tackle or what down we're on. Who Does That? Hello, my name is Carl Nathe and I work in Public Relations and Marketing here at the University of Kentucky. And I'm also the public address announcer for home football games at Commonwealth Stadium. It's a lot of fun. You just want to be there. You arrive at least two hours before the game. There are four of us working together. To my left is Donnie Atkins. He's my spotter. I'm watching the offense and watching the ball and it's kind of hard if you don't have somebody watching the defense who's coming in to make the tackle. So he will give me that information by means of a number, and I've got charts in front of me and I do my homework. We'll say pass from Jones to Smith, gain of five yards, 2nd and 5 at the 35. Of course, we have a lot of fun when we get a FIRST DOWN KENTUCKY. Oh, I love it. Sure. But I love saying, TOUCHDOWN KENTUCKY. That's the best. You cannot script it. It kind of becomes second nature. I find if you've done your preparation beforehand it makes it a lot easier. I try to go to the coach's news conference to listen to what Coach Stoops is saying and also to get the information on the other team. After you get into the season, you pretty much know Kentucky's personnel quite well. But it's a different team each home game so you've got to prepare on that. Later in the week, I will make my charts out, which I use is the - what they have is the game day flip card that's distributed in the press box. I'll take that and I'll actually blow it up on the copier so that it's in a bigger form and I kind of do a little literally cutting and pasting. The kind of stuff you learn in kindergarten, I'm still using it. You don't want to necessarily memorize. But you want to be familiar with it so when you see somebody like number 14 walking on the field, you know that's so-and-so. You want to get prepared. You want to set the mood. You have a home audience that's rooting for the team. You are supposed to stay objective, according to the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA, although you do have room for enthusiasm and getting excited about your team. I try never to insult the other team or do anything that would be condescending to the other team but obviously I'm gonna show more support, if you will, through my voice. I have to be conscious of gauging myself so I don't totally lose it because you're gonna get caught up in the crowd. The crowd is on their feet in a play like that; your voice is on its feet, if you will. I can't cheer, but what I do is I get kinda like I get kinda edgy when there's a great play unfolding. You can see oh something good is gonna happen. When it actually happens, when they cross the goal line, you erupt just like anybody else. I try to be a fan talking to other fans and hopefully we get the information right. But we have fun and hopefully put a smile on people's face when the action calls for it. I'm Carl Nathe. Helping fans stay informed and entertained by doing the public address announcing at Commonwealth Stadium for UK home football games is how I see blue.