As we established a couple weeks ago with my preposterously exhaustive research on the history of sports radio in Oklahoma City, I grew up listening sports radio in this town. Morning, news, and night. When other kids were learning to play the piano or play soccer or develop social skills or do anything, really, that would benefit their lives at some point down the road, that is what I would do.
A sports radio junkie doesn't just listen to the hosts; you also get to know the callers almost as well as the hosts. Today I thought we'd take a trip down memory lane and rank some of the best callers in sports radio history. I consulted with Patrick, who has lived a similarly sad existence, and we came up with this list of the top 20 OKC sports radio callers in history. Part one is below the jump, and part two will be posted later today.
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20. Craig Humphreys from The Masters
Springtime means one thing in Oklahoma: the Sports Animal indulging Craig Humphreys' ridiculous vanity project in which he goes to Augusta and calls in a thousand times a day to tell us what golfers said in their press conference and then during the tournament reads their scorecards on the air. Riveting stuff.
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19. Mike from Chickasha
Is the magazine out yet, Mark?
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18. Wild Aggie Bill
This guy billed himself as an NFL draft expert and claimed to have sources within the scouting industry. Every year he would call and talk about what they were saying about all the OU and OSU players who were going pro. I remember being infuriated that he said Jason White wouldn't get drafted very high.
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17. Lumber Lady
Poor Lumber Lady. She suffered the indignity of being profiled by Jenni Carlson in 2006:
Just to spice things up, I say we make turn that photo into a caption contest. Unfortunately, the original caption may win:
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16. Andy "Bib" Dillard
Andy Dillard was a professional golfer that was briefly famous for getting ridiculously hot for a few holes during the 1992 US Open, before returning to a life of obscurity and being treated by radio hosts as if being a professional golfer made you an expert on college football.
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15. Rocco
Back when Mike Steely first started, his show was a lot of fun, and all the callers used to have their own theme songs. Rocco's was David Exxex's "Rock On," only with the lyrics changed from "Rock On" to "Rocco." I still sing the Steely version of the song whenever I hear it, which just happens to take place every Tuesday night at Nancy's Lighthouse.
Anyway, Rocco would always give his picks for the football games that weekend.I don't remember if they were any good or not, but people would literally call in and ask for his picks. It was a big deal.
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14. Shaq Daddy
Shaq Daddy was a huge Laker and OU fan, who kept calling the Animal well after he moved away from the state, to Minnesota or Wisconsin or somewhere.
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13. Chris the Jayhawk
This local lawyer has been calling into Al Eschbach's show since the 80's. Somehow has yet to get bored with talking Kansas sports on an Oklahoma radio station.
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12. Brian Tallet's Dad
Brian Tallet was 1996 Putnam City West graduate who went on to play Major League Baseball and have amazing facial hair. His dad used to call into Traber's show all the time and aggressively suck up to him and listen to Traber's advice for his son. It was good radio for the many listeners who had a kid playing Major League Baseball.
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11. Scissorhands
Scissorhands is a local barber who's clients include numerous OU football and OKC Thunder players. On the radio, he's always name-dropping about who came into his shop that week. If it were anyone else, it would be easy to dismiss them as just another jersey chaser, but his gregariousness and fun-loving personality makes him an legitimately endearing guy. Oozes positivity.
