Improved Cavs worth the wait for Tait

The longtime broadcaster has seen more bad basketball than good.

By ERIC HAMILTON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

ALLIANCE — For the past 50 years, Joe Tait has managed to make a living by making terrible sports teams sound good.

But these days, as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tait’s job has become a bit easier. With the likes of LeBron James leading the way, making the Cavs sound good over the airwaves isn’t so difficult.

“I’ve seen some pretty bad basketball through the years and I also announced for the Indians back in the years no one wants to remember,” said Tait. “Someone told me once that they think I have seen more losses than anyone alive.

“I was destined for this job,” said Tait as he served as the keynote speaker at the Carnation Festival Community Breakfast on Saturday at Mount Union College. “I loved sports and I had no physical skills whatsoever.”

Tait began his broadcasting career as a student at Monmouth College (Ill.) doing play-by-play for the school’s football games. While the experience was painful in some ways, Tait used it as a springboard for future success.

“Monmouth made all those bad Hiram football teams look like Notre Dame,” he said. “We were terrible. But people said I was somehow able to make a 66-0 drubbing sound like a 6-6 tie.”

It was a chance meeting with a coach named Bill Fitch that later gave Tait his big break. Fitch had heard Tait’s work at Monmouth and was impressed. In 1970, when Finch was hired as the coach of the expansion Cavaliers, he remembered Tait.

“When Bill got hired, the owners knew they had the worst team in the league. So they decided they needed someone who could make a horrible team sound exciting. Bill said he knew just the guy and the rest, as they say, is history,” said Tait.

Longtime announcer

With the exception of two seasons in the early 1980s, Tait has been the Cavs announcer since the team’s inception in 1970. In 2006, he signed a two-year contract extension ensuring he will be the voice of the Cavaliers until at least the 2008-09 season.

“It’s been a long, enjoyable run and I’d say one of the highlights has been my association with Mount Union,” said Tait. “It was over 20 years ago that Harry Paidas called me and asked me to announce Purple Raider football on television. And I’ve been back every year since.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be back this year for the regular season because I’ll be in China with LeBron and the Cavaliers when Mount plays BW [Baldwin-Wallace]. LeBron is pretty big over there and the Cavaliers are playing two exhibition games there. So I’ll be over there making sure LeBron stays out of trouble.

“I’m hoping the playoffs will come and I’ll be able to pick up a bundle of Mount Union games then.”

Tait says he has plenty of reasons why he enjoys announcing Mount Union football and being around small-school athletics.

“The easy answer is because they win,” he said. “But it’s also because I went to a small college and I enjoy the atmosphere here. Mount Union has something special going on here. What I’m most impressed with is that these kids are playing because they want to and not because someone is paying them to. Doing these games isn’t something I have to do; it’s something I want to do.”

Good year

Tait couldn’t leave without talking a little bit of Cavaliers basketball. Although he enjoys the offseason and getting away from the sport, he can’t help but to think about it when asked.

“Everything fell into place for the Cavs last year,” he said. “With Chicago losing the last regular season game and us getting a nice path in the playoffs, that helped. No one expected LeBron to get the Cavaliers to the championship level so fast. He never surprises me with how adult he has been in handling everything and how veteran he’s performed in big games.

“LeBron has a had a good supportive cast, right down to the coach [Mike Brown] and the general manager [Danny Ferry]. There’s no question they need to improve the talent in order to go further. I think [Daniel] Gibson will get even better and Shannon Brown will make a bigger impact this season.”