Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 117

2 THE PEORIA REPUBLIC WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2007 Shazam: Hall of Fame to honor Suns voice McCoy WEST VALLEY Glendale's Al McCoy to receive honors Al McCoy, the Voice of the Suns, will receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award during festivities Friday and Saturday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Mass. The award is annually awarded to a print and electronic journalist. Malcom Moran, former USA Today and New York Times writer, also will be honored. a game despite basketball's hectic schedule. He and his wife, Georgia, an artist, moved to Glendale in the 1960s.

They have lived in the same modest neighborhood near 45th and Olive avenues for close to 30 years, raising three sons here. Glendale's Midwestern vibe appealed to the small-town guy in him. Still, he is enthusiastic about the city's growth and the sports mecca that has developed throughout the West Valley. He draws a line from the Surprise and Peoria spring training stadiums down to Glendale's football and hockey venues. Glendale and Goodyear will add spring training facilities in the next two years, and Maryvale's ballpark already is there.

Tack on Avondale's Phoenix International Raceway, and it is a sporting powerhouse, he said. "That is probably the most productive sports strip in the country," McCoy said. important thing, not where the announcer had his dinner last night," he said. That is advice he imparted to Greg Schulte, now the radio voice of the Arizona Diamond-, backs but at one time an engineer and color analyst with McCoy. The senior broadcaster became his mentor.

The Diamondbacks announcer will miss announcing Wednesday's and Friday's baseball games to watch McCoy be honored at the Hall of Fame. The slower pace of baseball allows more room for storytelling, but Schulte said he keeps McCoy's philosophy in mind. "Precision, accuracy in description and letting the game be the story," Schulte said. McCoy, an Iowa farm boy, started practicing in his youth as he would sit on a fencepost and call out plays. In high school, he earned a starting position on the basketball team because his coach didn't want him on the bench giving By Carrie Walters CARRIE.

WATTf BSy1 AKIZONAREPUBLIC.COM Glendale may not host the Phoenix Suns, but for 40 years, the voice of the team has called the West Valley home. Al McCoy will be honored this week with the Basketball Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award. The award, given annually to one member each of print and electronic media, is typically reserved for national figures. But the 35-year Suns broadcaster is a Valley institution who made his mark describing the action in lively lines like "hoop-de-doo for two" and the three-pointer exclamation: "Shazam!" The entire year has been one of accolades for McCoy, who last spring saw the media center at US Airways Center named in his honor and even got a bobblehead in his likeness. From his fourth-floor office at the Suns arena overlooking downtown Phoenix, McCoy ROB SCHUMACHERTHE REPUBLIC Af McCoy has been the voice of the Phoenix Suns for 35 years.

He has lived in Glendale for 40 years. talked about his long runs with the team and the city of Glendale. McCoy said part of the honors he is now receiving, is because of his durability. "Lefs face it, people grow up with you," he said. But the latest award from the Hall of Fame in Springfield, stems from more than familiarity.

In an era where sports are big business and even the announcers are minor celebrities, McCoy has stuck with calling the plays. "The game is still the most FREE 1 Since 1972, he has been telling radio listeners what is happening on the court. He has created catch phrases like "Heartbreak Hotel" when a shot goes awry and "zing go the strings" when it sinks the net. Through the Suns dynasties, he has coined nicknames for players from the Nash Rambler to Sir Charles Barkley and Walter Davis, the Man with the Velvet Touch. McCoy, 74, has rarely missed LOWER IMPLANTS' Are You Currently Providing Child Care or Have You Considered Starting Your Own Home-Based Child Care Business? Summa Associates Needs Child Care Providers to Serve Families Close to Home With the Purchase of Our Geneva Premium Quality Upper and Lower Dentures VHIIRY! Offer Expires September We also offer upper implants at a very affordable fee-for snap on denture convenience, i IMPLANTS $4 1 -v- Affordable and simplified denture implants for patient comfort and stability Geneva 13460 N.

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