Remembering Bob Fulton

I've spent most of the last 14 years of my real job with The Greenville News either working in page design or covering high schools, so it's been a long time since I last saw Bob Fulton.

A family situation kept the guy who's been covering USC for The News this fall from being able to cover the Alabama game, so I was called out of the bullpen.

Either before the game or at halftime, I noticed on the seating chart that a seat was reserved for Fulton, so I went over to see if he was there. He was either not in attendance, or away from his seat.

That was one of the first things to pop into my mind today when I heard of his passing at age 89.

For thousands of Gamecocks fans in my generation, Bob Fulton's voice was synonymous with USC athletics. He brought the reports of the great ACC road basketball victories of the Frank McGuire to life.

If I heard him call a "HIGH spiraling kick once, I heard it a thousand times. It was one of his football trademarks.

A conversation with my friend Dennis Tonnsen today reminded me of another Fultonism, this one in basketball. He was say a free throw was "down, good," but it sounded a lot like "Damn good."

Colleague Woody White recalled a story told by Les Timms Jr., the late editor of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Timms met someone at a function and it came out that Les was a sportswriter who sometimes covered USC. The other person asked about "Bob Fultonback." Puzzled, Timms explained the name was Fulton. The other person said "Well, he always says 'This is Bob Fultonback at Williams-Brice Stadium.'''

Fulton was usually busy doing broadcast prep during the years I was hanging around the press box or press room as a USC student press-box go-fer or young reporter, so we didn't have that many one-on-one conversations. But he was always cordial to me.

One of the few times we did spend some time together was during USC's 1975 trip to the College World Series. The CWS wasn't spread out quite to the point that it is now, but there were still days when USC either didn't play or played in the afternoon. That presented the opportunity to get some good Omaha steaks with Fulton, former USC Sports Information Director Tom Price and other South Carolina media.

It's kind of ironic that I made my first trip back to Omaha since then this past summer. I have nothing against Andy DeMetra, who called USC's College World Series run on radio, but I would loved to have heard Fulton, in his prime, make the call on Whit Merrifield's series-ending hit.

The broadcasting greats I grew up listening to - such as Fulton, Jim Phillips, Ernie Harwell, Jack Buck, Harry Kalas and Bob Elson - are leaving us. The world was made richer by their lives, but poorer by their absence.

RIP, Bob Fulton.