You really weren’t a Rebel until Dick Calvert said so

By
Las Vegas Review-Journal
The "Voice of the Rebels", Dick Calvert, puts on his headset prior to calling the act ...

Most often they blend into the background with the white noise of the stadium or the arena — except when they announce that fans should refrain from throwing objects onto the court.

At which time they usually are ignored.

But Dick Calvert, who announced Wednesday that after 52 years he’ll be stepping aside as UNLV’s public address announcer, rarely, if ever, blended into the background. Or was ignored.

Carl Yastrzemski, the Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer, once said of Bob Sheppard, the legendary former Yankee Stadium public address announcer, that “you’re not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name.”

(And says your jersey number twice.)

The voice: clear, deep, familiar. The cadence. The often imitated, never duplicated style with which even visiting players were familiar.

Dick Calvert was like that, too. He was the bridge between UNLV’s glorious past to … well, whatever dour adjective one might come up with to describe the current state of the athletic program.

You really weren’t a Rebel until the voice of them said you had fumbled in the red zone or knocked down a long-range jump shot.

“THREE-POINT GOALLLL! … Anderson Hunt.”

Identify the play. Pause. Lower the voice. Say the shooter’s name.

Listen to the crowd roar.

Around the horn

— Still without a ride for next year and with his older brother, Kurt, on the sidelines until at least the start of the NASCAR playoffs with a head injury, there’s a lot on Kyle Busch’s plate.

The two-time Cup Series champion from Las Vegas hasn’t ruled out much of anything in regard to his racing future. With the exception that he won’t be starting his own team.

“To be able to race for a fair share of the purse you gotta have one of those charters, and the charter market is outrageous — they’re going for between $20 or $30 million or something like that,” Busch said about the Cup Series’ cost prohibitive franchise system during a cellphone chat with the Review-Journal.

“I don’t have that lying around,” the driver of Joe Gibbs’ No. 18 Toyota (for now, anyway) added with a wry chuckle. “And then you need a $15 million sponsor to carry you through the season every year. So it’s just not plausible. But I’m definitely open to having those discussions with any of those people who feel like they want to spend that kind of money.”

— Leroy Caldwell, a former heavyweight challenger and longtime Las Vegan who fought luminaries such as George Foreman, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Oscar Bonavena, Joe Bugner, Trevor Berbick, Pinklon Thomas and Gerrie Coetzee during the 1979s and ’80s, is suffering from serious health problems.

Johnny “Bang-Bang” Jackson, his friend and fellow fighter, wrote in an email that Caldwell has lost more than 100 pounds, has difficulty walking and needs oxygen to breathe.

Caldwell, who fought regularly at the old Silver Slipper on the Strip and various other Las Vegas venues, retired in 1985 after compiling a pro record of 27-31-6.

— Another local high school football season kicked off this weekend, but it didn’t seem quite the same without Jon Tritsch running all over the valley to put a highlight package together.

The former Channel 8 sportscaster posted on Twitter this week that he has accepted a job at WCCB TV, the CW affiliate in Charlotte, N.C.

0:01

— After TV cameras caught former Aviators outfielder Skye Bolt getting sick to his stomach during the parent A’s game against the Houston Astros last Saturday, a Twitter user pointed out that “Skye Bolt threw up in CF while AJ Puk was pitching.”

The former Aviators relief pitcher’s surname is pronounced “Puck” not “Puke.” But it was still a nice try.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.

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