Posted on 02/23/2019 5:31:08 PM PST by Kazan
Longtime radio voice Gary Dolphin has been suspended from broadcasting Iowa basketball games for the rest of the season.
The action comes following comments that Dolphin made during the postgame portion of Iowa’s radio broadcast of Tuesday’s home game against Maryland, in which he referred to the Terrapins’ Bruno Fernando, who is black, as “King Kong.”
The suspension, announced by Learfield Sports Properties (which owns the rights to Hawkeye broadcasts), is for basketball only. Dolphin has been Iowa’s play-by-play voice of Iowa football, as well, for the past 22 years.
The reference to King Kong, a fictional gorilla in a 1933 movie by that name, happened as Dolphin and analyst Bobby Hansen wrapped the Hawkeyes' 66-65 loss, in which Maryland made 12 of its final 20 3-point attempts — and then Fernando (who stands 6-foot-10, 245 pounds) recorded the go-ahead tip-in with 7.8 seconds remaining.
“Twelve 3s on 22 made baskets. That’s some pretty good long-range shooting," Dolphin said. "And then Fernando was King Kong at the end of the game.”
Hansen replied, “Yeah, he was. And they had done a really good job, Gary, for the most part rebounding.”
Dolphin released a statement in the release, apologizing for his language.
“During the broadcast, I used a comparison when trying to describe a talented Maryland basketball player. In no way did I intend to offend or disparage the player," Dolphin said. "I take full responsibility for my inappropriate word choice and offer a sincere apology to him and anyone else who was offended. I wish the Iowa Hawkeye players, coaches and fans all the very best as they head into the final stretch of the season. I will use this as an opportunity to grow as a person and learn more about unconscious bias."
A Maryland spokesman on Friday said there would not be a statement from either Fernando or Terrapins athletics director Damon Evans about Dolphin's comments or suspension.
As most around Iowa know, this marks the second on-air incident this basketball season that put Dolphin in public hot water.
Dolphin was suspended by the University of Iowa and Learfield Sports for two games for negative comments he made about the basketball program and backup guard Maishe Dailey that were inadvertently aired during Iowa’s Nov. 27 game against Pittsburgh.
In that incident, during what was supposed to be a commercial break, Dolphin was telling Hansen that Iowa needed to recruit better guards, then singled out Dailey to make his point.
"We get Maishe Dailey," Dolphin said. "Dribbles into a double-team with his head down. God."
What made that story blow up even more was further comments by Iowa athletics director Gary Barta that there were “ongoing tensions” between Dolphin and head coach Fran McCaffery.
McCaffery also lashed out at Dolphin’s November comments, calling them “inexcusable.”
by the bb announcer’s “wack a pole “ comment, nothing happened....
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At least he didn’t say that there would NEVER be a great stadium in Warsaw because most everyone would be sitting behind a pole.
Is it ‘rude’ to say that the Nascar Pole sitter was next to a driver named ‘Jarwoski’?
Never, never, never, never apologize when you've done nothing wrong.
I forget what Don Meredith said but it was a usual wry comment.
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He still thinks we are the #1 announcing team?
Feuding with a head coach whose nickname was “White Magic” LOL
Still waiting for SJW’s to call for a ban on the teaching of evolution.
King Kong was in reference to his height and strength. This is ridiculous.
Zero
Different times. Alvin Garrett came out immediately and defended Cosell. Cosell also lived next door to Jackie Robinson, played cards with him every weekend and was Jackie’s attorney. There’s more: Cosell was instrumental in the Curt Flood case and, of course, was personal friends with Mohammed Ali and sugar Ray Leonard. Still, different times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koyc_i5ekZU
“OH MY. I haven’t seen a Jew run like that since Poland, 1938!”
Frank and Don would waffle in on Monday. Ole Donny would sometimes just show up right before the game. Then again, Dandy Don was the stooge in the both while Frank was merely the down and distance guy. Cosell was color and has never really been equaled. Unlike color commentary today, Howard would never tell you what you already saw. He was into match ups, personalities and background.
Cosell coined the phrase 'jockocracy' to describe ex-players who got in the booth and troweled out a bunch of football jargon while simply stating the obvious of what you were watching.
LOL
The internet goes waaaaaaaaay back!!!
It’s amazing how distorted my memory is of that.
Anyone in media is a hypocrite or a slimeball. Let them all make their human sacrifices to their gods. This latest guy who gets burned for king kong has watched others get sacrificed and he did nothing. Screw am all
Shudda called him Mighty Joe Young . . .
Pathetic! But it is the University of Iowa. A liberal SJW swamp. The AD is a joke. Word has it it was ONE email that set the whole thing off. Probably some feminist professor. The same one who complained about the mascot looking too intimidating. Funny thing, at the last game, a prominent donor to the athletic program dressed up like a dolphin with “Free Dolph” written on it. He should never have apologized. He and his color guy( are we allowed to say color guy) should have told the University to “F” off!
the cinematographer of TD is a good bud of mine.
I know he didn’t mean it that way it sounded, but anybody in the public would do well to purge from his mind any simian references to blacks, or even anything that sounds like a simian reference. It will spare him a lot of trouble, not just because using those references, even without any intention of being offensive, is bound to sound wrong to a lot of people and they’ll pitch a fit about it, but because simian references have been used on purpose in the past. I don’t know how many people living today would know this one, but here goes. In one of the old Tarzan movies, maybe “Tarzan Goes to New York,” there is a scene in a hotel in which a black bellman has an altercation with Cheetah the chimp. At one point the bellman says, “Don’t you sass me, colored boy.” I cringed at that one. Those were different times too, and that excuse can justify some things, but not everything.
I am not one for political correctness, but I am one for avoiding unnecessary trouble, especially in today’s climate in which people are nuts and overreact and won’t stop until the “offender” is ruined. That’s a big price to pay for a slip of the lip.
So many big black guys or big Puerto Rican guys wearing tshirts boasting they are King Kong to attract chicks in my parts... this is utterly ridiculous.
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