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Posted on 11/20/2011 8:05:16 PM PST by fkabuckeyesrule
For a few unforgettable days in 1941, it seemed fate had plans for Larry Munson that had nothing to do with the Georgia Bulldogs. After all, once you’ve shared the stage with Frank Sinatra, it’s hard to dream of night games in Starkville, Miss.
As a high school senior in Minneapolis, Munson was, by his own account, a “decent” piano player who loved jazz. He was in class when the phone call came. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, in town and scheduled to play 28 shows over the next week, had lost its regular piano player to illness.
“I had no idea how they got my name,” Munson once recalled. “I couldn’t believe they were interested in me.”
Soon, he found himself onstage with one of the most heralded groups of the big band era. The lead singer was a skinny kid from Hoboken, N.J.
“The women went crazy over Frank,” said Munson, who played every show with Sinatra for the princely sum of $31 per night. “I had never seen anything like it in my life.”
I did not move to Georgia until the early 90’s so the first I heard of Munson was in 1990 when Munson was in the hospital and he was going to miss broadcasting a football game and there were people asking if that might effect whether UGA would win or not. He will perhaps as a broadcaster be most remembered for the 1980 pass from Buck Belue to Linsey Scott to help UGA defeat Florida and propel UGA to the 1980 national championship.
RIP great, great DAWG.
Run Larry, Run!
Sugar and tears are falling from the sky. It is something that he held on until his beloved Dawgs secured the SEC East.
The end of an era.. it just isn’t the same listening to the games on the radio without him.
From this Gator fan, RIP Larry.
When the U Arkansas play by play man died, the governor declared a day of mourning.
Rest in peace Larry, one of the joys of life was
being in deer camp and listening to Larry call a game.
He was always fair and gave it up for the opponents
when they deserved it but his heart was always with
the Dogs.
DGD
(for you folks who are not citizens of the Bulldog Nation, that means “Damned Good Dawg.”)
RIP Larry. You were and are loved.
This has not been a good year for College football. One of the Arkansas players died this morning. All the Penn State stuff. Conferences that may be seeing their last year, and more to come.
That was for Paul Eells. Like Larry Munson, both were at one time the voices of the Vanderbilt Commodores.
I loved listening to this guy when I lived in Georgia. Even though he was supposed to “paint” a picture of the play as it was happening live, that wasn’t always the case. On one play you could hear the crowd yelling so you knew something was happening but Larry was silent. When the play was over and the crowed noise subsided Larry said “Folks, I wish you could have seen what I just saw.”
He was one colorful “old school” guy on the radio!
RIP.
I'm sorry about his death. I live in a part of the country where I heard his broadcasts. Although I liked his crusty personality and his laugh, I was always baffled by his play-by-play. It frequently lacked . . . details, like:
"We're lined up that way we do with a bunch of guys over there. Now he's running to his left and, oh!, you don't see anything that often!, but they didn't get him and he threw it to our guy in silver britches down there some and two of their guys him him so we got some yardage. What did you think, Loren?
"Well, Larry, I've been talking with the coaches and I think if wer're going to pass the ball more, we've got to throw it."
Painting a mental image from the broadcast was not easy. But you felt as if you wanted to grill out steaks with the guy.
The sugar is falling from the sky now in heaven. I will miss you Larry. Thanks for some great Saturday afternoons growing up in middle Georgia in the 60s and 70s...
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