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Bill Raftery remembers the first time he uttered his now-classic “Onions” during a basketball broadcast ... like it was yesterday.
It happened at a New Jersey Nets game in Orlando during the 1990s. The Nets were struggling that season.
Guard Kevin Edwards, a former DePaul player, hit the winning three-pointer.
“I said ‘Onions’ for the first time in my life,” Raftery said. The term is Raftery-ese for a clutch play.
Those attending Tuesday’s Kickin’ Cancer event at Gordyville USA near Gifford will hear similar stories and more.
Raftery, an iconic TV analyst fresh off calling the Final Four, is one of the featured guests for University of Illinois men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood’s annual fundraiser. They will be joined by Oakland University men’s basketball coach Greg Kampe and retired basketball official Bo Boroski.
Raftery, who has been a broadcaster for more than four decades, has been to Champaign-Urbana over the years to call Illinois games. But Gordyville will be a new experience.
“It will be fun to see everybody,” Raftery said. “It’s certainly less pressure for everybody involved than having Purdue come in to play.”
After a grueling season, you’d think the almost 81-year-old Raftery (his birthday is Friday) might take some down time. But he has a longtime connection to Underwood through their mutual friend, the late coach Jim Kerwin.
When Underwood asked Raftery to attend Kickin’ Cancer, Raftery was an immediate “yes.”
“Because of the respect I have for (Underwood) and Jimmy Kerwin,” Raftery said.
Raftery doesn’t do a lot of speaking engagements during the offseason. Last year, he went to the University of Kansas and this year he will be in Gordyville.
Raftery is always willing to help with the Coaches Vs. Cancer program. His good friend former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was heavily involved as was longtime Notre Dame coach Mike Brey.
“We’ve done stuff with those fellas too,” Raftery said.
Meant for this
Had it gone the way he planned, Raftery would be a retired basketball coach, not a still-working announcer.
“I thought I’d be doing it the rest of my life,” Raftery said. “I thought I’d be John Wooden.”
A standout player at La Salle University who was good enough to be drafted by the New York Knicks, Raftery spent 16 years on sidelines as a college coach. He was the head coach at Seton Hall for more than a decade in the 1970s and early ’80s, compiling a 154-141 record.
Late in his tenure with the Pirates, Raftery mentioned to then-Big East commissioner Dave Gavitt that he might like to try broadcasting. At the time, Gavitt was both running the Big East while calling games on TV. Don’t think you will see current Big Ten leader Tony Petitti trying that double.
Two years later, Raftery hung up his whistle and replaced it with a microphone. Why? To pay the bills.
“I had nine games and four children, $800 a game, $7,200,” he said. “You know how far that goes, even then.”
Raftery also had a day job, working at a bank.
“That was a godsend,” Raftery said. “My boss would let me do games.”
His schedule started to fill. Raftery worked 25 more games for ESPN and three to four with NBC (a better-paying gig).
He also started calling NBA games for the New Jersey Nets, which he did for 23 years.
Raftery joined the broadcast team at CBS in 1983. All these years later, he is properly appreciated, being named to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and earning the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Hall of Fame.
For the past decade, Raftery has been part of the CBS/TBS Final Four team, working with analyst and former Duke great Grant Hill. Most of the time has been with play-by-play voice Jim Nantz. But when Nantz gave up his basketball duties this season, Raftery’s former on-air partner with the Nets Ian Eagle became the No. 1 voice.
Raftery has spent time with ESPN and the Fox networks, too.
“I’ve been very lucky and fortunate to get the satisfaction of being involved in the game and the enjoyment without the difficulty of coaching against these brilliant minds on the other side,” Raftery said.
Raftery has a string of sayings that have become part of his legend. Near the start of every game he calls, Raftery says Team A is playing “Man to Man,” with the phase said as if it is one word,
“It started to get out of play-by-play man’s way, so they could identify everybody on the floor,” Raftery said. “I never knew I was stringing the words together.”
Now, he owns it.
On the air, Raftery is part educator, part entertainer. He is genuine.
“You’re you, basically,” he said. “Do the best you can.”
He hears his many catchphrases repeated back to him by the public.
“A lot of times in the airport,” Raftery said.
Happy life
Raftery doesn’t have any more broadcasting duties until next season, which kicks off in October.
“I disappear now for six months. It’s great,” Raftery said. “It’s such a high, particularly in the tournament. All the sudden, it’s over. Then, you’re told what to do around the house.”
Raftery and wife Joan split their time between homes in Florida and New Jersey.
In-season, Raftery goes home whenever possible.
“Generally, we get in and out,” he said.
They have four grown children, two in California and two two in New York.
During a 20-minte phone call last week, I mentioned to Raftery that News-Gazette legend Loren Tate is 92 and still going strong. Raftery is just a kid by comparison.
“God bless him. What a nice man,” Raftery said about Tate.
So, how long is Raftery planning to stay on the job?
“That’s for somebody else to decide,” he said.
He is thankful for the on-air partners he has worked with over the years. Nantz, James Brown, Sean McDonugh, Gus Johnson, Verne Lundquist and many others.
“They are such pros,” Raftery said. “They are all talented. They all have their own way of doing things.
“The basic concept they all have is embracing a team concept. That’s what most analysts get a kick out of, elements of people working behind the scenes and everybody pulling together to do a good job. It gets you close to coaching.”
