RIP Gil Santos

[italian pat patriot]

a sad day...

i was able to speak a lot with him (2012 London UK) for Pats-Rams event

he was very very nice with me

a legend...

riposa in pace

 

[Ivan]

RIP Gil

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Rest In Peace Gil Santos. A great and distinctive voice that will be a part of Patriots legend forever. Loved Gil and Gino. To me they will always be the Patriots broadcast team.

 

[Pats Fanatic]

RIP Gil what a voice and personality that has been missed the last few years.

 

[Patriotic]

Growing up in Western Mass, games were often not on tv. Fell in love with the Pats listening to Gil's golden voice on WBZ radio. "Play action fake Plunkett drops back to pass and he shoots it long and deep for Vataha. Randy's got it at 35, 30, 25, 20 and all the way down to the 15 yard line goes Randy the rabbit!"
RIP, mon ami.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

RIP Gil Santos.
I became a Pat's Fan in '76 and Gil was Pat's voice. His Grogan calls were Classic.
I bought this Play By Play Pats's 12" Vinyl Album ( remember those) of 1976 Full Season & Playoff Broadcasts by Gil and he was on point like Marv Albert in NY ( without biting). Nothing like Marv calling games when Grogan was destroying Jets.

 

[jimnance]

RIP Gil. I heard him do Pats games from the beginning in the '60s.
His SB call when Adam hit that FG was awesome.
Because he called the games for almost 50 years, a bunch of different generations of Pats fans got to listen to and appreciate the man.

 

[fightingirish595]

Was this expected or unexpected? RIP Gil.


Alright! The Patriots retain the Ball

 

[groundgame]

Gil Santos

Bob Wilson

Ken Coleman

Johnny Most

That's it. That's the List.

Agreed. RIP.

 

[captain stone]

RIP Gil Santos.
I became a Pat's Fan in '76 and Gil was Pat's voice. His Grogan calls were Classic.
I bought this Play By Play Pats's 12" Vinyl Album ( remember those) of 1976 Full Season & Playoff Broadcasts by Gil and he was on point like Marv Albert in NY ( without biting). Nothing like Marv calling games when Grogan was destroying Jets.

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My brother & I bought that album too! We also bought/were given Goal: Bruins! and The Impossible Dream. I don't recall if the Russell/Havlicek Celtics had an album.

 

[IndyKen]

Being out here in Indiana, Satelite TV is the only way to get the games. Of course, why settle for those announcers when Gil was on Sirius radio? So I would dial Gil in for the audio. What a rich baritone of a voice, there was no substitute in my mind. RIP Gil, thank you for all those games where you added that extra "home touch" of making me feel like I was there.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

My brother & I bought that album too! We also bought/were given Goal: Bruins! and The Impossible Dream. I don't recall if the Russell/Havlicek Celtics had an album.

"Havlicek Stole the Ball"!

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Growing up in Western Mass, games were often not on tv. Fell in love with the Pats listening to Gil's golden voice on WBZ radio. "Play action fake Plunkett drops back to pass and he shoots it long and deep for Vataha. Randy's got it at 35, 30, 25, 20 and all the way down to the 15 yard line goes Randy the rabbit!"
RIP, mon ami.

thanks for a good laugh, that's Gil exactly. and before the play started it would be "Pats moving left to right, Vataha split wide left, motion right, ...". For a radio audience, you could picture exactly what was happening.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Sorry, I really didn't mean to start a debate at the expense of Gil's memory; I just wanted to create my version of a Mt Rushmore of One Sport/One (Radio) Voice. If I wanted to create one of one sport-Two voices, then Fred Cusick would Absolutely be there. To be frank however, I really don't remember listening to Fred broadcast the Bs on radio (just before my time of self-awareness), only on tv - which I realize is a medium requiring a somewhat different PBP approach, especially for hockey.

Mike Gorman (from Dorchestah! and Boston Latin!) would also Absolutely be on my Mt Rushmore of one sport-two voices, though I don't believe he ever worked Cs games on radio, since Johnny Most was still High Above Courtside when Gorman started doing Cs tv on the old SportsChannel.

Curt Gowdy, same as Fred Cusick on radio, was just a wee bit before my time (received my First Communion during the spring of the Impossible Dream), so I can't in good faith place him ahead of Coleman. For that reason I would also probably place Ned Martin as the 2nd voice, though his tv work with Bob Montgomery tarnished his legacy a little.

Gil Santos, among Pats broadcasters, stands alone in his greatness, though I will defer to some of our longer-standing (iow: older) Patriots fans (Joker, RayClay, PatsFanKen, PatsFan1960, ActualPatsFan, et al) for their opinions on any worthy pre-Geno broadcasters to perhaps join him on the Double-Rushmore.

Bob Starr was another very good announcer, he did Pats (with Gil as his color man, Gil probably learned a lot from Starr), he also did BC football, and also Red Sox after Ken Coleman.

In general I think that great radio play by play guys were more rare, more talented than TV guys. Much more challenging to make the listeners picture the play, keep them informed about down-distance-score-time, etc. TV has all that info displaying at all times, and there's less to say on tv, less is more in many cases.

If we're picking one for each sport, then it's Gil for the Pats, Bob Wilson for the Bruins (Fred Cusick was good but not in the same league as Wilson imo), Johnny Most for the C's. The Red Sox is harder: I'd say Joe Castiglione, then Curt Gowdy, then Ken Coleman in a close race.

Also I think Gil would be glad to see this wider discussion of all time Boston announcers, and proud that we all rate him so highly.

 

[Soliel]

Rip gil

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Suprised that Fred Cusick's not on the list.

Radio

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Add Cusick.

It's not Fred's fault.

I mean, during our heyday, what else could he say?

"Here's Orr...

...SCORES!! What a goal by Bobby Orr!!"


What Bobby did was usually indescribable.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I really don't remember listening to Fred broadcast the Bs on radio

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I grew up listening to him and Cousy call the Cs. So sad.

I think it was Gil who told the story of one game he was doing with Couz, and Bird was burning it up.

At one point Larry wound up out of bounds right in front of the broadcasters' table, and muttered, "I'm rather warm tonight, aren't I?"

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

RIP Gil Santos.
I became a Pat's Fan in '76 and Gil was Pat's voice. His Grogan calls were Classic.
I bought this Play By Play Pats's 12" Vinyl Album ( remember those) of 1976 Full Season & Playoff Broadcasts by Gil and he was on point like Marv Albert in NY ( without biting). Nothing like Marv calling games when Grogan was destroying Jets.

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"Ten seconds that convinced the National Football League that the Patriots are indeed a bonafide contender for future championships.

Ten seconds that made millions of believers from a national television audience."


All of Kraft's money and fantasies will never be able to change that.

I don't see Henry pretending that '67 never happened, or Grousbeck burying the history of his team to promote himself.