Keith Jackson- The Voice

The feature article on the front page of the January 14, 2018, Sports Section of the LA Times was an article written by sports journalist Chris Erskine about Keith Jackson with the title of “Everybody’s Granddaddy.” Keith Jackson. Wow. Nobody could call a college football game like Keith. Nobody.

There was a point in time where his voice – and I mean his voice – was college football. I remember something that happened very long ago involving Mr. Jackson’s voice. That voice. I am old enough now that things can be from so long ago that the details are starting to fade. But I remember this event, perhaps because I remember the feeling. I remember lying down on a couch during the college football season. I do not remember where anymore. I turned on a college football game. I do not remember the game anymore. But as I lay down and as the game came on the television, the next thing I hear is the voice of Keith Jackson. As I lay there, listening to that voice, in direct response to the way his voice made me feel, I remember both thinking and feeling that there could be nothing more comforting, nothing more stabilizing, nothing more pleasing, then listening to Keith Jackson talk me through another college football game. This great feeling of peace just wafted over me. It was like, “yah, Keith Jackson calling a college football game on a beautiful, crisp fall weekend afternoon. Everything is right with the world.” I literally felt that way in direct and immediate response to his voice. For a moment, the football game had become secondary. I just wanted to hear that voice. It meant all was right in the world.