Another Local Icon Passes On

Before we get to Saturday night's ISU football game with Weber State, I have to pass on my thoughts and prayers to the family of Jim Garchow (right), the Idaho Falls radio broadcaster who passed away Sunday morning after a battle with leukemia. Jim was one of the truly professional sports announcers I have met on any level. He broadcast minor league baseball and high school football and basketball in this area for 38 years, and was the general manager at KUPI radio station for 37 years. He was also a great friend.

I got to know Jim through his friendship with my former broadcast partner, Jim Fox. Fox and Garchow were good friends in Flagstaff, where Fox succeeded Garchow as the voice of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks. Those two had some great stories to tell about those days together, and Fox later followed his good friend to Idaho when he purchased KWIK in Pocatello.

Garchow's daughter, Gina, was later my next door neighbor in Pocatello, after she married former Bengal linebacker Scott Berger. Berger, now the head football coach at Skyline High School, played on the Bengals' 1981 national championship team, and had a big interception against South Carolina State in the playoffs. Berger was an assistant coach at Poky when Fox and I broadcast the Indians' games in the 1980s, while Gina worked for Fox as traffic manager at his radio stations. Athletics frequently creates close-knit groups of friends, and we all enjoyed watching the Indians' play, then gathering together at a local watering hole to rehash the action. When the Indians were playing Skyline, Garchow was typically part of the conversation.

Garchow was also a close friend of country-western legend Waylon Jennings from their days working together in Arizona radio. It was not uncommon for Jennings to do a show in Jackson or Sun Valley, and then spend the weekend at the Garchow home in Idaho Falls. Finally, Garchow was also one of the longest surviving heart transplant patients in the country, having received a new heart back in the 1980s.

Despite losing a leg to the leukemia and seeing his health degenerate over the past several months, Garchow had a blessed ending to his life. He was able to complete broadcasting his last minor league season with the Idaho Falls Chukars on Labor Day, then listened as his grandson, quarterback Michael Berger, led the Grizzlies to a big win over Hillcrest Friday night before he passed away early Sunday morning. We'll miss you, Jim, the eastern Idaho sports scene won't be the same without you.

The Big Disappointment

For a game that started out so promising, there were so many disappointments in Idaho State's loss to Weber State in Ogden Saturday night: the lack of discipline that led to 15 Bengal penalties; the terrible special teams play that included another blocked punt, two long Weber State punt returns and no blocking to speak of for Bengal returners; and the key turnovers, especially Kyle Blum's interception and Stew Tracy's fumble, which led to key Wildcat scores.

Probably the biggest concern I left with Saturday night, however, was the continuing poor play of the Bengal offensive line, particularly in the running game. ISU came into the game averaging -13.5 yards per game in rushing, but we all knew a lot of that could be attributed to the competition in the first two games of the season: Arizona State and Oklahoma. Saturday night, however, ISU was lining up against a Weber State team that started two true freshmen at defensive tackle, then lost its best defensive end, Kevin Linehan, to injury in the second quarter. Ben Laporta was finally able to break off a couple of big runs during "garbage time" at the end of the game, but when Idaho State really needed to make Weber State honor the running game, they were unable to make it happen. ISU had just 29 yards rushing on 13 carries in the first half.

I'm frankly surprised by ISU's lack of production up front, because the Bengals return four starters from what was a serviceable offensive line last season. A lot of folks blamed ISU's poor run production last season on play calling or the lack of great speed in the backfield, and those certainly have to be considered factors. But the offensive coordinator is gone and the Bengals have added some weapons in the backfield, so those factors have been minimized. The offensive line is definitely going to have to pick up its play if Idaho State is going to be able to mount a consistent running threat.

Coaches Show Tonight

Jerry Miller and I will discuss the Weber game and the upcoming contest with Central Washington with ISU head coach John Zamberlin tonight at 6 p.m. on AM 930. Bengal kick returner JD Ponciano will also be our guest, and, as always, you can call in your questions to the coach during the show, or e-mail them to Jerry at milljerr@isu.edu. Hope to hear from you all tonight.

--Brad B.

And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it ain't always easy, but it's always fun.

Legends Come, Legends Go...Legends Forever

You know, I've been at Idaho State for 12 years. I've been here long enough that only five people in the department, Nancy Graziano, Brian Jannsen, Dave Nielsen, Bobby Goeltz, and Shanna Neeser have been full time continuous employees for longer than me. It doesn't seem that long ago, but when I got here in 1998 Michael Jordan was still winning championships with the Chicago Bulls, Windows 98 hadn't been released yet, Bill Clinton hadn't admitted to any wrong doing with Monica Lewinsky, and there was no such thing as Google. I also got to meet three of the legends of ISU athletics in Jim Fox, Dubby Holt, and Babe Caccia.

Sadly, I've watched each of them pass on as well. Jim passed away in the summer of 2002 while on a vacation in Mexico with his wife and some close family friends. I remember sitting in my kitchen, feeling pretty good with the yard sale we had just finished with my wife when I got that phone call.

I remember when Dubby died, as we were coming back from Sacramento State from a basketball trip, when again, I got another phone call. Then yesterday, while eating lunch, I realized a call came to my cell while I was mowing the lawn. I returned it, and got the sad news.

But the great thing about knowing when a legend dies is that you know the legend themselves. All three of those guys were bigger than life characters, products really of a by-gone era. Jim Fox was truly larger than life, with a heart of gold. Funny, smart, well-mannered, generous to a fault, Jim Fox made road trips bearable in my first years here, taking me under his wing so to speak, showing me the ropes, teaching me about Pocatello. Sitting in a restaurant with Jim Fox, Doug Oliver, Jay McMillin, and Louis Wilson and trading story after story is one of my fondest memories. Before every home football game, I touch the plaque in the press box that I put there that bears his photo.

In Dubby, well, what can't you say. Well loved, spry as ever even in his advanced age, Dubby I think could still run the department right up until the end in early 2007. Dubby was so much fun to talk to, to hear stories about how Holt Arena came about, how the Big Sky Conference came about ... he was truly an encyclopedia of information about this university, and if he wasn't the school's greatest ambassador, it's only because Babe Caccia might have been as well.

Losing Babe hurts me a bit more just because of the Italian heritage we both shared (he let me call him Italo, and he called my his pizan...he is the only person to ever call me that). We talked media stuff, football, our mutual love of Canadian Football, and somehow, he always asked about my father, even though I don't think they ever met. I'm glad Babe saw the locker room the other day...his smile lit that room up. Think of the stories going on right now with those three.

Even going a step further, the loss of Earl Pond a few years back could be put right there along side Jim, Dubby and Babe as well. While not to turn macabre or anything, but I hope folks realize that the legends aren't gone. In my mind anyways, three more living legends are still around. Joe Richmond, who was the sports information director, ticket manager, and pretty much everything else back in the 1960s, still to this day can be seen at football practices and helping with youth track meets in the area as well. Joe and I regularly talk, and the other day he was at practice talking with some of the wives of the coaches, playing with the little kids they have. They had no clue of his background, because Joe won't tell it...that's just not his way.

Joe was followed by Glenn Alford, who is still around as well. Glenn worked at ISU in sports information as my predecessor for 31 years, and is still a treasure trove of information for me, and when ISU has success (hosting women's basketball tournaments and such), I always try to include him somewhere in the successes, because I know he can help, but most of all, I know he appreciates those successes. Affable is maybe Glenn's best trait, or the word that best describes him, although I personally love the dry humor. In 1992, Glenn was called into A.D. Randy Hoffman's office, and was read the riot act in part because the 1992 football media guide stated that Holt Arena was "the first doomed stadium on a college campus". Randy went off about how we couldn't afford typos and mistakes like that, and the story goes Glenn looked at him with a straight face and asked if knew of ISU's history in the building lately, and that it wasn't a typo. Typical Glenn.

The last legend hanging around is the one the athletes know best. When I travel I got the how is Dubby a few times, the how is Babe or Glenn a few times....but always, always, always....how is Phil Luckey doing. Phil is the most beloved man I've ever met. I dare you to find anyone to have anything bad to say about the guy. You just can't. And his relationship with athletes is special, because that training room is like a therapists couch, and Phil was the personal confidant of many an injured Bengal. Think about it...you get hurt, and you are far from home, you can't practice...athletes far and wide knew Phil Luckey better than anyone, and he has story after story in that head of his. I always gave Phil a hard time when a football game was on TV because he'd race out on the field in a dead sprint, and I'd joke that he was trying to get camera time, and it bothered him actually...I could see that getting under his skin. Because it wasn't true...I saw him in practice...if an athlete was hurt anywhere, Phil was sprinting to give aid. Phil loved, and still loves, all of the athletes at ISU.

ISU has lost some legends lately, but there are still more hanging around. Get to know Phil, and Joe, and Glenn. They are in the coffee shops, the bagel stores, the athletic offices, the practices and the games. Heck, Joe Richmond is a regular morning coffee guy at McDonald's. Say hi, chat them up....you will be a better person for it. I'm a better person for it. Goodbye Italo....I'll miss ya'

Frank Mercogliano