Byline: Kim Baxter Staff writer
When former Syracuse University guard Gene Waldron was offered the job of analyst for the school's radio broadcasts this summer, he accepted without hesitation.
Then he started thinking about the duties and responsibilities that he would actually have to perform, and he began to get a little nervous. Then he started to wonder if he could actually be on the radio and do it well.
'After they said they were going to give me the job, I remember calling Leo Rautins and I explained to him and said, 'Leo, I don't know if I can do this,'' Waldron said recently.
Former Syracuse All-American Rautins, a TV analyst for the Toronto Raptors since 1995, quickly soothed his former teammate's fears. He convinced him it was a good career to try.
'He just made me feel like I could do this,' Waldron said. 'And I figured, why not?'
'He's got a unique voice,' Rautins said. 'You hear Genie once, you'll remember his voice. In this business, it's a trademark. He's also got a boyish enthusiasm about anything he talks about. He gets excited and he'll laugh. I think that's a great quality to bring to a broadcast.'
Waldron, 43, is now a four-game veteran of broadcasting SU men's basketball games on the Syracuse Sports Network. He admits he has some improvement to make on the air, but he's taken quite a circuitous path just to return back to the sidelines at the Carrier Dome.
Waldron played in 125 games (1980-84) and started 91 contests over three years for SU coach Jim Boeheim. He averaged 7.6 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals in four seasons. He still owns the Carrier Dome record with his 40-point outburst against Iona in his senior season.
After graduation, Waldron bounced around England and Scotland playing basketball. He returned to Syracuse in 1986 and sold cars at a dealership. He returned to the court in 1988 with the Leicester Riders in central England between London and Liverpool. He played with the Riders until 1999.
Waldron returned to the United States in 2001 and lived in North Carolina. He worked security at Sears and lived with his mother for about eight months.
But he was always looking to get back to Syracuse. So in 2002, after he had visited the Dome for the school's annual alumni game, he moved back to Central New York. He worked at the Boys and Girls Club and Elmcrest Children's Center, but when the radio position opened up this spring, he finally got the chance to get back into the game he loves.
'It was a great opportunity to get back into sports, and being around the basketball team and the club that I played for four years, I've got so much love for that school it's incredible,' he said. 'To have this opportunity, you just can't turn it down.'
Waldron had little radio experience, however. He had done a few radio and television broadcasts in England when he was out with an injury for the 1997 British Basketball League playoffs. Other than that, his only other experience dated to his collegiate days in Syracuse when he was getting his communications degree.
He makes up for that inexperience with his knowledge and willingness to work hard to improve, said Matt Park, who does the play-by-play alongside Waldron.
'The great value that he brings to us is that he was in that huddle with Boeheim on the sidelines,' he said. 'He has played at a high level, he has played professionally, he knows the game and he knows the players.'
Now he's got little time to learn the ins-and-outs of the business. He's quick to point out that he hates the sound of his own voice, he sometimes struggles with finding the right time to talk during a game, his enthusiasm on air has been too low, and he uses some phrases too often.
But he's hoping that those are all nuances he fixes on his way to a long career broadcasting basketball games.
'I'm really looking to take this to another level and try to make a career out of this,' Waldron said. 'Obviously it's going to take a lot of work, which I'm prepared to do. But to be able to do this for a few years, especially at Syracuse, would be a dream come true.'
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John Berry/Staff photographer
GENE WALDRON averaged 7.6 points, 3.3 assists and 1.4 steals in four seasons on the SU basketball team. He now broadcasts SU men's basketball games on the Syracuse Sports Network. Color.
