Klein was another golden voice in Bay Area sports broadcasting

You know that you are advancing in an age when more parts of your
childhood keep disappearing. 

For Bay Area sports fans, most specifically the San Francisco 49ers and
Stanford Cardinal, that moment came on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, when
Don Klein died at the age of 95 at a retirement home in Santa Rosa, CA. 

The Bay Area has been blessed with many great sports broadcasters. The
ones people are very quick to mention are Bill King and Lon Simmons.
Klein is not the first that most mention and was the polar opposite of
bombastic but he was linked to many great moments. 

Though Klein was a native of Washington, he became entrenched in Bay
Area sports broadcasting lore in 1951, when he began broadcasting the
San Francisco Seals, which was a minor league baseball team that
competed in the Pacific Coast League from 1903-1957 before moving
to Phoenix. 

Klein was also the play-by-play voice of Stanford (football and men’s
basketball) and the 49ers. Klein is most closely identified with his call
in the 1982 NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and the Dallas
Cowboys. The signature play of that game was Joe Montana’s touchdown
pass to Dwight Clark that propelled San Francisco to the Super Bowl.
Since that play is so iconic in NFL history, the play is frequently shown
on NFL Films and the NFL Network with Klein’s call: 

“Third-and-3. He has the ball, Montana rolling out to the right ... looking
toward the end zone ... throwing under pressure ... throws his pass ...
Caught by Clark! Clark’s got a touchdown! Dwight Clark has it! It’s a
touchdown for the 49ers!”

Growing up in Napa, CA, I developed an affinity for the 49ers. Klein’s
voice was among the first I ever heard in Bay Area sports history. I began
going to 49er games with my father, shoutout to Joe D’Adamo, in 1984.
From time-to-time, I would bring my walkman to the game. For those
who did not grow up in that era, a walkman was a radio headset that had
a cassette player. I would watch the game through my binoculars and listen
to Klein’s call. 

I remember those years because of the 49ers' greatness as the franchise won
five Super Bowls in 14 years, one of the greatest runs of success in NFL
history. I also remember those years because I wanted to become a sports
broadcaster. Years later, 1997 to be specific, I earned my Bachelor of Arts
degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Nebraska. Instead, I
went on to become a sports writer for 18 years before changing careers in
2014. 

What fascinates me about Klein’s story is that there is so much more to him
than the unforgettable touchdown pass from Montana to Clark. While in
Hawaii at the end of World War II, he started broadcasting the Seals games
with the play-by-play being presented over the Western Union wire. 

In a 2011 story, former Oakland Tribune columnist Dave Newhouse wrote:
“‘S1C’ meant ‘strike one called. ‘B1-low’ meant ‘ball one low.’ ‘GO-6-3’
meant ‘ground out, shortstop to first.’ The ‘crack’ of the bat was Klein
tapping a drumstick on a wooden block. The ‘thud’ of a pitch in the
catcher’s mitt was Klein hitting a padded cushion with the drumstick.”

Newhouse also added that a studio engineer would add recorded noise of
crowds cheering and booing — even of planes supposedly flying overhead.

In a nutshell, Klein had broadcast over 300 Seals games without having seen
them play in person. 

Besides witnessing 49er greatness up close, Klein witnessed Stanford Rose
Bowl wins in 1970 and 1971, the former of which was Jim Plunkett’s
Heisman Trophy winning season. 

Klein became the voice of the 49ers in 1981 when KCBS, where he was
the station’s sports director, acquired the rights to the team’s broadcasts.
Klein resigned as 49ers broadcaster after the 1986 season. Klein’s career
also included two Summer Olympics for CBS radio. 

When I think of Klein, I think back to when broadcasting meant something
entirely different. For openers, you either watched the game on TV, went to
the game or listened on radio. There was no streaming on the internet or
iPhone. There was no NFL Sunday Ticket. You watched the games that
you were given. 

Though football is an emotion driven sport, Klein had a low-key voice. I
couldn’t tell if the 49ers were ahead or behind by four touchdowns or if it
was a 7-7 game in the fourth quarter where neither team could move the
ball. However, he always painted an accurate picture. When the offense
broke the huddle, yes they had those back then, Klein would alert the
listeners. 

So much of today’s media culture is about how loud your voice can be
like Screamin A Smith (err Stephen A Smith), Max Kellerman, Shannon
Sharpe or Skip Bayless. In addition, so much of today’s culture is how
many readers or listeners you can enrage. Don’t get me wrong, expressing
opinions and good healthy discourse on controversial topics have their
place but opinions should be substantiated with facts.

Listening to Klein provided a safe haven. It is easy to understand why he
had such a trusted relationship with his sources. Having spent 18 years in
the newspaper industry, I know the value of establishing and maintaining
trust with sources.

Klein represented a different era of broadcasting in that the on-air talent
were the reporters of the story, not the creators of it. He had the perfect
story-telling mentality for broadcasts. 

Next time I watch a highlight of The Catch, I’ll think of Klein in that
broadcast booth in the sky.