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Foley Lions Stadium Announcers
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AHSFHS.org Report (Oct. 9, 2010) Recently someone emailed me about the longest tenure for a stadium announcer calling high school football games in the state. I honestly would not know where to begin researching this information. But it did get me to thinking about the possibility of trying to document this for each school. For those of you that are familiar with AHSFHS.org know that I never back away from a challenge and now intend to take on the task of at least putting together a list of the known announcers from around the state. As always I need your help. If you have information about a long tenure let me know about it so we can share it with all the other football fans. I can get this going with my personal experiences at Foley. The Lions first fielded a team in 1924 but it was not until 1939 when a just graduated J.W. Crosby hooked up a public address system given to the school by his senior class that the Lions had a play-by-play announcer. He would run an extension cord across the street to a house since the stadium had no electricity at that time. The games were played in the afternoon and since there was no press box Mr. Crosby would call the game from the stands. A few years latter they operated from the cab of an old pickup perched atop the stands. In 1951 Mr. Crosby was joined by Dean Hansen who would fed him the players' names and other information. After a few seasons they began to alternate quarters calling pay-by-play and continued doing this until Mr. Crosby retired in 1990. The 1991 season brought a new face to the press box when Jack Williams joined Dean Hanson. When Dean retired in 1999 Jack took over the duties and continues at the job through today. In the last seventy-two seasons of football at Foley High School there have been thirteen coaches, 448 victories and three play-by-play announcers. David Parker AHSFHS.org |
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
Foley outscored their opponents 433-6 in 1961. The Lions were named state champions by the Alabama Sports Writers Association that season.
Foley outscored their opponents 433-6 in 1961. The Lions were named state champions by the Alabama Sports Writers Association that season.
