CLEVELAND — Wednesday has been a difficult day for sports fans across Northeast Ohio as we mourn the passing of legendary Cavaliers play-by-play announcer Joe Tait.
According to his daughter Karen, Tait passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Lafayette Township at the age of 83. The longtime broadcaster had been battling numerous health problems for years.
But if you weren't that familiar with Tait's body of work and announcing style, we thought it would be fun to look back and give you a snapshot of some of the moments that made Joe such a joy to listen to. Also, we wanted to give you some facts about Tait that you might not have known. For example:
Not only did Joe Tait call Cleveland Cavaliers games, but also served as a television and radio voice of the Cleveland Indians
Tait was paired with Herb Score in the Tribe's radio booth from 1973-79, then moved over to the television side with a host of partners on WUAB Channel 43 from 1980-87.
The last Indians no-hitter (and perfect game) was announced by Joe Tait in 1981. (As Tyler Carey reminded me in his tribute to Tait, Len Barker's perfecto on May 15, 1981, came on Joe's 44th birthday) You can hear his call below as part of the Tribe's tribute to Tait on social media.
Joe Tait had so many great catchphrases!
If you listened to Joe for any length of time, you picked up on some of his signature lines that made every game feel a little extra special.
"It's basketball time at the...." (Cleveland Arena, Richfield Coliseum, Gund Arena, Quicken Loans Arena was how he would start every broadcast)
"Wham with the right/left hand" (Whenever there was a thunderous dunk)
"To the line, to the lane" (A player was driving from the top of the key down towards the basket)
"Have a Good Night Everybody" (His sign off after every broadcast, except for his last one, in which he used Have a Good Life Everybody)
Often imitated, never duplicated!
No one could call a game-winning moment like Joe Tait
Check out these great moments from Joe that span from the "Miracle of Richfield," to the Price-Nance-Daugherty era, to LeBron James and his first stint in Cleveland.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played on some of those Price-Nance-Daugherty teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s, recalled Craig Ehlo's game-winning shot recently on Twitter. "My favorite Joe Tait radio call was somewhere around 1990, when my Cavs teammate Craig Ehlo made a game winning shot the day before Christmas: ‘Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he comes from Lubbock, Texas!!!’" (It was actually in 1991, but we won't hold that against Steve!)
Ehlo himself remembered the moment Wednesday, stating, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he was the voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers."
How did Joe Tait get the Cavs job? Networking with a fellow hall of famer
Prior to the inaugural season of Cavs basketball in 1970, Tait was working at a radio station in Terra Haute, Indiana. He had befriended Cavs head coach Bill Fitch years before while attending Monmouth University. Fitch was working as a scout at rival Coe College and would periodically join Tait for halftime interviews during football games.
Tait told the story to writer Vince Guerreri in a 2015 Ohio Magazine interview.
He (Fitch) would say, “You’re the only person who can make a 66-0 blowout look like a 6-6 tie." I saw in the paper that he was named the coach of the Cavaliers, so I sent him a note wishing him all the best, and down at the bottom, I said, “If you ever need anybody to make a 66-0 blowout into a 6-6 tie, let me know.” I sent it and forgot it, and then the phone rang a week, 10 days later. He said, “If you want the job, it’s yours.”
Thus began a 40 year love affair between announcer and team, except for...
There were two seasons that Tait did not announce Cavaliers games
Let's thank then-owner Ted Stepien for that one. With the Cavaliers franchise at rock-bottom in 1981, radio rights holder WWWE (now WTAM 1100) decided to give the rights back to Stepien.
"The popular story is that Ted fired me. Not true," Tait told ClevelandSeniors.com. "I worked for WWWE who gave the broadcasting rights back to Ted because they didn't want to be associated anymore. So when they did this, they basically gave my job away too."
In 1981-82, Tait headed to New Jersey to become the radio voice of the Nets. He would serve as the television voice of the Chicago Bulls in 1982-83 before being brought back to Cleveland by new Cavs owner Gordon Gund.
Tait never forgot his small college roots
In addition to his years working for the Cavaliers and Indians, Tait also spent three decades as the radio play-by-play voice of the Mount Union Purple Raiders football team.
It all began in 1985 when Mount Union's Director of Public Information Harry Paidas asked Tait to join him for a television broadcast of a Mount Union football game. The invitation led to a 30-year run of Tait doing Mount Union football games both home and away. During Tait's time calling Purple Raider games, they would capture 27 conference titles and 12 national championships until he retired from the booth in 2015.
Here's a sample of his highlights from a Mount Union-John Carroll game in 2014
More Joe Tait coverage: