Monday, November 21, 2011

"Lengendary UGA broadcaster Larry Munson dies at age 89"

I was coming home today listening to the radio, when I learned Larry Munson had died. He was the voice of the Ga. Bulldogs for over 40 years. He was 89.

I remember Larry along with Milo Hamilton called the 1966 season for the new Atlanta Braves. His career with the Braves lasted only a year, if memory serves.

And a little known fact. Larry played piano for Tommy Dorsey with old blue eyes doing the crooning.

RIP Larry.

From the ajc article:

As a high school senior in Minneapolis, Munson was, by his own account, a "decent" piano player who loved jazz. He was in class when the phone call came. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, in town and scheduled to play 28 shows over the next week, had lost its regular piano player to illness.

"I had no idea how they got my name," Munson once recalled. "I couldn't believe they were interested in me."

Soon, he found himself onstage with one of the most heralded groups of the big band era. The lead singer was a skinny kid from Hoboken, N.J.

"The women went crazy over Frank," said Munson, who played every show with Sinatra for the princely sum of $31 per night. "I had never seen anything like it in my life."



No comments: