Tar Heels found a winner in 1971

When Woody Durham took over as play-by-play announcer for the Tar Heel Sports Network 40 years ago, I was skeptical. Durham announced his retirement Wednesday.

Woody, who was just a few years older than I, was a tepid puddle compared to the roaring stream he was replacing, Bill Currie. Currie, who was sports anchor for WSOC-TV in Charlotte, reveled in his moniker as "Mouth of the South." He was the kind of guy who would say almost anything on the air and get away with it. Sometimes the action on the court moved faster than his tongue and mouth could follow, and he'd say, "You shoulda seen it!" In those days, few games were televised, so UNC fans had to rely on radio broadcasts to keep up. Currie was colorful. "He just faked him right out of his athletic undergarment," he'd say. Currie was a personality, and my friends and I would listen to games partly just to hear what outlandish thing Currie might say next.

When Currie left for fabled KDKA in Pittsburgh, Woody, then the sports director at a Greensboro television station, got the job. Durham was the antithesis of Bill Currie, and I wasn't sure at first that it was a good trade. Woody approached the job differently from Currie. Where Currie wanted to entertain and be the center of attention, Durham wanted to disappear into game action. He always seemed to have his background information at his fingertips and could do a credible job of keeping pace with the action on the court. He was as sophisticated as Currie was outlandish. And although I tired of hearing all the plugs for commercial sponsors that he worked into his game commentary, I thought Durham did as good a job as any team-affiliated announcer in staying objective and giving the other team, its coaches and its star players their due.

After 40 years of listening to Woody Durham, I'll miss him, and I'll admit I was wrong. Though he's not as funny or as outlandish as the Mouth of the South was, Woody has been more professional and more descriptive, all that you can expect from a game announcer.