VOICE OF THE LONGHORNS

"How many people in the world do you know that have got to announce the games of the sixth-leading scorer in NCAA basketball history, Mike Daum. I got to announce all of his home games. So I have got to see some fantastic kids and some fantastic athletes."

– Greg Robinson

Long-time Kimball High School sports announcer Greg Robinson has decided to hang up his microphone. No doubt he will still be in the stands to cheer on the Longhorns, but he hasn't quite pinpointed where he will sit after years of being seated at the scorer's table.

Robinson took over the announcing duties for boys basketball 20-plus years ago, and then the announcing evolved into football, wrestling and girls basketball.

Robinson said, "I have a hard time not being involved with the kids in some way, shape or form. I am kind of winding down my referee career."

"Basketball is a pretty healthy commitment," he said.

His interest was sparked years ago when Jerry Andersen was announcing, and Robinson expressed some interest and began a career very different from his daytime job at Larsen's Jewelry Store.

At his last game announcing, Robinson remarked that he was reminiscing.

"I always sit at the scorer's table, and for all the years that I announced Tom and Karen Southard sat there with me," he reflected. "So, after Tom passed, "It was kind of lonely."

Robinson continued to explain that he and Tom would, throughout the games, discuss offenses and defenses – and if Nebraska was playing, Robinson would give Tom the updates from his phone.

"I miss that and miss him," he said.

At the beginning of every season, Robinson said he always set goals for himself, and one of the goals was the proper pronunciation of names.

"I just didn't want to screw up," he said.

He mentioned that girls' first names have become the toughest to make sure to have the proper pronunciation.

But sometime goals simply are not attainable, and on the first football game of the season a few years ago, Robinson said there was a girls quartet set to sing the national anthem.

Without cracking a smile, Robinson relayed this story. He said he welcomed everyone to Longhorn Stadium and Keith Staehr Field and then announced the quartet. He perfected the first three names before getting to the last name – Monica Wasielewski. He mistakenly said, "Monica Lewinsky." "Everybody in the booth ... well, it was just silence in the booth," he said.

Then he said people in the audience, many amused, started turning around and looking up in the booth. But ironically, Robinson said the best reaction was from the girls in the quartet: "They had no idea who Monica Lewinsky was. They weren't even born when that happened."

They simply couldn't figure out why it was so funny.

So the voice of Kimball High School sports will change but the memories remain.

"It has been fun," Robinson concluded.