Earl William Gillespie Jr. (July 25, 1922 – December 12, 2003) was an American sportscaster, best known as the radio voice of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's Milwaukee Braves from

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

. Before 1953, he was the play-by-play announcer for the minor league

Milwaukee Brewers (American Association) The Milwaukee Brewers were a minor league baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They played in the American Association from 1902 through 1952. The 1944 and 1952 Brewers were recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor league teams ...

, an affiliate of the Braves, who moved to

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee. A baseball player in high school in Chicago at

Lane Tech Lane Tech College Prep High School (often shortened to Lane Tech, full name Albert Grannis Lane Technical College Preparatory High School), is a public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on ...

, he played minor-league professional baseball briefly for the Green Bay Bluejays before becoming a Wisconsin sports broadcaster. Gillespie was partnered with Blaine Walsh on WTMJ Radio and known for his dramatic, extroverted style of

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

and his use of the phrase " Holy cow!" during moments of great excitement (an on-air

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

he shared with fellow baseball announcers Halsey Hall,

Harry Caray Harry Christopher Caray (; March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American radio and television sportscaster. During his career he called the play-by-play for five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of calling the games ...

and

Phil Rizzuto Philip Francis Rizzuto (September 25, 1917 – August 13, 2007), nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career with the New York Yankees (1941–1956), and was elected to th ...

). Gillespie called both of the Braves'

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

appearances in Milwaukee (

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

) over

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

radio, as well as the 1955 All-Star Game (played in Milwaukee) over Mutual radio. At various times he also did radio and television commentary for Green Bay Packers football,

Milwaukee Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

basketball, Marquette Warriors basketball, and

Wisconsin Badgers football The Wisconsin Badgers football program represents the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the sport of American football. Wisconsin competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the W ...

. He worked at

WITI-TV WITI (channel 6) is a television station in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, airing programming from the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. owned-and-operated station, Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Station ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

from 1963 until his retirement in 1985. Gillespie was named Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year eight times by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

, and was inducted into the

Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michi ...

in 2001. Earl's son John Sr., and grandson John Jr. also were Wisconsin sportscasters, with the younger John Gillespie leaving

WBAY-TV WBAY-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay (across from the historic ...

in Green Bay in late July 2010.

Play-by-play highlights

On September 23, 1957, Gillespie described the Braves' capture of the National League pennant this way: ''"The pitch to Henry Aaron. A swing and a drive back into center field! Going back towards the wall! It's back at that fence....and is it gone or not? It's a home run! The Braves are the champions of the National League! Henry Aaron has just hit his forty-third home run of the year!"'' On October 10, 1957, Gillespie's description of the Braves' World Series win: ''"The outfield around to the left. McDougald is on at third, Coleman is at second. Tommy Byrne the base runner at first.

Hank Aaron Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. One of the gre ...

is pulled around in left-center field. A breeze is blowing across from left to right. Burdette's pitch. Swung on, lined, grabbed by Mathews who steps on third--and the World Series is over and the Milwaukee Braves are the new world champions of baseball!"''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Earl 1922 births 2003 deaths American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Green Bay Packers announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Milwaukee Braves announcers Milwaukee Hawks announcers Minor League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers Sportspeople from Chicago United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II United States Marines Wisconsin Badgers football announcers