James Francis "France" Laux Jr. (December 3, 1897 – November 16, 1978) was an American sportscaster, notable as the first full-time radio voice of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Biography

Early life

Laux was born in

Guthrie, Oklahoma Guthrie is a city and county seat in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. Its population was 10,191 at the 2010 census, a 2.7% increase from 9,925 in the 2000 census. First known as a railroad st ...

, the son of a local judge, J. Francis Laux Sr., and his wife. The nickname "France" came from schoolmates. Heavily involved in sports, Laux won 16 letters in baseball, basketball, and football in Oklahoma City and Bristow schools before entering Oklahoma City College. He served in the

Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warf ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

; after the war, his jobs included managing a semi-pro baseball team in

. He also worked as an insurance and real estate broker in Bristow (a suburb of

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

), refereeing

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

games part-time. On the eve of the

1927 World Series The 1927 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1927 season. The 24th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion New York Yankees against the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirat ...

, KVOO station manager Fred Yates did not have anyone to recreate the games. Someone mentioned Laux' name. Yates found him and took him to the studio. Later in the year, he began broadcasting

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

and

Oklahoma A&M Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known as ...

football games as well. He was the first to introduce

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

on the radio.

Career in St. Louis

Laux' work soon came to the attention of the management at

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, owned by Audacy, Inc. The station is a 50,000 watt List of North American broadcast station classes, Class A clear-channel station with a omnidirectional ante ...

in St. Louis, who invited him there for a 30-day trial as the voice of both the

Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

and Browns in 1929. This arrangement was possible because the Cardinals and Browns shared

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on t ...

, and almost never played on the same day. As it turned out, 30 days became 24 years. Laux became very popular, in large part because, at the time, the Cardinals were the southernmost and westernmost team in

. As such, their radio network blanketed large chunks of the Midwest and Southwest. Also, KMOX was a 50,000-watt clear channel powerhouse, with virtual coast-to-coast coverage at night. A 1936 newspaper article about Laux noted that his work at KMOX included "broadcasting all baseball, football, hockey, boxing, wrestling, basketball and horse races besides carrying on his regular duties as chief announcer." In addition to broadcasting live sporting events, Laux had his own daily 15-minute program on KMOX in the late 1930s. In the 1940s he wrote the ''Hyde Park Sports Letter'', a four-page publication that highlighted national and St. Louis sports. Laux was the voice of both the Cardinals and Browns until 1942. He broadcast solely for the Cardinals in 1943. After only one season, he stepped down, but returned in 1948 as the voice of the Browns. He went into semi-retirement after that season, but called weekend games until the end of the 1953 season, the Browns' last in St. Louis. In the late 1950s he and

Jack Buck John Francis Buck (August 21, 1924 – June 18, 2002) was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition (or induction in some ca ...

hosted a program called ''Batting Practice'', which served as a pre-game show for telecasts of Cardinals road games on

KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside KPLR-TV (channel 11), an owned-and-operated station of The CW. The two stations sh ...

-TV.

Career at CBS and Mutual

His popularity soon gained Laux notice with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, which had bought KMOX shortly after the start of the 1929 season. He called the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

for CBS from 1933 to 1938, and the first eight

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

s from 1933 to 1941, the last three of those for Mutual. He turned down offers to broadcast for the

Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one ...

and

Giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) * Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'g ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, preferring to stay in St. Louis, where he had a huge following. He won the first ''

Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' Announcer of the Year Award in 1937.

Later life

After 1953, Laux turned his attention to a bowling house he bought in St. Louis after the war. He also served as secretary of the

American Bowling Congress The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States of America, United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier ...

for many years.

Family

On December 3, 1928, Laux married Pearl Genevieve Boyer (1900–1976), a professional singer. Laux had two sons with Boyer, France Albert Laux (1929–2012) and Roger Harry Laux (1930–1981). His remains are interred, with those of his wife Pearl, in Calvary Cemetery,

Edwardsville, Illinois Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,808 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, former governor of the Illinois Te ...

References

Patterson, Ted (2002). ''The Golden Voices of Baseball''. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laux, France 1897 births 1978 deaths American horse racing announcers American radio sports announcers Baseball in St. Louis American boxing commentators College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Ice hockey commentators Major League Baseball broadcasters Oklahoma City University alumni Oklahoma Sooners football announcers People from Guthrie, Oklahoma Radio personalities from St. Louis St. Louis Browns announcers St. Louis Cardinals announcers United States Army personnel of World War I