John Scully to retire

[upthecreek]

http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article94667557.html

[wisconsin]

Hopefully he will get to some premier summertime tracks. Great run.

[Parkview_Pirate]

There can't be too many race callers with a 46 year gig at the same track. That's amazing. I remember when I used to go to Fairmount back in the 80's, Scully would only get a week break between thoroughbred and harness racing. Live racing five days per week, 10 races per card. I don't recall a substitute announcer, ever, though I suppose it happened.

The article doesn't mention whether he called races at Cahokia Downs - that track was running races part of the year up until 1980.

I wonder if he's tracked the total races called? I'd guess it's close to six figures.

[AlBundy33]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

There can't be too many race callers with a 46 year gig at the same track. That's amazing. I remember when I used to go to Fairmount back in the 80's, Scully would only get a week break between thoroughbred and harness racing. Live racing five days per week, 10 races per card. I don't recall a substitute announcer, ever, though I suppose it happened.

The article doesn't mention whether he called races at Cahokia Downs - that track was running races part of the year up until 1980.

I wonder if he's tracked the total races called? I'd guess it's close to six figures.

Nor when he called Darby Downs in the 1980s.

The only two that come to mind for having that kind of tenure as a race caller are Ross Morton and Jack Riggs.

[cj]

I'll be honest, didn't have a clue about the guys name, but I know how he said "haaarses.

[v j stauffer]

John has been a stalwart at Fairmount for decades.

I'll miss his consistent, clear concise calls.

Big shoes to fill in finding just the right guy to replace him.

Speaking of huge numbers. I'll bet John's do rank alongside the aforementioned Jack Riggs and Ross Morton. I'd also add Phil Georgeoff to that list.

One place where Mr Scully might have everyone beat is most called wins of a single jockey.

I expect well over 90% of David Gall's 7396 victories were described by John. That's gotta be a record

He will be sorely missed.

Have a great retirement John!

[castaway01]

Two others with a lot of races under their belts are Roger Huston, the Meadows announcer who is over 167,000 races called in his career, and (for you old-timers) Joe Hernandez, who called every race at Santa Anita from 1934 to 1972.

[AlBundy33]

Originally Posted by castaway01

Two others with a lot of races under their belts are Roger Huston, the Meadows announcer who is over 167,000 races called in his career, and (for you old-timers) Joe Hernandez, who called every race at Santa Anita from 1934 to 1972.

I wonder if Huston has caught Jack Riggs for most race calls yet? Remember every so often when I played The Meadows on Sunday nights he would have a running total of his calls and Jack Riggs name would come up.

Some others that have been at it for a while.

Keith Jones is in his 30th season at PARX.
Jack Gallagher from what I've heard is around the same amount of time at Dover/Harrington.
John Curran has called Delaware forever.
John Bogar, 30+ at Penn National
Grunder, 30 something at Tampa
Trevor, 32 at Del Mar
Ed Burgart I think has 31 years at Los Al.
Wallace was at Oaklawn for 35 years or so.
Jim Moran was at Vernon for 50 years.
Howard Oil has been at Monticello for almost 35 years.

Just realized two more things.

1. I have way too much useless information in my head.

2. A lot of guys have been calling races almost as long or in some cases, longer than I've been alive.

[Parkview_Pirate]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

... I'd also add Phil Georgeoff to that list.

One place where Mr Scully might have everyone beat is most called wins of a single jockey.

I expect well over 90% of David Gall's 7396 victories were described by John. That's gotta be a record

He will be sorely missed.

Have a great retirement John!

I recall in the late 1980s when Phil Georgeoff made his 85,000th call during the daytime simulcast from Chicago, and he retired with 96,131 calls on December 31st, 1992.

That's a great point about called wins from a single jockey. Gall was also amazing - a man among boys there at FP.

[castaway01]

Originally Posted by AlBundy33

I wonder if Huston has caught Jack Riggs for most race calls yet? Remember every so often when I played The Meadows on Sunday nights he would have a running total of his calls and Jack Riggs name would come up.

Some others that have been at it for a while.

Keith Jones is in his 30th season at PARX.
Jack Gallagher from what I've heard is around the same amount of time at Dover/Harrington.
John Curran has called Delaware forever.
John Bogar, 30+ at Penn National
Grunder, 30 something at Tampa
Trevor, 32 at Del Mar
Ed Burgart I think has 31 years at Los Al.
Wallace was at Oaklawn for 35 years or so.
Jim Moran was at Vernon for 50 years.
Howard Oil has been at Monticello for almost 35 years.

Just realized two more things.

1. I have way too much useless information in my head.

2. A lot of guys have been calling races almost as long or in some cases, longer than I've been alive.

Well, that's some interesting useless information anyway!

The Huston number of 167K is pretty recent; how many races did Riggs call?

That's actually an insane number of races. For example, Keith Jones has been at Parx for 30 years. For at least 20 years they've been running year-round, or 11 months of the year anyway (they're on their break now). Even if you generously figure 50 weeks a year, 4 days a week, times 10 races a day, that's 2000 races in a year. Times 30 years, 60,000 races. How do these guys get to 167,000 races? Wow.