Thanks Curt

Stookey & Clark
Originally uploaded by mdt1960.

Curt Gowdy's first radio job came in 1944 in his hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming standing on top of a couple of crates alongside a football field. It was six-man football, which seemed easy enough.

But Gowdy quickly discovered the football field wasn't lined. What's more, there were no rosters. When the players spilled out of the bus, Gowdy noticed the players' uniforms weren't numbered.

He had no time to identify players so he recalled names of friends, classmates or Army buddies. Was the ball on the 20-yard line, the 30 or out of bounds? He placed the ball wherever he thought it was.

Gowdy went home that day, believing he had failed terribly. Then the owner of the radio station called, offering him a steady job.

Years later as he sat in the press box at Yankee Stadium or Chicago's Soldier Field, he'd remember that afternoon in Cheyenne. "And I'd say to myself, 'Gowdy, what a lucky bastard you are.' "