Ty Tyson

"For Albert Thomas Tyson, also known as Ty, 1926-1928 baseball player, see Ty Tyson (baseball)"

Edwin L. "Ty" Tyson (May 11, 1888 – December 12, 1968) was an American sports broadcaster and radio play-by-play announcer.

Early life

Tyson was born in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania and he attended Penn State University. As a young man, he played ball and acted in nearby Tyrone, Pennsylvania. While acting in a play, he met another young man from Tyrone, Fred Waring. The two became fast friends. Tyson spent his early years jumping from job to job, including stints in the coal, wallpaper, and papermaking industries, a time in stationery with his father, and as mercantile appraiser. In addition, he spent two years of World War I in the Army, including 11 months of that time overseas.

Fred Waring, meanwhile, formed his famous orchestra, the Pennsylvanians, and began touring the country. After playing at the University of Michigan in 1922, Waring was invited to perform on WWJ in Detroit, then a radio station just a few months old. Bill Holiday, the station manager and nation's first radio announcer, was looking for someone to replace him. Waring suggested Tyson, and Holiday immediately telegraphed a job offer. Tyson accepted.

Radio career

Tyson handled announcing chores for various events at WWJ, including broadcasting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the opening of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. What he is best known for, however, is his pioneering work on play-by-play of live sports broadcasts for the station.

In 1924, Tyson broadcast the first University of Michigan football game aired on the radio. Fielding Yost had given WWJ permission to broadcast the game against Wisconsin only because the game had been sold out. He was afraid broadcasting would hurt sales, but before the next home game Michigan was inundated with ticket requests. Sensing a good thing, Yost agreed to more broadcasts.

On April l9, 1927, Tyson called his first Detroit Tigers game, inaugurating the first full season of radio broadcasts for a Major League Baseball team. Tyson continued broadcasting Tigers games until 1940, when he turned over announcing duties to longtime broadcasting partner Harry Heilmann. Tyson returned to the Tigers booth in 1951 when Heilmann died.

Tyson also broadcast the Gold Cup powerboat races, boxing, and other sporting events in Detroit. Tyson founded the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association in 1948 and was its first president.

Tyson died December 12, 1968 at Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pointe Farms, from an arterial ailment. He was 80 years old.

ee also

* Detroit Tigers/Broadcasters

External links

* [http://forums.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?category=people&id=55 Detroit News article]
* [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/T/Tyson_Edwin_L.stm BaseballLibrary.com]
* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/frick/2004/index.htm#TY%20TYSON Ty Tyson Ford Frick Award finalist]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070104033214/http://www.vendiamo.com/MileyCollection/promos/1941AS.mp3 Audio: Tyson calls Ted Williams' game-winning homer in the 1941 All-Star Game]