You have to be from the South, I think, to fully understand the relationship college football fans develop with their favorite team’s radio announcer.
All the schools, at one time or another, have had their guy. John Ward at Tennessee. Al Ciraldo at Tech. Eli Gold at Alabama. And of course, Munson at Georgia. For a couple of generations of Georgia fans, Munson was The Voice.
You might wonder why a radio announcer has such a following. Truth be told, Munson is as much a part of the fabric of UGA as men named Vince or Herschel or Erk. Maybe more so. He provided the soundtrack for Georgia football for most of my life. In fact, I was 44 years old before I heard someone other than Munson call a Georgia game.
He famously begged Lindsey Scott to run. He saw sugar falling from the sky in Auburn. He stepped on Tennessee’s face with a hobnail boot. And he shouted a perhaps-too-enthusiastic “My God almighty” the first time that kid out of Wrightsville touched the football.
For us, every great play, every meaningful play has a Munson call attached to it. It was common for Georgia fans to turn down the sound on the TV so they could listen to Munson.
At Auburn — since 2003, at least — the Voice belonged to Rod Bramlett. An Auburn graduate, Bramlett had his dream job, calling football, basketball and baseball for the Auburn Sports Network. Most of the students at Auburn aren’t old enough to have ever heard anyone else call their games.
Sadly, Bramlett and his wife were killed over the weekend when the car they were in was rear-ended at a busy intersection in Auburn.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t have known Rod Bramlett’s face if he walked into my office. But I’d have known the voice. Many nights after a Georgia game, we’d search the radio dial for the best SEC game of the night, and that game often involved Auburn.
I liked listening to Bramlett. He was a homer. Like Munson with his beloved Dawgs, Bramlett lived and died on every Auburn snap. As I’ve listened to some of his calls over the last few days, he was just as good when Auburn was letting a game slip away as he was when the Tigers rolled to a win.
His most famous call came in 2013, also in the Iron Bowl. It is one of the most memorable, most improbable plays in college football history. With one second on the clock, Bama lined up to kick a game-winning field goal. But the kick didn’t have enough leg, and Auburn’s Chris Davis fielded the ball nine yards deep in the endzone and began to run it back. By the time Davis broke into the clear at the Bama 45, Bramlett was going crazy.
“…There goes Davis! Davis is going to run it all the way back! Auburn is going to win the football game! Auburn is going to win the football game! He ran the missed goal back! He ran it back 109 yards! They're not going to keep them off the field tonight! Holy cow! Oh, my God! Auburn wins! Auburn has won the Iron Bowl! Auburn has won the Iron Bowl in the most unbelievable fashion that you will ever see! I cannot believe it!"
From that point on, every time Auburn fans think about that “Kick Six,” they hear Rod Bramlett. That’s why our announcers matter to us. We remember their words as much as the players’ actions. And that’s why all college football fans will miss Rod Bramlett.
War Eagle, Rod. War Eagle.
