Gross made sports real for listeners
Philip Martin

Sports Editor

Although the Lions lost big at the Miner s Bowl, we can rest assure one man would have backed the team 110 percent of the way.

That man was Don Gross, who passed away about two weeks ago. Gross was more than just the voice of the Lions on the radio - he was a supporter for the Lions. Chances are if he was cut, Gross would have bled green. He had a way of broadcasting that was part telling you what was going on and what was on his mind about the game without it getting in the way.

How can one learn how to do that? Well, Gross grew up listening to the radio so when he started broadcasting, he knew exactly what the listeners needed to know and when they needed to know it. He didn t have the color commentary so many commentators use to make the game uninteresting. Like say, John Madden. He may be a great coach, but I personally do not like the way he does commentary. I don t really care what Madden thinks the team should or should have done. Just tell me what is going on and get on with it. Watch any professional sport and listen to the commentators. They will be talking about God only knows what, two plays will go by, and then they will jump in and tell us what happened on the first play. By this time, two more plays will go by, and if it wasn t for the fact you were watching the game, you wouldn t know what is going on.

Another example would be sitting near someone at a game who is talking about Chuck Norris and David Carradine. Who cares? Seriously, I m there to watch the game and cheer on the team. If you are going to talk about something that doesn t have anything to do with the game being played, then shut up or move somewhere else so I can focus on the game.

Gross was never like that. He told it like it was. He kept the listeners on the edge of their seats with very little color commentary. He knew exactly what he was doing. No rambling - nothing to detract from the game. It was just pure sports and the pure game.

V.L. Peterson, associate professor of communications, said when he moved to Joplin from Iowa 23 years ago he didn t know if he would like the town or the College. Then he started listening to Gross do the commentary for high school football. As he listened to Gross talk about the game, he felt like he got to know the players, the coaches, the fans, and yes, even Gross himself.

 He had a way of pulling you into the game by making the game the featured event,  Peterson said.  He was not the featured event. He was the reporter type who had the knowledge and skill. 

An example of Gross  expertise was when the Lions basketball team was up against Drury with the winner going on to Kansas City to compete for the NAIA championships. With two seconds left in the game, Peterson said he was at home listening to the game on the radio with his wife. His wife was so afraid the Lions would lose the game, she wouldn t listen to it and left the room. Peterson wanted to listen to see how it ended. There were two seconds left and Gross said, although this is not verbatim and I did borrow this from a letter Peterson sent to The Joplin Globe and The Chart, the final moments went something like this:  Southern has taken a timeout to decide how to inbound the ball....It is, yes, Marvin Townsend, yes, he takes the high pass, he goes to Chris Tuggle, Chris has it at midcourt, he turns, his shot is up, the shot is, iiiiiit s good! Oh my God! Southern Wins, Southern Wins!!! 

For a fan like Peterson, he will never forget that moment and neither will anyone else who was there or who was listening to the radio that night. Even just reading that, and knowing it wasn t word-for-word, it still makes me feel tense until I read the shot is good.

That is just the way Gross was. He made the fans more important than their ideas about the game. And for all you aspiring sports broadcasters, pay attention and try to get some tapes to listen to Gross. It is well worth your time.