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Post by longsuffering on Apr 18, 2021 9:14:34 GMT -5
RIP Bob. On cold winter nights from far away your voice was the only connection to Holy Cross. I got all your jokes because I wanted to.
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 18, 2021 9:19:22 GMT -5
One final "tip of the fedora" to you, Bob. Thank you for all you did for Holy Cross athletics and bringing the Crusaders to us when we could not be at the games in person.
Requiescant in Pace
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 18, 2021 9:30:22 GMT -5
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Post by Chu Chu on Apr 18, 2021 14:48:41 GMT -5
Rest in Peace. HC Legend! Calling the game vs Brown Lots of good calls. What a picture! Wow! |
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Post by breezy on Apr 18, 2021 15:49:21 GMT -5
Lots of remembrances:
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joshua1
Climbing Mt. St. James
Posts: 94
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Post by joshua1 on Apr 18, 2021 15:53:22 GMT -5
May one of my best friends Rest In Peace always had some good talks and laughs with bob in his time at Holycross and after as well he will be missed dearly and his voice and sprit will always be at Holycross.
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Post by hc87 on Apr 18, 2021 16:03:24 GMT -5
I didn't know Bob personally other than working games in the press box at Fitton or alongside him at Hart while I was at WCHC or the occasional bumping into one another at HC games/events ovah the years since, but it really feels like the loss of a family member. Listened/watched Bob from a young kid to one that is well into his middle age now. He truly was "Holy Cross athletics" for decades....RIP Mr E.
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Post by Sader Fan on Apr 18, 2021 16:22:17 GMT -5
I have a get well card in my mailbox with the flag up waiting to be sent but I think I’ll leave it there for Bob‘s family. I met him on several occasions and sat with him at father Brooks’ funeral mass at St. Joseph chapel. My daughter got into a minor fender bender during the funeral and called me to tell me. I had failed to put my phone on silence and it rang filling up the chapel. I was madly digging through my pockets trying to find it. I was mortified but Bob gave me a nice smile. He was an unforgettable man who bled royal purple.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Apr 18, 2021 20:19:35 GMT -5
So now we know whose phone was ringing. Along with the rest of the story......
Bob will be missed by all who enjoyed his narrations and stories of our beloved football and basketball teams. A man truly dedicated in providing some of our cherished memories on the gridiron and on the hardwood.
Rest In Peace!
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Post by crusader12 on Apr 19, 2021 8:19:37 GMT -5
RIP to the Voice & Spirit of Crusader Athletics. I have known Bob for a long time and he is truly one that bleeds purple through and through. He will be greatly missed and his legacy lives on. For those of us that truly knew him, we all have some great stories that cannot be shared on this forum, but perhaps over a beer at Fitton or Chuck's Steak House. RIP to the VOICE, going from left to right on your radio dial!
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Post by timholycross on Apr 19, 2021 9:23:56 GMT -5
I think if we stick to the stories that are directly related to Bob's broadcasts (and not his emcee and standup routines or anything of a personal nature), we're on safe ground retelling them here. I'll trust folks to use their discretion.
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Post by breezy on Apr 19, 2021 14:20:42 GMT -5
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Post by hcnation on Apr 19, 2021 15:38:52 GMT -5
R.I.P. Your passion for Holy Cross sports kept me entertained and informed for many many years .
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Post by WCHC Sports on Apr 19, 2021 15:54:37 GMT -5
HC as an athletics program, but also as a college, benefited greatly from someone who was so passionate about the Crusaders. The College will go on another 178 years should more people come along and simply approach Bob Fouracre's commitment and devotion.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Apr 19, 2021 16:06:47 GMT -5
Let's recall some of Bob's favorite expressions. I've got to think that "old fashioned rock fight" is one of his best and "tickled the twine" is another standout. What other ones come to mind for you as we remember and honor this great HC Crusader?
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Post by rgs318 on Apr 19, 2021 16:24:47 GMT -5
I remember the combination of "kissed the glass and tickled the twine"
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Post by timholycross on Apr 19, 2021 16:51:42 GMT -5
1.) This is the (fill in the number) meeting ever between these fine institutions. (repeated at least 10 times in a ballgame).
2.) A or B (or even C and, at least once, D)....whichever you prefer. For example, "The Crimson or the Johnnies....."
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Post by timholycross on Apr 19, 2021 16:56:51 GMT -5
HC as an athletics program, but also as a college, benefited greatly from someone who was so passionate about the Crusaders. The College will go on another 178 years should more people come along and simply approach Bob Fouracre's commitment and devotion. I can only think of a couple of HC sports highlights in my 50 years as a fan that he wasn't a part of. An acquired taste, for sure; but he'll be missed. |
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Post by timholycross on Apr 19, 2021 17:05:04 GMT -5
I just saw this from January, 2019. Given that Coach Gibbons left soon thereafter, my educated guess is that Bob never got honored. Is that correct? W/o getting into that situation, it's sad that didn't happen if it could have.
Holy Cross women’s basketball coach Bill Gibbons walked into his office one day last October to find legendary radio announcer Bob Fouracre waiting for him.
Fouracre informed Gibbons that his doctor had urged him to retire. So after 57 years as an announcer — 48 of them calling HC football and basketball games — his broadcast career was over.
Fouracre, 81, of Shrewsbury has failing eyesight that requires him to wear sunglasses, and he is taking medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other ailments, so he didn’t argue with his physician.
“There was no more gas in the tank,” Fouracre said. “I just didn’t want to do it anymore. It was time to say goodbye.”
“I was really taken aback. I was sad,” Gibbons admitted.
Fouracre listens to Dick Lutsk announcing the HC men’s basketball games, and Steve Vecchione and Pete Royce calling the HC women’s games, but he hasn’t been to a game at the Hart Center this winter — he insists he doesn’t plan to ever go back. He doesn’t want to answer questions about why he retired or how he’s feeling.
Gibbons thinks he’ll be able to convince Fouracre to return for at least one game this season — when the Crusaders honor him at halftime of a game to be determined for his lengthy service.
Gibbons said he appreciated Fouracre’s loyalty and refusal to criticize coaches, players or even officials during his broadcasts.
Fouracre stopped announcing HC football and men’s basketball games in 2015, but continued calling HC women’s basketball games for another three years. He was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2007.
When Fouracre began his broadcasting career at WARE Radio in Ware in 1962, he asked if he could do play-by-play. The general manager told him he could do anything he wanted on the air, as long as he sold ads for it. So he sold ads and announced high school football and basketballs games, even Little League baseball games.
Later, at Channel 27 TV in Worcester, he broadcast a season of Celtics road games, a season of Patriots preseason games, including their first game in Foxboro, and several years of New England college basketball games. Fouracre began announcing HC football and basketball games on Channel 27 in 1970, and switched to radio in 1986.
Over the years, his TV partners included Red Auerbach, Upton Bell, Gino Cappelletti, Tom Heinsohn and Bob Cousy. On radio football broadcasts, he worked with Mel Massucco, Gordie Lockbaum, Greg Dickerson and Tom Kelleher. But he always called HC basketball games on radio by himself. He never had a problem with that.
“Because I love to talk,” he said.
He still talks on the phone daily with his daughter, Elizabeth Fouracre, of Northboro, and twice a day with HC legend Togo Palazzi. He also calls Gibbons often. Fouracre worked with a lot of coaches, but none longer than Gibbons, who has coached at HC for 38 years, including the last 34 as the head coach of the women.
When Fouracre called on Tuesday to wish Gibbons luck in his game Wednesday at Lehigh, he identified himself as, “the former voice and spirit of the Lady Crusaders.”
Gibbons told him, “You’ll always be the voice and spirit of the Lady Crusaders, Bob. You know that.”
“He was always upbeat,” Fouracre said of Gibbons. “If they lost by 45, you would have thought after listening to his interview in the postgame show, ‘Geez, they almost won the game.’ Just a mistake here and a mistake there.”
Fouracre is proud that he was able to follow his dream of becoming a broadcaster, a vision he first had when he a child. Back then, he would replay Holy Cross’s 1947 NCAA basketball championship victory in his living room with pencils. The white pencils represented HC, the blue pencils Kentucky.
In the game’s closing seconds, Cousy would always get injured and he’d be carried off the court by two pencils Fouracre called “stretcher boys.” Fouracre would replace Cousy and hit the game-winning shot. He’d scream, “Yes!,” which became one of his signature calls during his broadcasts.
“I thought it was superlative,” Fouracre said of his broadcast career, “and I had a lot of fun with a lot of great people. One person I always loved working with was Bob Cousy, because we had a love-hate relationship I loved him and he hated me.”
Fouracre added he was kidding about Cousy, and he has never been afraid to poke fun at himself.
“If you can’t pick on yourself,” Fouracre explained, “you can’t pick on other people.”
Fouracre has done his share of that as well.
“It was always fun for him,” Gibbons said. “Every game he’d put his heart and soul into, like it was the Patriot League championship game. Whether it was an exhibition game, he was always ready.
“There will never be another broadcaster like Bob Fouracre,” Gibbons said.
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Post by longsuffering on Apr 19, 2021 20:48:44 GMT -5
A typical Saturday night Bob Fouracre post game interview of Bill Gibbons from Lewisburg or some other far off place would include: "Say your prayers and go to bed Billy and Bobby, we'll watch the Patriots tomorrow."
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Post by Ignutz on Apr 19, 2021 21:34:26 GMT -5
On more than a couple occasions, I was driving my car with Togo riding shot gun, and Togo’s phone would ring. Fouracre was on the line. Togo would put the call on speaker, and the two of them would break each other’s toys for the bulk of the conversation.
Each would apologize to me, but no apologies were necessary. I was utterly and completely entertained by the banter.
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Post by ts1970 on Apr 20, 2021 0:21:10 GMT -5
Terrible news losing Bob F........always enjoyed listening to him on the radio.
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Post by Tom on Apr 20, 2021 6:47:52 GMT -5
Bob almost single handedly kept HC sports on the air. Local legend has it that he peddled the ads and then went to local radio stations to find someone to air the games
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Post by rgs318 on Apr 20, 2021 6:57:54 GMT -5
Tom, That is more than local legend. He actually did just that for some time.
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Post by HCFC45 on Apr 20, 2021 7:38:16 GMT -5
From today's Worcester Telegram:
Bob Fouracre, legendary announcer of Holy Cross sports, dies at 83
Jennifer Toland
Telegram & Gazette
Bob Fouracre
Bob Fouracre’s radio call of the Holy Cross football team’s dramatic 30-26 victory over Princeton in 1988 was one of his most memorable. It looked like the Tigers had locked it up with a field goal in the closing seconds, but on the ensuing kickoff, Tim Donovan took a lateral from Darin Cromwell and raced for the winning touchdown with no time left.
“Here comes Holy Cross!” Fouracre exclaimed with his signature Purple passion as the play unfolded. “Holy Cross might score! Holy Cross scores on the last play of the game! Holy Cross scores! Holy Cross wins the ball game, and the Tigers are stunned! The Tigers are stunned!”
Fouracre’s call was included in the book, “Heart Stoppers and Hail Marys, 100 of the Greatest College Football Finishes, 1970-1999.”
Fouracre’s TV and radio broadcasting career spanned 57 years, including 48 calling Holy Cross football and basketball games. As “the voice and the spirit” of HC athletics, he exuded flair, knowledge, elaboration, a sense of humor and excitement. “Yesss!” was one of his trademark acclamations.
“I don’t know if there could have been any other way for him both to earn a living and do perhaps what he most loved to do in life — talk, and talk about Holy Cross, and he did it forever and ever,” said Holy Cross legend Bob Cousy, one of Fouracre’s TV partners and his boyhood idol.
Fouracre, a former Shrewsbury resident, passed away Saturday night at The Meadows in Rochdale after a period of declining health, his daughter, Elizabeth, said. He was 83.
“He was ready, and he went completely peacefully,” said Elizabeth, who was by his side. “I think one of my cousins put it best — he signed off for the last time on April 17.”
Fouracre also leaves his sons, Robert and Steven, who were with him Saturday as well.
On Saturday afternoon, Elizabeth said, Fouracre asked, “Who won the game?”
About 30 minutes before Fouracre passed, the Holy Cross football team fittingly defeated Bucknell, 33-10, to capture the Patriot League championship.
Fouracre was born in Worcester, and he grew up in Northboro. He was one of seven children. He graduated from Northboro High and Cushing Academy, and later the Cambridge School of Broadcasting. He began his broadcasting career at WARE Radio in Ware in 1962, and also hosted local candlepin bowling shows for 20 years.
In 2007, Fouracre was inducted to the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame, which was one of his proudest moments, and to the International Candlepin Bowling Association Hall of Fame in 2008.
When he was a kid,Fouracre, as he told retired T&G sportswriter Bill Doyle, would re-enact the Holy Cross men’s basketball 1947 national championship using pencils as players and a chalkboard as the court. He would announce the game to himself, and the ending always had the same twist.
“Coach Buster Sheary is putting in Bob Fouracre from Northboro, Massachusetts,” and Fouracre would hit the winning shot from midcourt at the buzzer.
Fouracre grew up watching Holy Cross-Boston College football games at Fenway Park and Braves Field. Mel Massucco was 14-year-old Fouracre’s favorite player on the 1951 HC team, which lost to BC, 19-14, on a last-second touchdown.
“I walked out of Braves Field crying,” Fouracre said in a 2018 interview. “We took that seriously.”
Fouracre began announcing HC football and basketball games on Worcester’s Channel 27 TV in 1970, and switched to radio in 1986. He continued with HC football and men’s basketball until 2015 and with women’s basketball until 2018. He was a fixture at Fitton Field and the Hart Center.
“He loved doing it, and you could tell when he was doing the game he was really enjoying it,” said Holy Cross great Ron Perry, who was HC’s director of athletics when Fouracre began announcing the school’s games. “He loved Holy Cross, and that was evident in his announcing. He really cared for the kids, and he had a good knowledge of the sports.”
Perry’s son, Ronnie, starred for the HC basketball team from 1976-80.
“Ronnie said to me, ‘Dad, how lucky was I? When I was in school, we were playing in front of capacity crowds at all our games, and all our games were on live TV,’” Perry said. “We were lucky to have a guy like Bob Fouracre.”
In addition to Cousy, Fouracre’s color analysts through the years included Togo Palazzi, Tom Heinsohn, Gordie Lockbaum and Tom Kelleher.
Palazzi’s relationship with Fouracre began 67 years ago, when Palazzi, then a rising senior at Holy Cross, was a counselor at Cousy’s Camp Greylag in New Hampshire and Fouracre an up-and-coming teenage basketball player. It was then and there that Palazzi, another Holy Cross luminary who was a teammate of Perry on HC’s 1954 NIT championship team, got his first taste of Fouracre’s humor.
“I would see him,” Palazzi said, “this kid with long, spindly legs, and he would always be looking at me. One day, I went to put my sneakers on, and they were filled with shaving cream. He was putting it in my shoes. He was trying to get my attention. He was pretty good at doing it, too.”
Good-natured needling marked their friendship and their years broadcasting together.
“He would say, ‘You’re the most overrated player in the history of Holy Cross. You couldn’t play today. You’re too slow,’ ” Palazzi recalled with a laugh. “I would give it back. (I would say), ‘I just got a message from Bob Cousy, and you were the worst player in the history of his camp.’ We would go back and forth like that. It was a lot of fun with him.”
Palazzi said Fouracre would pay him for announcing games with Cross pens, raincoats and a small stipend.
“He said, ‘I give Cooz $500, but you’re not Cooz,’ ” Palazzi said. “He would give you the business.”
Even Holy Cross football great Gordie Lockbaum, who worked with Fouracre for several years on radio, was not immune to Fouracre’s barbs.
“He would always bust my chops about something,” Lockbaum recalled fondly, “like my six-touchdown game at Dartmouth. He would say, ‘Yeah, but they were all runs of 3 and 4 and 5 yards.’ He could get away with it. It was fun.”
Lockbaum enjoyed his time in the booth with Fouracre, and the time they spent traveling to games even more.
“We drove all those hours and all the time the radio was off because we were just telling stories,” Lockbaum said. “He was a great conversationalist and a great question asker. He was very inquisitive.”
When Lockbaum couldn’t be at Holy Cross games as a fan, he tuned into Fouracre on the radio all the time.
“He had the ability to give you that mind’s eye so you could kind of see the play going on as he described it,” Lockbaum said. “‘From left to right on your radio dial,’ and he had all these little Fouracre-isms that made you smile. He had a great radio voice, and he was someone who did his job extremely well.”
Fouracre also served as the producer and TV host of the Holy Cross Football Show from 1986-99, and the Holy Cross men’s and women’s coaches shows from 1995-99.
Veteran broadcaster and Worcester native Dick Lutsk replaced Fouracre on HC football and men’s basketball games in 2015. They knew each other for about 20 years.
“He was one of a kind,” Lutsk said. “He bled purple; he lived Holy Cross. He was there every day, and he had a great memory of Holy Cross history. He was terrific to me, a mentor to me. When I replaced him, he was very encouraging to me and always supportive. He was a terrific guy. I loved him.”
After retiring in 2019, Fouracre maintained his connection to Holy Cross with daily phone calls to Lutsk, Palazzi, Perry and Rev. Earle Markey.
“He was a dear friend,” Palazzi said. “He was very loyal in his feelings about people he felt close to. I loved the guy, and I’m going to miss him very much.”
From 1970-83, Fouracre hosted the popular “Bay State Bowling” from the State Mutual Insurance alleys in Worcester on Channel 27. For six years, Fouracre hosted “Big Shot Bowling” on NESN.
Also at Channel 27, Fouracre broadcast a season of Celtics road games, a season of Patriots preseason games, including their first game in Foxboro, and several years of New England college basketball games. He called Worcester Counts games in 1989 and the Bay State Bombadiers from 1983-86.
Fouracre took pride in his broadcasting career, and, his daughter said, he liked being a local celebrity.
“He was able to communicate a little bit last Thursday,” Elizabeth said. “He was able to reiterate his wishes, even what photo he wanted with his obituary. He was true to form.
“It was his time. He was completely at peace. He said, ‘I’m ready to go home.’ ”
Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @jentandg
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