Dave Hunziker
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Oral History Interview with Dave Hunziker Interview Conducted by Jerry Gill December 7, 2010 O-State Stories Oral History Project Special Collections & University Archives Edmon Low Library ● Oklahoma State University © 2010 O-State Stories An Oral History Project of the OSU Library Interview History Interviewer: Jerry Gill Transcriber: Adam Evans Editors: Ashley Sarchet, Micki White, Tanya Finchum The recording and transcript of this interview were processed at the Oklahoma State University Library in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Project Detail The purpose of O-State Stories Oral History Project is to gather and preserve memories revolving around Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (OAMC) and Oklahoma State University (OSU). This project was approved by the Oklahoma State University Institutional Review Board on October 5, 2006. Legal Status Scholarly use of the recordings and transcripts of the interview with Dave Hunziker is unrestricted. The interview agreement was signed on December 7, 2010. 2 O-State Stories An Oral History Project of the OSU Library About Dave Hunziker… “Pistols firing!” Anyone who listens to Oklahoma State University football games recognizes that phrase, made famous by sports announcer Dave Hunziker. Before becoming the voice of the Cowboys, Hunziker got his start in Missouri. He grew up in Kahoka, Missouri, and spent countless hours with his dad by the radio listening to baseball games. He had a strong interest in sports at an early age, but he knew his strength wasn’t in playing them. In high school, he was the statistician for the basketball team, and he recorded video for the football team. Listening to the best professional play-by-play sports announcers on the radio for the better part of his youth, he had no doubts about his future career. When he was seventeen and still in high school, he got a job with KMEM, the radio station in Memphis, Missouri, doing live radio reports on his hometown sporting events. He soon earned a slot for a Sunday night show and then high school live broadcasts. Before long, he was doing color and play-by-play for games. After he graduated high school in 1984, Hunziker enrolled at the University of Missouri in the School of Journalism, and during breaks he went back to Memphis to work at KMEM, broadcasting news and reports. He graduated in 1988, and immediately went to work for KFRU in Columbia, Missouri. After a year there, he went to Radford, Virginia, where he worked in the Big South conference, hosting a television show and doing play-by-play for the basketball team. He also managed the handful of stations there and sold ads, as well. He stayed there for eight years and then spent a year at Western Kentucky University, focusing on football and men’s basketball. In 2001, he came to Stillwater which immediately felt like home, thanks to the hospitality and generosity of the locals. During his time broadcasting football and basketball at OSU, Hunziker has had a front-row seat for coaching changes, athletic facility transformations, player arrivals and departures, and collegiate conference realignment. The ongoing changes didn’t scare him away, however, and he stuck to his guns and by his Cowboys. He even became a lecturer in the School of Media and Strategic Communications where he teaches sports broadcasting performance. Hunziker has earned a special place in the hearts of OSU fans, and is a recipient of the Bill Teegins Excellence in Sportscasting Award for his outstanding work. 3 O-State Stories An Oral History Project of the OSU Library Dave Hunziker Oral History Interview Interviewed by Jerry Gill December 7, 2010 Stillwater, Oklahoma Gill My name is Jerry Gill. Today is December 7, 2010. I’m visiting with Dave Hunziker on the Oklahoma State University Campus here in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This interview is for the O-State Stories project of the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program. Dave, I know you’ve got lots of things going on this week, and I appreciate you stopping by and taking time from your professional duties to visit with us today. Hunziker Oh, absolutely. My pleasure. Gill You’re highly visible and recognizable to Oklahoma State University alumni and fans as the voice of the Cowboys and handling play-by-play for OSU football and basketball. I want to talk about that, but first of all let’s back up, Dave. I want to ask you a little about your early life... Hunziker Sure. Gill …where you grew up, your parents. Could you share some of that with us? Hunziker Oh, absolutely. I grew up in Kahoka, Missouri, which is in the far northeast corner of the state, the furthest northeast county, as a matter of fact, adjacent to Illinois and Iowa. I spent my entire childhood there. My father was the manager, sort of the business manager, of a rock quarry, and my mother was a librarian and sold some things on the side. That was the first thing she did. I have an older brother who is three years older and an older sister who is nine years older. Probably the unfortunate, most challenging part of my childhood without a doubt was the fact that I lost my father when I was twelve to cancer. He was older. Dad was forty-two when I was born. I was the youngest of the three. That was probably the biggest challenge, obviously, of my childhood is that I really didn’t get to know my father very well. You think that in twelve years, you hopefully get a chance to really get to know them, but 4 you really don’t. But it was a wonderful place to grow up. It was a small town. Gill What was the population? Hunziker Two thousand, one hundred seven. Robust folks, like many communities here where we have great fans. I mean, that’s why I think I’ve enjoyed it so much here is that it reminds me a lot of home. You could ride your bike anywhere, and we played ball all the time. Whatever season it was, we played. I guess it was not different than any other childhood except, boy, did I ever have a passion for sports. I wasn’t any good. That was the issue. I had to figure out another way I could stay with it so I did this. Even though Dad passed away, I can’t say that I had, by any means, a bad childhood. Mom was great. She was very strong for us and let us do a lot of different things and try different things. For the most part, we had a lot of fun, did a lot of fun things, played a lot of ball. That’s what we wanted to do. Gill What about school and community activities? What were you involved in? Hunziker I played in high school. I ended up being a statistician for basketball after I realized as a sophomore I just wasn’t good enough. We had good teams. We had teams that won our conference every year. I played high school golf, although not very well. Ran cross country. Not very good at that either. Probably my best sport was baseball. I was a pitcher, played a little outfield. Didn’t throw very hard, but I could throw to spots and change speeds and make the ball move a little bit so I could manage my way around. Then I helped out the football team with shooting video and things of that nature. I was involved in the National Honor Society and Quiz Bowl, you know, the old quick-thinking, hit-the-dinger stuff, which was fun. I had a blast doing that. Probably my passion was always broadcasting and sports. When I was seventeen, before I got out of high school, I was able to do that. I got hired part-time at the radio station next town over, Memphis, Missouri. Gill Let me back up and ask about that. If I understand, you were seventeen years old. Hunziker Seventeen. Gill There’s got to be a story. I mean, how did you get… Hunziker There is. Gill First of all, let me back up a bit. You obviously developed an interest in 5 broadcasting early in life. Hunziker Yes. Gill Can you kind of talk about when that developed, where that came from, and then I want to talk to you about that first job. Hunziker Yes. Two things, really. When Dad was alive, we spent a lot of time—he had to get to work early. He would have to leave the house, well, I say early. It seemed early to me. He’d have to leave the house a little after six and head in so he’d go to bed pretty early, and I’d go in there and lay in bed with him and listen to the Cardinals. Listened to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon broadcast Cardinal games, so that’s where it started. I can remember listening to those games and thinking that St. Louis, even though it was only 150 miles away, was like another universe away. It really felt that way. I think I got to go to two games with Dad in St. Louis before he died. The first one when I was eight, we went down and watched the Atlanta Braves and Hank Aaron at that time, which was a huge deal. They could have been playing anybody. I wouldn’t have cared. It was a huge deal. So that’s really where it started, and then after Dad passed away, I still had a lot of interest not only in sports but in listening to games.