--Why would he do this? Just up and move to New York?
Does he want to wake up in a city that doesn't sleep?
To find he's king of the hill… Top of the heap?
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI
Bob Parks Realty, LLC
Real Estate Broker
145 Maple Row Blvd
Hendersonville TN 37075
Phone: 615-826-4040
Mobile: 615-972-4239
From: gatornews@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatornews@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shane Ford
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 9:42 AM
To: GatorNews
Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Vettel leaving behind career as Gator icon
Vettel leaving behind career as Gator icon
By Pat Dooley
Gainesville SUN ColumnistPublished: Friday, July 3, 2015 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 2, 2015 at 5:13 p.m.
He thought he was holding it together pretty well. Larry Vettel had a game plan and it included staying upbeat all day and not letting the finality of the situation reach his tear ducts.
Then, came the first call of his final WRUF radio show.
It was his daughters, Dana from New York and Jennifer from Tanzania where she is working on her master's.
"I was hopeless after that," Vettel, 57, said.
That was last Thursday, when Vettel signed off for the final time in Gainesville. In two weeks, he and his wife, Quenta, will begin a new journey in New York City, where his life began.
You can call Vettel a lot of things, and many of his callers to his different radio talk shows have. A Gator sports icon. A pioneer in Gainesville talk radio. A teacher who has sent many success stories into the broadcast world.
I've been privileged to call him a friend for many decades.
Vettel has been one of the main voices of Florida athletics during that time. He has done thousands of Gator broadcasts in every sport for both television and radio. His talk show has been a staple for Gainesvillians who want to both be entertained and need a place to vent.
After 34 years, he's ready to do something else.
"It has been a great ride," he said. "I'm very appreciative of what I have had. It's just a time in my life when I need a new challenge. New job, new career. I don't know what that will be, but I need to take some chances."
It all started when Vettel's family moved to Port St. Lucie when he was in the third grade because his mother wanted to get away from the crime of New York. There, he was handed the job of being the public address announcer for high school baseball games.
"I was better at that than at pitching," he said. "And right away, I knew this was what I wanted to do."
When he was 15, his aunt gave him a book about Red Barber, the legendary sportscaster who attended UF.
"The parts about WRUF intrigued me," he said. "I decided I wanted to go to Florida and win the Red Barber Award."
He did just that in 1981 and by then was already into a career that would last more than three decades.
It started with Dial-A-Score, back in the days before instant news. You remember Dial-A-Score. Back in 1979, when Vettel started, there was no Internet or crawls on ESPN to find out who won the big games of the day. Fans would call the show to find out who won and then offer their opinions about different teams, mostly the Gators.
It was also the year Florida went 0-10-1 under first-year coach Charley Pell.
"Not a lot of people were happy after those games," he recalled. "I got to learn how to handle the angry and the inebriated. It was great combat training."
It was while he was starting his career that he met his wife, who was working for the Florida sports information department.
In 1980, he started one of the state's first weekly talk shows, then turned it into a daily show in 1989.
That show became a staple for Gator fans in the area.
"I always thought of myself as a voice of reason," he said. "When they were too ecstatic, I tried to calm them down. When they were too glum, I tried to cheer them up."
Vettel left WRUF in 1998 to work for WMOP/WGGG because he wanted an afternoon show. I worked with Larry on those stations as a twice-a-week guest. It never felt like work, just two guys talking about sports. That was the genius of Vettel, the ability to make guests and callers feel like they were having a conversation.
Never short on opinions, Vettel was never afraid to ruffle feathers in the athletic department. Yet he built lasting relationships — and friendships — with Gator coaches and athletes.
In 2005, he went dark. He decided it was time to step away from radio, although he continued his extensive TV work. That has included being the sideline reporter for Gator football games and live broadcasts of all the other sports.
In 2010, WRUF convinced him to return to the airwaves where he had been producing daily commentary and interaction with fans until last Thursday. A week later, the City of Gainesville proclaimed "Larry Vettel Day."
Haven't they all been?
"It's time. It's that simple," Vettel said. "It's been a long run. It will be weird not doing the preparation for the Florida-Georgia game, not doing the scouting reports for the Quarterback Club. It's going to be strange."
Weird. Strange. For all of us.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at dooleyp@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
Sent From Shane's iPhoneGo Gators! & Skål Vikes!
ALPCA #8756
Europlate #1045
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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