After 2,500 Games, Hearn Won’t Put It in the Refrigerator

It’s a streak that ranks not too far below Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, UCLA’s 88-game basketball winning streak and the Lakers’ 33-game winning streak.

Tonight, in Richfield, Ohio, Chick Hearn’s consecutive-game announcing streak will reach 2,500.

Think about it. Hearn hasn’t missed a day of work since 1965. How many people can make that claim?

Keeping the streak going has become Hearn’s personal challenge, almost an obsession.

He realizes that, above all else, it is probably what he will be remembered for most. His epitaph will read: “Chick Hearn, who broadcast 2,787 consecutive Laker games. . . ,” or whatever the final number turns out to be.

Conceivably, it could reach 3,000. Hearn is not going anywhere. They will carry him away with his headset on.

For much of the past decade, whenever the question of retirement came up, Hearn said: “I’ll probably go another three or four years.” Or later, it became, “I’ll retire when Magic retires.”

But this week Hearn finally admitted the truth: He’ll never retire.

“I won’t retire until they tell me I can’t do it anymore, that I’m not very good,” he said.

Said his wife, Marge: “Why should he retire? What would he do? He doesn’t play golf.”

In his 32 seasons with the Lakers, Hearn has missed only two games--both in 1965.

An NBC golf assignment kept him away from one game, and a few weeks later a snowstorm in Fayetteville, Ark., grounded him.

Then the USC football announcer, Hearn had just worked a Trojan game against Arkansas when the pilot of the charter flight told him: “We shouldn’t fly in this weather.”

Hearn told the pilot: “If you don’t want to fly, that’s good enough for me. We’re not flying.”

Hearn wasn’t really aware of the streak until it topped 1,000. “That’s when it became a challenge to me to keep it going,” he said.

There have been some close calls in recent years.

There was one time in Philadelphia when his voice was so bad he could talk only in a whisper an hour before tipoff. Susan Stratton, the longtime producer-director of Laker telecasts on Channel 9, recalls tipping an intern $20 to keep bringing Hearn cups of hot water.

There was another time in San Antonio, Stratton said, when Hearn complained of feeling ill and didn’t show up until less than an hour before tipoff. “That is very late for him,” Stratton said. “He usually gets to the arena two or three hours before game time.”

Three years ago, he had a severe case of flu, from a bug that spread throughout the Southland. Hearn was bedridden for several days.

Fortunately, the next game, on a Friday night, was a home game. Hearn, filled with antibiotics, somehow made it to the Forum.

Once on the air, the Chickisms flowed as usual.

Although the Lakers scored impressive victories in New York and Atlanta this week, it has been a tough season for Hearn. He misses Magic Johnson.

“He created excitement wherever he went,” Hearn said. “He had the ability to arouse crowds in every city in the league.”

There have been other valleys among the peaks over the past 32 seasons, and Hearn says better days lie ahead.

It’s his educated guess that Johnson will return next season and play 50 to 60 games, if his health permits.

“I think he’d be playing now if he didn’t fear that the strain would jeopardize his chances for playing in the Olympics,” Hearn said. “An Olympic gold medal is very important to Magic.”

Hearn will be in Barcelona with Magic this summer, working the NBC’s pay-per-view Olympic Triplecasts.

Channel 9 will go all out tonight in marking Hearn’s milestone.

Appearing on the “Lakers Tonight” program at 5:30, before the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, will be past sidekicks Hot Rod Hundley, Lynn Shackelford, Pat Riley and Keith Erickson, along with current partner Stu Lantz.

At halftime, there will be a four-minute Hearn profile, produced by Tom Mouzis and Ron Jacobs.

And after the game, on the 10 o’clock news, will be the third segment of an interview by Jerry Dunphy, who goes back a few years with Hearn. Both worked in Peoria, Ill., in the 1950s.

Ironman Chick has come a long way since Peoria.

Dick Vitale called the other day, but he really didn’t need a telephone. He could have been heard all the way from his home in Florida.

Vitale was upset about a recent column critiquing him and Jim Valvano after the UCLA-Duke game, and was particularly incensed over two inaccuracies.

Vitale pointed out that it was play-by-play announcer Roger Twibell, not him, who said Valvano was the No. 2 candidate for the UCLA coaching job and Jim Harrick was No. 4. Apparently, Twibell got in a few words, after all.

Vitale, who at the top of the telecast said it was wrong to use Pacific 10 officials rather than officials from a neutral conference for a game of such magnitude, said: “You had me burying the officials. Twice, I said these were quality officials. I made a great point, and after the game everybody told me I made a great point.”

Vitale also said: “We had a great telecast. The majority of people love me. Spend a day with me, come to a game, you’ll see. They’ll be cheering me at Pauley Pavilion Thursday night. The only people who don’t like me are a few deadbeats like you.”

TV-Radio Notes

The mad programmers finally got it right. For years, Channel 2 has shown a Pacific 10 game that has interfered with CBS’ coverage of the NCAA tournament pairings, causing it to be delayed. There is no game this year, though, so the pairings show will be live at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. . . . Earlier in the day, beginning at 9 a.m., CBS will have a tournament preview followed by an attractive doubleheader--the Big East championship and a Big Ten matchup between Indiana and Purdue.

When are the networks going to realize that Trevor Denman has no peer as a race caller? ABC used Dave Johnson on the Big ‘Cap at Santa Anita last Saturday, and Johnson stumbled worse than a lame horse. Best Pal became Best Play, and Johnson even messed up his trademark call. “And down the stretch they come in the Big Pack .” Making matters worse was that Denman’s call on Santa Anita’s public-address system could be heard in the background. Denman should have called the race for television as well. . . . Sunday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita will be televised by SportsChannel, with Denman and Sharon Smith reporting. . . .

KMPC’s Jim Healy has pointed out that Channel 5 continues to use its news opening that has Stu Nahan on sports, even though Nahan has been off the air because of heart bypass surgery. “That’s ridiculous,” Channel 5 spokesman Ed Harrison said. “What, are we supposed to change our opening just because Nahan is out five weeks?” . . . Nahan, at home and doing well, is expected back on the air April 13. He will probably return to KABC radio sooner because he does those shows from his home. . . . Channel 11 offers another in its series of Dodger preseason specials, “Backstage at Dodger Stadium,” Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tommy Hawkins will give viewers a behind-the-scene tour. The show is produced by Bill Brandt and written by Greg Wyatt.

Olympic boxing hopefuls will be featured in HBO’s tape-delayed coverage of the World Champions’ Challenge Saturday at 9 p.m. . . . Heavyweight Jorge Gonzales, a Cuban defector who is a two-time Pan American Games champion, will fight in a six-rounder against Michael Gans on the undercard of an ESPN fight at Bally’s in Las Vegas Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Promoter Bob Arum has great hopes for Gonzales, who is 6-0 as a pro. This will be Gonzales’ TV debut. He was 220-13 as an amateur. Bantamweights Israel Contreras and Eddie Cook will meet in the main event. . . . Arum is counting on a record number of homes for the TVKO fight of the month next Friday when Thomas Hearns meets Iran Barkley at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The show will start at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than usual, with the main event scheduled for 8:30.