CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For many fans, Joe Tait was the Cavaliers.
For all but two seasons when he left in a dispute with then-owner Ted Stepien, Tait, inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame media wing in 2010, served as the radio — and occasional television — voice of the team since its inception in 1970 until 2011.
He was there as the Cavs stumbled through the early seasons and when they reached the NBA Finals in 2007. He called The Miracle in Richfield in 1976 and The Shot by Michael Jordan in 1989. He interviewed every player from Austin Carr to LeBron James and every coach from Bill Fitch to Byron Scott.
He was the link to the team in victory and in defeat, at home and on the road.
Tait, 83, died Wednesday after a lengthy battle with kidney disease and liver cancer. Information on services is not yet available.
In a conversation with Terry Pluto earlier this month, Tait was typically straightforward about his future, if also rather curious about the experience.
“I’m not afraid to die,” he told Pluto. “I guess I’m an agnostic. I believe there is a powerful force, a creator.
“I do wonder what happens after you die. If anything does. I’m curious to find out. I do know I’ve had a good life. Lots of people have been great to me.”
“He’s the best,” Cavs senior director of broadcast services Dave Dombrowski said on the occasion of Tait’s 2,500th broadcast with the team in November, 2002. “I think every team thinks they have the best, but we do.”
Fans seemed to agree. When Stepien fired Tait during the 1980-81 season, the fans reacted by staging Joe Tait Night in the home season finale against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 27, 1981. The crowd of 20,175 was the largest in four seasons. By the end of the Sixers’ 138-117 victory, the fans were chanting, “Let’s go, Joe. Ted must go.”
“It was one of the most memorable nights of my career,” Tait told reporters at the time. “It’s all been very moving. I’m extremely touched and grateful.”
Years later, he confirmed that the parting was the right decision for him, and Stepien.
“If I had stayed with the Cavs back then, I might have killed him,” he said.
From a broadcasting standpoint, Tait always said Game 5 and Game 7 of the playoff series victory over Washington in 1976 that became known as The Miracle of Richfield were among his most memorable games, and he had a special affection for all the teams from those early years.
“I miss that very first year, when we went 15-67, and everybody ate together, traveled together, went to the movies together on off days,” he said in an interview with the Plain Dealer in 2002. “We were like Custer’s Last Stand. We knew if the other team showed up, we were going to lose. You became very, very close to those guys.”
Bill Fitch was the coach of that team, and he was the reason the Cavaliers hired Tait. The two met when Fitch was a coach at Coe College and Tait was a broadcaster at Monmouth. During football season, Fitch did some scouting and often found himself seated near a young broadcaster when he visited Monmouth.
“He could put into words what was going on,” Fitch said in an interview with The Plain Dealer in 2002. “He had a great delivery.”
After Fitch was hired by the Cavs, he suggested Tait would be the perfect broadcaster for the young team. Tait’s tenure lasted four times longer than Fitch’s and was more productive. Tait was elected to the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1992, received its C.S. Williams Founders Award for long and meritorious service in broadcasting in 1996 and its Legacy Award in 2004. He was named Sportscaster of the Year in Ohio in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2004. He was voted best radio/TV announcer in the area in a Plain Dealer poll in 1985 and 1986.
In addition, he was inducted into several halls of fame besides the Naismith Hall of Fame, including those of Monmouth College, Sports Media Association of Cleveland, Cleveland Sports Legends, Lorain Sports and the Cleveland Press Club. The Basketball Hall of Fame honored him with the Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2010.
Not bad for a kid who wanted to be a writer.
Born May 15, 1937, in Evanston, Ill., Tait grew up on a farm in Amboy, Ill. He played football, basketball and soccer, but he quickly realized he was not very good at any of them. He loved sports, though, and he loved to write. His plan was to enroll at Monmouth College for three years and then transfer to the journalism school at the University of Missouri.
He never made it. A speech professor at Monmouth recognized his potential immediately and sent him to a basketball game with a tape recorder. Tait did play-by-play of the game and the school piped it into the student union for those who wished to hear a replay.
A star was born. His career included stops at Galesburg, Ill., Monmouth, the Armed Forces Radio when he was in the Army, Decatur, Ill., Rockford, Ill., and Frankfort, Ind. He did some teaching at Ohio University and Mount Union College, where he broadcast the Purple Raiders football games and also served on the Board of Trustees.
At one time or another he broadcast the WNBA Rockers, Indians, Cleveland Barons, New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Indiana University football and the World Basketball League, as well as the college basketball game of the week for CBS Radio. While doing Indians games on television, he made the call for Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981.
But his greatest fame was with the Cavaliers, who named him vice president of broadcast services in 1987 and honored him with a special “bobble-belly” doll in 2002.
If the Cavs were playing, Tait was on the air. An entertaining evening was in store from his signature opening phrase “It’s basketball time at the (take your pick, Coliseum, Gund or Quicken Loans Arena)” all the way to his traditional closing, “Have a good night, everybody.”
He seemed to find the perfect mix of description, commentary, statistics and fun — or criticism, if necessary. When James was getting ready to become the No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft, Tait expressed a concern that the media buildup of James while at St. Vincent-St. Mary was bad for James and the sport.
“I don’t blame (James) for all that,” said Tait. “It’s just the professional sports mentality permeating all the way down into the high schools. Some of the summer teams are just cesspools.”
That said, Tait recognized James’ otherworldly talents, as well as the demands placed on the foundation of the franchise. He knew that national media wanted every second with James, so the hometown voice accepted he wouldn’t have similar access.
“I asked simply that LeBron do one postgame interview a year with me,” he said. “So many of our games were on national TV, and they always wanted him. He usually did his one interview a year. One time, I remember him coming over to the press table, sitting down in front of me. I said, ‘Well, look who is here!’ LeBron said, ‘I told you that I’d come.’”
When James left the Cavaliers for Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Tait was outspoken in his disapproval of the move and that the NBA allowed it.
“You (should) do what the NFL did and name franchise players and legislate that they can’t go ahead and have their own little cliques,” Tait told Jason Lloyd, then of the Akron Beacon-Journal. “This stuff goes back to AAU ball, and it has to be stopped. If it’s not stopped, you’re going to destroy the league.”
The league survived, as did the reputation of the man who was the voice of the team for more than two generations. That voice will linger in fans’ memories for years to come.