The Cal 100: No. 48 -- Joe Starkey

The radio voice of Golden Bears football for 48 seasons, Starkey is best known for his frenetic call of The Play in the 1982 Big Game.

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 48: Joe Starkey

Cal Sports Connection: Broadcaster Joe Starkey called 550 Cal football games from 1975 through the 2022 season.

Claim to Fame: He also worked a wide range of assignments in sports broadcasting, including 22 seasons as the 49ers play-by-play radio voice. But Starkey is most famous for his call of The Play in the 1982 Big Game. 

.

Cal still has not revealed who will replace Joe Starkey next fall as the Bears’ radio play-by-play announcer.

The new man — or woman — will share the score, down-and-distance and statistical details with listeners. But no one will replace Starkey.

Starkey, whose 48 years behind the mic at Cal football games earned him the No. 48 spot in The Cal 100, became more than the man who screamed “the band is out on the field,” as The Play unfolded in the 1982 Big Game.

He became the voice in the head of every Cal football fan since 1975. Few Old Blues are old enough to remember a Golden Bears’ broadcast before Starkey was on the call, celebrating a big play with his signature, “What a Bonanza!”

Joe Starkey, second from right, during his final Cal broadcast last fall

*** In the video atop this story, Starkey recalls the day a Cal fan recognized him over a member of the Rolling Stones.

Starkey, 81, was the Bears’ announcer through 10 Cal head coaches, from Mike White to Justin Wilcox. He was there for quarterbacks Joe Roth, Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff.

About the only Cal game he didn’t work was a New Year’s Day Rose Bowl -- Cal fans are still waiting -- but he was on the air for 550 broadcasts.

Said Wilcox, who was born a year after Starkey called his first Cal game, "Joe's name is synonymous with the history of our football program.”

Certainly it has been since 1982, when his frenetic call of the Bears’ five-lateral kickoff return against Stanford became an instant classic. Yes, it almost impossible to know what had happened by listening to Starkey’s description, but that mirrored the insane chaos of The Play:

Harmon will probably try to squib it and he does. Ball comes loose and the Bears have to get out of bounds. Rodgers, along the sideline, another one – they're still in deep trouble at midfield, they tried to do a couple of – the ball is still loose, as they get it to Rodgers! They get it back now to the 30, they're down to the 20 – Oh, the band is out on the field! He's gonna go into the end zone! He got into the end zone!

And the Bears! The Bears have won! The Bears have won! Oh, my God! The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!

A Midwesterner who rooted for Notre Dame as a kid and attended Loyola of Chicago, Starkey was a corporate vice-president for a bank in San Francisco in the early 1970s. But his passion was sports and Starkey — without any formal training — could not resist pursuing a career in broadcasting.

He sent a demo tape to Charlie Finley, who owned the Oakland A’s and California Golden Seals, and Finley gave him his first broadcasting gig, handling the hockey team in 1972. Three years later he began his work at Memorial Stadium, perched in what is now labeled the Joe Starkey Broadcast Booth.

As if a weekly dose of Cal football during the fall wasn’t enough, Starkey took on a variety of other broadcasting assignments, including a 22-year run (1987-2008) as the San Francisco 49ers’ play-by-play voice. He was there for three Super Bowl victories, describing the exploits of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young.

He worked NFL games for the Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos, along with the USFL’s Oakland Invaders. When the San Jose Sharks arrived in 1991, Starkey was their first TV broadcaster. He has called games for the Golden State Warriors, Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Penguins, and served as sports director for KGO 810 radio — Cal football’s flagship station — for 25 years.

Starkey was honored as the best play-by-play announcer in California nine times, was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2009 and was presented the National Football Foundation’s Chris Schenkel Award for a distinguished career broadcasting college football in 2010.

At the end of his final broadcast last Nov. 25, a 35-28 loss to UCLA, Starkey did all he could to suppress his emotions. “It’s tough to say goodbye,” he told listeners. “It’s been a remarkable gift to have this seat in this city.”

-- No. 49: Loren Hawley

Cover photo of Joe Starkey by Kyle Terada, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo