We’ll let the Corvallis Gazette-Times explain this one (link):
Wednesday’s Opinion page included a tribute to
Ted Carlson, the “Voice of the Beavers,” who died last week. However,
the letter writer confused him with the other Ted Carlson, the retired
Oregon State University journalism professor, who we are glad to say is
alive and well here in Corvallis.
That Ted Carlson sent this
e-mail to the newspaper Wednesday morning, after several phone calls
from concerned friends and relatives who had seen the letter in the
newspaper:Wasn’t it Mark Twain who wrote that the news of his death was greatly exaggerated?
Well,
the Gazette-Times printed a letter to the editor (Nov. 2) from Susan
Laird Endsley that noted the passing of her former journalism professor
(me) and the Voice of the Beavers. Unfortunately, the Voice of the
Beavers Ted Carlson died recently. Fortunately, I’m still hanging
around.
That former student Susan should be somewhat confused comes as no surprise.
I
would be remiss if I didn’t try to set the record straight for the
thousands of listeners to the long-time OSU public address announcer
Ted Carlson. I’m sure they thought there was only one Ted Carlson
associated with OSU and Corvallis.
I suppose it all started when
I came west from Illinois to attend OSU. I quickly found out that Ted
Carlson Sr. had an upholstery shop downtown and from time to time I
would field questions on the status of various chairs and davenports.
Ted Sr.’s son, Ted Jr., then began his almost 50 years as public
address announcer for the Beavers.
I was associated with sports
as an undergraduate at the university by holding down the titles of
sports editor of both the student newspaper and yearbook.
At the
same time, Ted Jr. was becoming well known for his work as Beaver
sports announcing. So Johnny Eggers, the OSU sports information
director for many years, confused the issue by asking if I would handle
the statistical play-by-play work that would go to all sports writers
covering the Beavers in both basketball and football. That meant that I
would sit a few seats away from the other Ted Carlson at Gill Coliseum
and at the football stadium. This all led to mass identity confusion.
My other career as editor of The Oregon Stater alumni magazine and as
assistant alumni director did little to reduce the capacity for name
confusion over the years.
I can’t count the times when I was
introduced to someone who would say: “Oh, Ted Carlson, Voice of the
Beavers.” The last time it happened was in October at the WSU football
game. Beaver rooters wanted a photo of themselves with the Voice of the
Beavers. They got me instead.
I eventually joined the OSU
journalism department. It didn’t help the name confusion when I would
teach sports journalism classes to many students, some of them Beaver
athletes.
And how about this for name confusion? One time I was
to be a pall bearer at a friend’s funeral but Ted Carlson Sr. was asked
instead by a local mortuary.
He graciously responded in my
place. Another time we found an extra $1,000 in our bank account that
eventually found its way to the correct Ted Carlson Sr. account.
I
should have known better but we named our eldest son Ted Carlson. He
turned out to be a recognized tennis pro at Sun River for many years.
Announcer Ted and I would often share experiences and amused
recollections of the name confusion over the years. I’m sorry to know
that he’s gone now. He made me a lot more well known even though I
never could figure out how anyone could confuse his resonant tone for
my creaky voice.
Credit to Romenesko for finding this one.
