Courtesy Evansville Courier & Press

(November 16, 2009) Stanley Martin David, the man with three first names, left us on Wednesday. A sportscaster with WFIW radio in Fairfield, Ill., for nearly four decades, David was 59 when he died in his Fairfield apartment after a brief illness.

David was best-known for broadcasting the play-by-play action of literally thousands of basketball and football games across Southern Illinois.

He took to the rafters in many Southern Illinois gyms to broadcast basketball action for the Fairfield Mules, Edwards County Lions, Wayne City Indians, Cisne Running Lions and the Grayville Bison. These often rickety broadcast booths will feel empty without his presence.

David is the only broadcaster I ever knew who got kicked out of a basketball game before it even started.

The incident happened in McLeansboro as the Fairfield Mules were about to meet the McLeansboro Foxes. David got snippy with an official and got tossed before the opening tipoff. He spent the evening in his car on the high school parking lot, listening to the game on the radio. The color man did the play-by-play.

In small-town radio, you never know what events you'll be asked to broadcast. It just depends on what the sales staff can sell. Besides sports, David also was known as the official voice of the Wayne and Edwards County Spelling Bees. It often took David twice as long to set up for a bee than the event actually lasted.

He was the only guy I knew that could broadcast the play-by-play action of a high school homecoming parade. With the eloquence of a seasoned professional broadcaster, David's words allowed shut-ins to "see" the parade on the radio. From the gazebo on the courthouse square, he would name off every student on every float and give vivid descriptions of their creations as they rolled past. It may as well have been the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to David.

Every summer, come county fair time, David was the one who set up his remote broadcasting equipment in the livestock barns to interview the Future Farmers of America kids about their prized animals. A kid's prized goat was as important as a third-round playoff game to him. These kids could feel that David was there because he was proud of their accomplishments, not because it was just another live remote broadcast.

He was a creature of habit. You could set your watch by the time he rolled in to work every morning. You knew exactly what time he would open the sports page of the Courier & Press, and when he'd make that second pot of coffee right before the 7:15 news.

Part of his job was to go out periodically to check the temperature and precipitation. It was also an opportunity to smoke a cigarette before returning to the studio to record the official data for the National Weather Service.

David was a proud veteran. He served in the Air Force and drank coffee every morning from an Air Force mug that a recruiter gave him. It was Veterans Day when he died.

At his wake, a recording of David's last football broadcast was played in the background as friends and sports fans throughout the Tri-State filed past his casket.

Though his sports voice has been silenced, his memory will live on through the Stan David Memorial Athletic Scholarship created by his only son, Marty David.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Accelerate Your Sports Broadcasting Career

Meet Employers

Secrets Revealed

Radio Demos, Resumes

TV Demos, Resumes

Sports Broadcasting Books

Sportscastings Jobs

Show Prep Links