Pete Taylor

[SCyclone]

The thing I loved about Pete was that he bled Cardinal and Gold.....always.....but he never let that get in the way of being professional on the air. And he made Eric Heft into a decent commentator. As a former on-air person, I always felt Pete was generous while still being a commanding presence. Hard to do.

 

[Remo Gaggi]

It was mid-Oct, 1976 of my sophomore year. My Towers dorm buddies were huddled with me in my room listening to the AM radio feed of the Missouri game Pete was calling. We were losing, 17-14 deep in the 4th Q, but working on a good drive - maybe we could at least squeak out a tie.
I'll never forget Pete's call and the exciting crescendo in his voice as he described how RB Dexter Green, taking a sweep pitch wide right, but turned and threw-back to QB Stanley (or was it Buddy?) that faked out the MizzU D for six and the Cyclones went on win 21-17; with a record of 5-1 ( loss to #3 OU) and were AP-ranked the following Monday.
Pete would never allow his personality to be bigger than the game, but invited you to participate and feel the experience as if you were there.

Also a sophomore in October of 1976, and a Towers Resident (Wilson). And also listened to Pete and Eric (or was it still Dan Grimm?).

 

[casey1973]

One of my favorites even when we losing, "the Cyclones are killing themselves with mistakes"! Went to Hilton for the tribute, what a tearjerker.

 

[Land Shark]

Also a sophomore in October of 1976, and a Towers Resident (Wilson). And also listened to Pete and Eric (or was it still Dan Grimm?).

Dan Grimm up until 1980 or so (I believe). Mike Schwartz took over for a year in 81 and then Eric took over after that. Dan Grimm was outstanding, Mike was young at the time but Pete always set him up well. Eric is Eric. Pete was the best, probably one of the biggest reasons why I am a Cyclone

 

[wxman1]

http://www.cyclonescentral.com/sounds.html

Great to hear but are there any without the music? At least for me it was distracting.

 

[clone1990]

Ugh, seems like yesterday. Time flies!

 

[mctallerton]

Great to hear but are there any without the music? At least for me it was distracting.

I don’t know man, would be great if there were. I found this more than a decade ago and just have it saved.

 

[Beernuts]

I remember when Hoiberg was a freshman, ISU played in an early season tournament. I think ISU made the finals and lost in a very close game. Fred had a great game as a true freshman, and you could hear the excitement and pride in Pete's voice with the comment " these four years with Hoiberg are going to fly by".

A couple years later I played golf with Pete Taylor in a four man ISU tournament by Audubon, Iowa. It was a wonderful afternoon of stories and laughter. I was 23 years old at the time, had no money to give to ISU, but he genuinely acted like there was no other place he would rather be than golfing with us that day. Great memory and great ambassador for ISU!

 

[cyclones500]

Dan Grimm up until 1980 or so (I believe). Mike Schwartz took over for a year in 81 and then Eric took over after that. Dan Grimm was outstanding, Mike was young at the time but Pete always set him up well. Eric is Eric. Pete was the best, probably one of the biggest reasons why I am a Cyclone

First color-man I remember for FB was Schwartz (I think Eric already did it for bball by that point).

 

[Beyerball]

A part of me died when Pete died...my entire childhood was in my room listening to isu fball and b-ball..I’ll never ever forget the Marv Seiler run or the many b-ball calls.

So glad he got to call 2000 elite 8 team and bowl win vs Pitt.

RIP.

 

[VeloClone]

the Cyclones.TV channel on YouTube has some great bits on Pete

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pete+taylor+iowa+state

I love going back and listening to come of the calls of the big games and plays with his call. Pete was a master at painting a picture of what was going on. He could suck you into a game and make you feel like you were sitting right next to him watching the game through all the highs and lows.

The introduction to the series is great to listen to. Those who are too young to remember much should definitely start there.

 

[VeloClone]

 

[MrPeske]

Died on March 5, 2003. A voice silenced to soon. RIP Pete.

my buddy's father in law. I had the opportunity to spend some holiday time at the Taylors. What a great family. RIP Pete we love & miss you and boy would he have loved Matt Campbell & all of the success/culture change in our football program and how the Jack rocks now...

 

[cyclones500]

Even some of his common phrases bring back memories.

"Oh my, what a (fill in the blank)!"

"He could go!!"

A specific favorite line: ... "and stuffs it over Mihm!"

 

[ca4cy]

I remember when Hoiberg was a freshman, ISU played in an early season tournament. I think ISU made the finals and lost in a very close game. Fred had a great game as a true freshman, and you could hear the excitement and pride in Pete's voice with the comment " these four years with Hoiberg are going to fly by".

A couple years later I played golf with Pete Taylor in a four man ISU tournament by Audubon, Iowa. It was a wonderful afternoon of stories and laughter. I was 23 years old at the time, had no money to give to ISU, but he genuinely acted like there was no other place he would rather be than golfing with us that day. Great memory and great ambassador for ISU!

I too got to golf with Pete in one of those outings and you're exactly right. For those few hours he treated you like one of the highest of high rollers. We were a bunch of late 20 somethings and we might as well have been million dollar donors. And man could he tell stories! Just an awesome man. Those are some of my best Cyclone memories of all time. I've got autographs from several coaches and a few players but one great regret of mine is that my dumb ass never asked Pete for his.

JW has done an admirable job of stepping in, but there will never be another Pete. As others have said, part of me really did die the day that he passed away. I've only cried about two "celebrity" deaths. One was Johnny Orr, and the other was Pete Taylor.

 

[madguy30]

The heartbreak in the voice on that missed XP............

Which one?

 

[CyBobby]

Mel Grippen and me agreed that you didnt need to know the score to tell how the cyclones were doing ...you could tell by the tone of Pete Taylor's voice ...One time ISU was playing at Colorado and I tuned in late and Pete said "Oh Brother" and I knew that the game was going bad....

Pete Taylor was one of the greatest cyclones...and I emailed Steve Deace's afternoon radio program the afternoon that Pete Died, the following....The Voice may be Silent but the Legend will never die.

 

[Beernuts]

I too got to golf with Pete in one of those outings and you're exactly right. For those few hours he treated you like one of the highest of high rollers. We were a bunch of late 20 somethings and we might as well have been million dollar donors. And man could he tell stories! Just an awesome man. Those are some of my best Cyclone memories of all time. I've got autographs from several coaches and a few players but one great regret of mine is that my dumb ass never asked Pete for his.

JW has done an admirable job of stepping in, but there will never be another Pete. As others have said, part of me really did die the day that he passed away. I've only cried about two "celebrity" deaths. One was Johnny Orr, and the other was Pete Taylor.

Great thoughts. At the outing in Audubon that day, Pete introduced our brand new basketball coach Tim Floyd and his very pretty wife. Floyd said he heard that "the Hoiberg kid could play a little"

 

[SolarGarlic]

Mel Grippen and me agreed that you didnt need to know the score to tell how the cyclones were doing ...you could tell by the tone of Pete Taylor's voice ...One time ISU was playing at Colorado and I tuned in late and Pete said "Oh Brother" and I knew that the game was going bad....

Pete Taylor was one of the greatest cyclones...and I emailed Steve Deace's afternoon radio program the afternoon that Pete Died, the following....The Voice may be Silent but the Legend will never die.

"Oh brother" always stuck out to me. His tone when he said it kinda encapsulated what it was like to be a Cyclone football fan at the time.

 

[elreh]

OK - may I play the part of the local contrarian and at the same time expunge some personal guilt?

First - I think Pete Taylor was a great and good man and I always enjoyed his passion for ISU. I second all the many accolades that have been typed here....except I did have one issue that arose in the months before he died.

I had been listening to several of the ISU games called by Pete that year. I had been limited in getting to see any games live, or see them on TV, due to where I lived. While Pete always brought a clear voice, great professionalism and attitude to his calls, I became a bit perturbed by the way in which he described the games.

It seemed to me at the time that he was forgetting that we couldn't see the play. His calls were descriptive of "what" happened, but not very descriptive of the layout, flow, and situational aspects of the play.

For instance....one play was called like this:
"Iowa State comes to the line......<quiet>....It's a drop back.....throws....caught...Oh he was hit hard and driven out of bounds!. Tough throw but he got it in there."

The next play then resumed in similar fashion.

From the above example - I was bothered with his frequent play-by-play calls that:
1. Didn't describe the position of the ball on the field
2. Didn't describe the formation
3. Didn't describe the down and distance.
4. Many times didn't say who caught the ball
5. Didn't follow up with a new down and distance for the next play.

This occurred throughout the whole game as I recall.
I could just not visualize the field and the situational information was not very frequently given.

Now the commentator's job is to fill in the blanks and sometimes that was done. And perhaps this was just a couple of games that I heard where Pete was perhaps more economical in his descriptions...I don't know - perhaps I need to go listen to a few back-recordings of his games.

So at that time I sent Pete an email - a friendly one - suggesting that perhaps he could try harder to provide that type of information in his games - I gave him some actual quoted play-by-play examples from a recent game that I had written down to help him understand my views.

He responded with a bit of a push-back email stating that he didn't get what I was saying - that many folks in the industry had for years claimed he was "a pro", etc. and then he suggested that we just need to be good fans and get back to supporting the Cyclones.

So soon after this exchange he died and I always felt bad that I had "complained" to him.

I don't think ill of Pete at all and loved his voice, his passion for ISU, etc. I just wanted more data.

Each play-by-play announcer brings their own style to the show and Pete's just didn't click with me compared to the style of so many other announcers I've heard over the years.

I can't change my email exchange with him today....or take it back....but I can say he exemplified the type of fans that ISU has - despite our ups, and many downs, he stuck with the team with a beautiful enthusiasm. I certainly can't complain about that?

Thanks Pete for all you did.