Charlotte Knights ticket office at the old Crockett Park circa summer 1988. EZ 104's midday personality Scott Walker on the far left, Me (the redhead with sunglasses) and EZ 104 afternoon drive personality Hunter Herring far right.
After I graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, with a B.S. in Communications in the spring of 1986, I came back to my hometown, Concord, North Carolina, searching for a purpose and what I would do with the rest of my life. I had three interests, well, four, if you count girls. The other three were sports, music, and radio. I knew my life would revolve around one or all of those things from then on, and I was determined to make a living doing one of those things.
I already had good radio, play-by-play, color commentary, and public address experience from college. I was lucky enough to intern for the great Harold Johnson at WSOC -TV 9 in Charlotte in the summer before my last year of school. While at Channel 9, I had the privilege to work with sports greats Brett McMillan and Johnny Humphries, along with Harold, who was a brash and intelligent legend in Carolina broadcasting. I felt well prepared for what I wanted when I graduated in May 1986.
In the spring of '86, I was furiously sending out resumes and demo tapes for nationwide sports, TV, and radio jobs. By mid-June, I had a stack of rejection letters as big as a dictionary on my desk. My mom and dad tried to steer me to something else. My mom was always the practical one and thought I should try a more secure career where I wouldn't face so much rejection and wouldn't have to move all over the country. I was deaf to it all because I was determined.
By the grace of God, Bill Conway, the program director at EZ 104.7 (now Star 104.7) in Charlotte, called me after I sent him a demo tape. He knew I was rough, green, and very inexperienced. But I guess he saw some potential. In those days in the mid-80s, competition for radio jobs was stiff. Thousands of people applied for jobs because everybody wanted to be a radio star. The internet and influencers didn't exist back then. Radio and TV were the local, regional, and national stars, actors, musicians, and sports stars. Bill hired me at EZ 104 in July of 1986. It opened doors for me. Later that summer, because of the radio station job, I met with Francis Crockett at a community event. She said, "Would you like to come work for me? We need some fill-ins for the PA announcer and other odds and ends. I took the gig because I loved baseball, loved the Crocketts, and loved the fact that I'd make a whopping $75 bucks a game.
Francis is the sister of the legendary Jim Crockett Jr., who promoted wrestling and other sports throughout the southeastern USA for many years. Jim and Francis' dad, Jim Crockett Sr., had always wanted to bring professional baseball to Charlotte. Jim had taken over the wrestling events and promotions after his father's death in the early 1970s. In 1976, he branched out and fulfilled his late father's dream, buying out the Double-A affiliate of the Orioles, The Asheville O's. He knew the team would succeed more in North Carolina's biggest city, so he moved them from Asheville to Charlotte into the old Griffith Park in Dilworth. Four years earlier, Charlotte had lost its pro baseball team (ironically the future name of the city's new NBA franchise, which would begin play in 1988 when George Shinn bought an NBA team and moved them to Charlotte); the park had been empty in those four years, and it would be perfect for the Charlotte Os.
With Jim running the wrestling business, it fell to Francis to run the Charlotte O's (short for Orioles), who were the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Professional baseball has three levels before the major leagues. Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A. Jim and Francis renovated Griffin Park and renamed it Jim Crockett Memorial Park. We always called it Crockett Park (for short). I'll never forget the address because most nights I biked to the park from my apartment at the Bluffs on Providence Road to 400 Magnolia Avenue. It was about an eight-mile bike ride from my place, and I sure needed it every night after consuming copious amounts of empty calories from hotdogs, nachos, and sodas with Charlotte Observer reporter Stan Olsen in the press box.
Before my arrival, the ballpark had supposedly been burned down by some enemy of the Crockett family in the spring of 1985. At least, that was the rumor. The Charlotte fire marshall determined it was arson and was a deliberately set fire. It was a major blow. The Crocketts rebuilt a temporary park on the Magnolia Avenue site in a mere 29 days to get ready for the season. But attendance dropped, and by the time I worked for them, the writing was on the wall. At the end of the 1987 season, Francis and Jim sold the team to businessman George Shinn, who drove an NBA franchise to Charlotte a year later. I continued to work for the team when George came in as owner.
George hired former NC State, Los Angeles Rams, and Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Roman Gabriel as the General Manager, and Roman became my boss. Roman was also our Sports Director at EZ 104 FM, so I knew him already. The new stadium was way more prominent than the old ballpark. Crockett Park originally had about 5500 seats, but after the fire destroyed it, the new temporary facility, which had been built at about half a million dollars, would only seat about half that number. Not suitable for business.
Additionally, the temporary facility had no cover for fans. All the seats were exposed to the sun and elements. Those two factors were a significant financial drain and probably the impetus for the Crocketts to sell to Shinn; in 1986 and '87, financial losses mounted because ticket sales were way down. In 1988, we stayed at the old Crockett Park, albeit with some renovations by George Shinn to improve attendance. George Shinn-Charlotte Knights & Charlotte Hornets owner.
I had a blast working on those games. The old park was so homey and felt like a neighborhood park. The games were cordial, and it did not have the big-time feel of the major stadium to come when George Shinn took over the team. Everything we did in the old small park differed from how we operated when we got to the new huge Knights stadium several years later. When I was at the small park, we had sound effects for everything and injected a lot of humor into our announcements and used the sound effects to get some laughs, like glass breaking whenever a foul ball would go behind the pressbox and head toward the parking lot. It was a lot of fun, but not as big time as it later became. It had more of a vaudeville-type atmosphere because we did so much funny stuff. There was a lot of turmoil in my time with the team, and the fire was the main cause of all the problems. When George Shinn bought the team in October of 1987, he decided the team needed a new name. So, he held a contest for a new name. The moniker, The Charlotte Knights, won out over all the other choices. Thus, in December of 1987, the team became known as the Charlotte Knights. We stayed at the old Crockett Park on Magnolia Avenue for one more season because the site where George was going to build a new stadium on Billy Graham Parkway fell through. So, he had to scramble for a new site. Eventually, the new stadium was built in Fort Mill, S.C., and the team began to play there in 1989, albeit in a temporary stadium that had to be erected because they couldn't complete the big one in time for the start of the 1989 season.
The Baltimore Orioles were committed to George's ownership. Still, in 1988, they were unhappy with the condition of the temporary facility on Magnolia Avenue that had been rebuilt after the fire. George told them he was committed to making the team big time and had a vision. And boy, did he ever. He was brilliant. Shinn spent 65K in 1987 alone to make additional renovations to the old site on Magnolia Avenue just so the team could play the 1988 season there.
But by the summer of 1988, I was restless and had a serious girlfriend planning a move to Atlanta. I wanted to break into radio in a big market, and Atlanta was one of the top ten markets. So I began orchestrating a plan to leave Charlotte, EZ 104, the Knights and venture out to new territory. In August of 1988, I decided to make the move(even though there were several months of the baseball season left and we were preparing to build a bigger and better new ballpark in Fort Mill. It would eventually be built and opened in 1989. I turned over my gig to my friend Chris McKee and told GM Roman Gabriel and owner George Shinn I would venture off to a new city to try and find some success in radio.
Thus, I ended my time with the Charlotte Knights/O's and professional baseball. Or so I thought. I ended up coming back to Charlotte only four months later and working for Jack Daniels at WRFX, 99.7 the FOX on the morning show with John Boy, Billy, Randy, and Robert D. Raiford and continued to fill in some music duties at the brand new ballpark in 1989. But by the end of the season, I was frustrated because I couldn't get a better, higher-paying radio gig in Charlotte. The impatience led me to accept a radio job in Nashville, Tennessee, and I moved away from Charlotte again.
While working for the Knights and O's, I met and hung out in the press box with some great folks, like Play-by-Play announcer Pat McConnell, Stan Olsen from the Charlotte Observer, Gary Sparber from WBT, and WCCB TV 18, Brett McMillian and Johnny Humphries from WSOC Channel 9, Charlie Frederick, and Paul Cameron from WBTV, former NC State point guard and National Basketball Champion Terry Gannon(who went on to become a network star for the Golf Channel) and Hannah Storm(who at that time was a green TV reporter for WPCQ (now WCNC) Channel 36) Hannah went on to significant TV network stardom and now is a host and reporter for ESPN. It was a wonderful time, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Hats off to Charlotte's boys of summer. I enjoyed every minute with you. You gave my life a running start and a big home run in the 80s!!
by Dallas Reese Summer 2022
Hannah Storm-ESPN
Terry Gannon-Golf Channel
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