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I miss Bruce Johnson

R

RUPete

Heisman
Feb 5, 2003
26,841
16,113
0
What was that line he always had when visiting St. Bonaventure in Olean, NY? Something about being at the end of the earth! Man, we played in some brutal bandboxes in that league. Olean, St. Joe's Alumni Hall, Temple McGonigle, UMass Curry Hicks Cage - my personal favorite. You know that playing in a cage is generally going to suck.
 
C

ColonelRutgers

All-American
Dec 15, 2003
7,106
9,298
113
He was a pretty good basketball play by play guy with the exception of that horrible "off the rim and in" call which drove me crazy. But, I associate Bruce will a lot of horrendous road losses because I was only listening to him for road games. Not his fault, but can't separate the two. Not a good football play by play guy to me.
 
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H

HeavenUniv.

Heisman
Sep 21, 2004
135,536
16,404
0
Is the newspaper writer Brent Johnson his son? And yes, I know Johnson is about as uncommon as Jones, Smith, Brown.
 
RU#1fan

RU#1fan

Heisman
Mar 7, 2003
23,597
12,308
113
Miss both Bruce Johnson and the Neil Solonz Sports Radio Show on 1450 AM ( many calls from Skip in Elizabeth). Was the best for RU Sports talk.

Bruce on RU Football games on the radio was priceless “ Here we are at the venerable Milah Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia “ .
 
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Rhuarc

All-American
Jul 25, 2001
6,477
7,013
113
I listened to the first half of the second round game and thought it was pretty bad. The color guy in particular made it very difficult to listen to.
 
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S

Sideline20

Senior
Jul 27, 2001
5,434
956
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RU#1fan said:
Miss both Bruce Johnson and the Neil Solonz Sports Radio Show on 1450 AM ( many calls from Skip in Elizabeth). Was the best for RU Sports talk.

Bruce on RU Football games on the radio was priceless “ Here we are at the venerable Milah Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia “ .
Click to expand...

"The wheels are coming off here in Morgantown"
 
bac2therac

bac2therac

Hall of Famer
Jul 30, 2001
247,911
177,590
113
I just found a tape of Bruce calling an unlikely win in Olean rallying from 18 down circa early to mid 90s
 
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hinson32

All-American
Jul 29, 2005
7,766
5,923
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My biggest pet peeve with Bruce was at least twice a game he would say a basketball was made and then two seconds later would come, “the ball comes out “
 
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P

Plum Street

Heisman
Jun 21, 2009
27,306
23,009
0
Bingo !
Lost it, got it back .
a new biggest lead
He was great at basketball letting you know where the ball was and the score. It’s a different time now with all the games on tv. Who listens to the radio broadcast unless you’re driving around ?

schiano got rid of him and he hung around basketball longer. I think hill got rid of him

walk, no call was my favorite .
 
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HPNJRUfan

All-Conference
Mar 6, 2003
11,218
2,693
76
I'd have to look for it on an old computer, but I have an audio file someone posted on this board around 2003:

ACDC's "Thunderstruck" with Bruce Johnson's call of the Nate Jones opening kick TD at Tennessee dubbed into the opening
 
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M

mikeyoc

All-Conference
Apr 19, 2005
1,250
1,238
113
RUPete said:
What was that line he always had when visiting St. Bonaventure in Olean, NY? Something about being at the end of the earth! Man, we played in some brutal bandboxes in that league. Olean, St. Joe's Alumni Hall, Temple McGonigle, UMass Curry Hicks Cage - my personal favorite. You know that playing in a cage is generally going to suck.
Click to expand...
Like it did circa 1976 for all the teams that had to play RU at
The Barn. The very epitome of a bandbox. But it was GREAT
 
R

RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
65,217
44,292
113
ColonelRutgers said:
He was a pretty good basketball play by play guy with the exception of that horrible "off the rim and in" call which drove me crazy. But, I associate Bruce will a lot of horrendous road losses because I was only listening to him for road games. Not his fault, but can't separate the two. Not a good football play by play guy to me.
Click to expand...
Loved Bruce for hoops, but not for football, so no issue with him being replaced in football. However, he was able to paint very accurate word-pictures in basketball, which helped visualize the game. Phrases like, from the line to the lane, the elbow jumper, between the rings, from beyond the arc, etc. were all helpful. And his oddball idiosyncracies were kind of fun too, like newest biggest lead, left to right on your radio dial, Bingo!, and of course, his incredibly detailed descriptions of each team's uniforms (with the white trim and scarlet numerals...).
 
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BKIn118

BKIn118

All-American
Dec 16, 2001
10,511
5,942
113
Jerry and Joe are GREAT!

But since we are talking about Bruce...I was lucky enough to have Bruce Johnson introduce our wedding party as a starting 5 at our reception when Janet and I got married back in 2009. It was a moment I will NEVER forget!
 
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K

Knights 1212

All-American
Sep 9, 2003
27,558
8,494
113
For me Bruce was the best. I won his trivia contest several times. Once I didn't receive what I had won. I called him at WCTC. I was the head cross country coach at Edison High School and he said to me he was speaking at our fall sports banquet the next week. He arrived with a large canvas bag filled with over 10 gifts from WCTC. When I attended the Rutgers-Florida game in Gainesville in November 2007 he came right over and spoke with me before the game started. He was a wonderful guy. I miss him and hope he is doing well.
 
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Night Man

All-Conference
Jan 8, 2006
29,783
3,710
113
I don't think it was FHJ who had him canned, but I don't think he did anything to support Bruce at that time. Not that it was his job to do so, but his word would have probably carried the day.

Some said he was too negative, some were happy to have Carlin take over, I don't give much weight to those peoples' opinions.

I miss his calls a lot. I don't get the sense that he considers himself a part of the RU community, so I think he's going about his business this week without too much sentimentality over the achievement.

I like Recco and Boylan well enough.
 
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DirtyRU

DirtyRU

All-American
Nov 16, 2002
6,514
6,089
113
"Rutgers inbounding the ball. Looking... looking... looking... STILL looking..." 😁

I also remember him ALWAYS describing the color uniforms each team was wearing. "Rutgers, wearing their home white uniforms, with red lettering, red numerals and black & red trim"... or something to that effect. The man really painted a visual for the listener. He was great!!!!
 
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S

Spare130_rivals

All-Conference
Dec 1, 2012
5,959
3,929
0
BKIn118 said:
Jerry and Joe are GREAT!

But since we are talking about Bruce...I was lucky enough to have Bruce Johnson introduce our wedding party as a starting 5 at our reception when Janet and I got married back in 2009. It was a moment I will NEVER forget!
Click to expand...
I agree Jerry and joe are awesome... but for people like me who started following when BJ was announcing, he’s impossible to replace. That was also back when less than half of the games were on TV so most of the away games we’d listen on the radio.
 
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Spare130_rivals

All-Conference
Dec 1, 2012
5,959
3,929
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knight82 said:
KMac wanted someone with connections and didn't think Bruce was "big time" enough. Which I completely disagree with
Click to expand...
Wow so they replaced him with Carlin who, I think is a very good football announcer, but was atrocious at basketball.
 
e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
114,361
53,484
102
HPNJRUfan said:
I'd have to look for it on an old computer, but I have an audio file someone posted on this board around 2003:

ACDC's "Thunderstruck" with Bruce Johnson's call of the Nate Jones opening kick TD at Tennessee dubbed into the opening
Click to expand...
Pretty sure that was Tom McCarthy as I have that same audio file also on computer I need to find too.

And I might have been the one to post it.
 
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L

Loyal_2RU

Heisman
Aug 6, 2001
15,236
11,052
113
Spare130 said:
I agree Jerry and joe are awesome... but for people like me who started following when BJ was announcing, he’s impossible to replace. That was also back when less than half of the games were on TV so most of the away games we’d listen on the radio.
Click to expand...
Sorry, when I listen to the games that seen like nice guys but that are having a conversation and the game and the listeners seem secondary

I can't follow or visualize the games.
 
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