The Voice of Cougar Football

(PULLMAN, WA.) Broadcasters hold a unique key capable of unlocking a particular area in your imagination you may be unaware of. Their voice and storytelling draws a listener in when the game’s moments are the most intense. They give fans jubilation when a moment goes right, and their emotion and passion comforts them when the moment is lost.

There have been many broadcasters over the years, but none can compare to the legend of Bob Robertson. Cougar fans can’t speak about Cougar football without thinking about Robertson’s distinct raspy voice that has graced their homes for 48 years.

WSU Athletic Director Bill Moos described Robertson’s legacy with three words that echo through the minds of Cougar fans. Cougar football icon. Those three words will stay associated with Robertson as long as football is played at WSU.

“He is a true Cougar football icon,” Moos said. “Not just his length of service but his distinctive voice and style.”

However, for Robertson, it wasn’t always about being a play-by-play broadcaster. It seemed like destiny originally had another plan for Robertson.

“I wanted to play professional baseball,” Robertson said. “My dad had played professional baseball and I was born in Spring Training Camp while he was playing and I grew up planning, my career was going to be professional baseball.”

Robertson was born in Spring Training Camp on March 14, 1929 in Fullerton, California. The opportunity to play professionally came knocking on his door when he signed a professional baseball contract with Portland in the Pacific Coast League, but was instead assigned to their affiliate Salem in the Western International League.

That winter, Robertson was offered a contract to be the sports director and play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Chief baseball team. Robertson now faced a life altering decision: pursue a baseball career, or go on a path to broadcasting.

Fortunately for Cougar fans, he chose to hone his skills as a broadcaster.

“I think luckily I chose the radio job in Wenatchee (WA) and went and became a baseball broadcaster,” Robertson said.

After two years in Wenatchee, he upgraded to the Tacoma market in 1950 where he met his wife Joanne.

The next step for Bob and Joanne came in 1955 when he became the play-by-play voice of Notre Dame football and basketball.

Bob and Joanne enjoyed the Notre Dame job, but the West Coast, particularly the Pacific Northwest, was where they wanted to be.

“Although we liked Notre Dame, we didn’t like the climate in the Mid-West,” Robertson said. “We were both north-westerners so we started looking for a way to come west again.”

The Robertsons spent one year in Fresno, California calling baseball games for the Fresno Cardinals, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Robertson was preparing for the next season when Channel 11 in Seattle heard Robertson on the radio. After hearing Robertson, they knew they had their man and offered him the job with Channel 11, primarily calling games for the Seattle Rainers in Sicks’ Stadium from 1958 into the mid 1960’s until the Pacific Coast League stopped airing games on television.

While calling games for the Seattle Rainers, Robertson met WSU graduate and hall of fame broadcaster Keith Jackson, who called games on the radio side. The two never would’ve imagined the outcome of their careers.

“Not that we’d all wind up like this, but we’ve been friends ever since,” Robertson said.

Then, in 1964, the call came from WSU that ultimately shaped his life and career. He called football games for the Cougars for five years, before his career took an ironic turn.

“KVI where I was doing my radio ended up winning the bid for guess who? The Washington Huskies,” Robertson said. “Now I was faced with do I want to do the ten football games in Pullman, or do I want my full-time job in Seattle… by that time we had a young family so there really wasn’t much choice.”

Fortunately for Cougar fans, the station lost their rights after just three years from 1969-71. Robertson made one last stop and this time it was permanent. Robertson rejoined WSU and has been a mainstay fixture for Cougar fans ever since.

Moos, if not already, is on his way to becoming a Cougar icon himself. However, he’s always cherished his relationship with Robertson that developed while he was just a teenager in 1965.

“I can remember when I was 14, that was a special season for the Cougars; they were called the ‘Cardiac Kids’,” Moos said. “I’d be out raking leaves in our home and listening to him on a transistor radio and then how fate would have it I ended up playing here for the Cougars and he was calling my games and that’s when I really got to kind of know him.”

It doesn’t matter what sport he’s broadcasting, Robertson just loves being a part of the game.

“You enjoy the competitive nature of the activity and you feel like you’re a part of the success of it,” Robertson said. “It’s fun, it’s fun, I love it, I love it and it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer if I get involved with it I just enjoy it.”

Robertson’s diverse skill set can be heard all across the Northwest. He calls baseball games for the Spokane Indians and occasionally the Tacoma Rainers in the summers. Meanwhile, his voice has been heard echoing through the gym for Pacific Lutheran basketball during the winter. But it was back in the 1950’s calling Seattle University basketball that his love and excitement for broadcasting was on full display.

“I did the television play-by-play the night Elgin Baylor scored 60 (points) against Portland University,” Robertson said. “It was such an event that I got a speeding ticket going home because the director of the telecast and I were discussing the thing (game) and we got going too fast and a trooper pulled us over… he starts asking about the game and I go on, I give him a really nice description of the game and the excitement and I finish and he goes ‘wow that must’ve been great, sign here.’”

Robertson claims the unique distinction of becoming the first broadcaster west of the Mississippi River to win the Chris Schenkel Award, enshrining him into the broadcaster’s wing of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Spokane Indians Owner Bobby Brett recalls the first time he spoke with Robertson.

“I returned the call and as soon as his voice said ‘hello’ I put my hand over the phone and I went to Brenda and said ‘it’s the broadcaster’,” Brett said. “His voice was so distinctive, he had such a distinctive voice and Bob was calling me ‘cause he was no longer going to be working with the Triple-A team and was looking to see if he could work for the Indians in the Summer and in five minutes I said we’ll let you do as much as you want, as little as you want, as long as you want to do the games.”

People as accomplished as Robertson often become complacent later in their careers. Letting things slide or not quite putting in the hours upon hours of tireless work that broadcasters go through to prepare. That isn’t the case with Robertson.

“When Bob decides to do something, whether it’s Pac-12 football, which is a big deal, or Triple-A baseball or short-season baseball his engine only goes one direction — 100 percent,” Brett said. “His preparation and the amount of work he puts into it is just amazing to me especially since he belongs to four hall of fames and some they’d say, this guy’s a hall of famer, he’s getting up there in age and he doesn’t work as hard as he used too but that’s the furthest from true because Bob only does things one way and that’s always been amazing to me.”

Robertson has the unique ability to immerse his listeners into the actions of the game.

“’Signal’s called’ that meant to the listeners the play is about to go,” Moos said. “He would describe the formation, down and distance; he’s a pro and his fluctuation in his voice, I mean, he’s the best.”

Of course Robertson’s signature trademark ‘Always be a good sport, be a good sport all ways’ echoes in listeners minds at the end of every Cougar football broadcast, but there’s far more to Robertson than just his outstanding career as a broadcaster.

He is also a family man. Robertson and his wife Joanne had four children, who in turn brought them five grandchildren. For Robertson, there was no better moment then when he asked Joanne to marry him.

“The best compliment I’ve ever had was when my wife said yes,” Robertson said.

It’s appropriate that Robertson is a family man. He has etched his name into more families' homes than he probably realizes. For Cougar fans, it's his voice that links them to their favorite moments, and consoles them in moments of devastation.

Not everyone believed Robertson could be a radio talent. While attending Western Washington University, a teacher asked students what they wanted to do. Robertson said he wanted to do broadcasting on the radio. That received a chuckle from a fellow classmate who thought his raspy voice wouldn’t work well.

“You with that voice, you want to go to radio,” Robertson said. “It goes to prove I think sometimes what you think is the biggest road block turns out to be the thing that helps you the most.”

Nothing could be truer for Robertson. His raspy voice is identified everywhere he goes, and will forever cement his legacy as not just a hall of fame broadcaster, but a true Cougar football icon.