Published: October 07, 2008 11:35 pm            

SPORTS BROADCASTING: Jim Slowey and Danny Sheehan are carrying the local torch and running with it.

LOCKPORT — The work they do is strictly volunteer, but Lockport television sports broadcasters Jim Slowey and Danny Sheehan still consider themselves among the richest people living in our community.

Worlds apart in style and personality, Slowey, a 1974 graduate of Williamsville North and Sheehan, a 1976 graduate of DeSales Catholic High School, gel together in the press box like the good sports teams they cover on a weekly basis for Lockport Community Television (LCTV).

Slowey, the emotional, knowledgeable play-by-play man; and Sheehan, the soft spoken, but colorful and witty sidekick, have been broadcasting high school and college sports together on LCTV for the past decade.

“We’re got a great rapport together that we’ve developed over the many years we’ve worked together,” Sheehan said.

“I’ll start to say something and Jim will finish it — or the other way around.” Adds Slowey, “Danny likes to have fun and being a life-long Lockport guy, he knows so many people. Whenever the opportunity comes up, he’ll slip in something about how he was out with the player’s father the night before.”

The fruits of their “hometown” style and commentary is their immense popularity throughout the area, especially among local high school athletes who are showcased prominently on LCTV.

After broadcasting last Saturday’s Lockport Lions “Homecoming” football game against Williamsville North at Max D. Lederer Field, Slowey said he was approached by a parent.

“She said, ‘I just want to tell you that you’ve made such a big difference in my son’s life.’ She told me that seven or eight kids come over to their house to watch the games when they’re rebroadcast,” Slowey said. “I get that all the time. People ask us all the time why we do what we do, especially when they find out we don’t get paid.

“It’s for the kids, of course,” Slowey said. “As long as the kids appreciate what we do, we’ll keep doing it. We did a UB basketball game in which the Bulls won. Their coach, Reggie Witherspoon, told us after the game, ‘That was probably the best game in UB basketball history. If you weren’t here to do the game and it would just be a figment of everyone’s imagination. You’ve given us something to remember it by.’”

Both Slowey and Sheehan said they’ve been inspired over the years by local broadcasters who never forgot their roots.

“Ted Darling was awesome, as is Rick Jeanneret. The first time I had an opportunity to do college hockey, you know you’ll never get to their level, but having an opportunity to do something that not a lot of people ever get a chance to do, it’s really something,” Slowey said.

“Clip Smith was so loved by everyone. His wit — you try and script that sort of stuff, but you can’t.”

Sheehan said he spent time in the press box with Clip Smith as a high school student strictly because of his fear of heights.

“When I was at DeSales, they used to have this press box that was 900 miles in air. Once Clip got up there to do a game, he wouldn’t come down,” Sheehan said.

“Somebody always had to bring him a hot dog, so I would climb the ladder and then I didn’t want to come down because I was scared of heights, so I’d sit up there until they’d throw me out.”

Slowey said fellow broadcasters, like Lockport WLVL Radio’s Norm Palmer, are friends, rather than rivals and have offered him advice on how to do a better job.

“Norm gave me some good advice early on. He said, ‘When you get too excited you tend to do more screaming,’ so I toned it down. I still I try to make it exciting, only I’m not screaming,” Slowey said.

The key to Slowey’s and Sheehan’s joint success is interjecting “fun” into every broadcast.

“We might not get paid, but we sure have a lot of fun and I know that the kids and their families appreciate what we do,” Sheehan said.

“We both love the kids and have seen a lot of great ones over the years. It’s a privilege calling the games. I think I’ll keep doing what I do until they bury me.”

        

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