For more than two decades, he was the voice of boxing in the USA.
Partnered with Hall of Fame trainer Gil Clancy, Tim Ryan brought some of the greatest fights in the history of the sport into America?s living rooms. First with CBS, then NBC. The pair, Ryan proudly boasts, called more than 300 championship fights.
Ryan called The ?Fight of the Century?, Ali-Frazier I, from Madison Square Garden, but for New Zealand radio. Fortunately for the young broadcaster, it was picked up by the Armed Forces Network and an audience of American servicemen. With Clancy, he called the infamous ?Fan Man? fight between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield; Mike Tyson and Holyfield in the ?bite fight?; also, Ray Leonard-Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler-Leonard, Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello and the tragedy that was Ray Mancini vs. Duk Koo Kim. It was the last golden age of boxing, and the networks carried the most important fights. Ryan and Clancy brought them to the masses.
Of course Ryan was busy outside the ring, too, during his 52-year, award-winning broadcast career. He was a lead announcer for NFL, NBA and NHL games, college football and basketball, tennis, and perhaps every niche sport you could imagine: Skiing, equestrian, and 10 Olympic Games, summer and winter, to name a few. He was as versatile a sports broadcaster as there ever was.
Boxing, tennis and alpine skiing, in particular, along with those Olympics, afforded Ryan countless opportunities to traverse the globe during his half century on the job, which provided more than enough fodder for Ryan?s book that recently hit the bookstore shelves, On Somebody Else?s Nickel. It?s a compilation of Ryan?s best, funniest and most poignant adventures covering more than 30 sports in 20-plus countries. An easy, fun read full of short stories , including many gems from his life in boxing, On Someone Else?s Nickel can be purchased via Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Ryan, now 77, is retired and living in St. Helena, Calif. He recounted some of his favorite memories of his years in boxing during a recent phone interview.
The Canadian-born broadcaster first came to the United States to attend Notre Dame, where his father, who Ryan described as a ?subway alumnus?, talked him into going, even though it was not on Ryan?s list of schools. As a freshman in 1956 he met then-senior Paul Hornung, who would win the Heisman Trophy that year. Ryan?s goal in befriending Hornung was simply to try to cajole him into signing with the Canadian Football League, of which Ryan?s father, Joe, was an executive. That, of course, didn?t happen, but Ryan and Hornung later became colleagues on NFL broadcasts, though they never worked together.
But it was Ryan and Clancy, who passed away at age 88 in 2011, who became the longest-running show in boxing.
?We were dangerous together,? Ryan said. ?He was an extremely wonderful, special guy and was a very close friend over the years even though he was, I think, 16 years older than I was. We just hit it off, had a great partnership. In fact, we were the longest-running act in sports TV. A lot of people think Madden and Summerall were but Gil and I were actually together for 22 years.?
Legendary promoter Bob Arum was a partner in crime with the boxing broadcast team on many of their international capers. He recalled a story in the book that took place in Grenoble, France. Arum had bet Ryan and Clancy $100 he could make a Carthusian monk talk despite his vow of silence.
?I said, ?come on, vow of silence? Let me go up and exert my charm on these guys. I?ll make them talk to me.? ? Arum said by phone recently. ?We drove up to this big monastery, and I knocked on the door. The monk came to the door and he just wouldn?t talk. I tried everything. I said I?m lost, nothing could make him talk. And they were sitting in the car laughing their asses off.
?But it really took Clancy to make Tim a superstar. He and Clancy were some crazy team. Ryan is a terrific guy, fun guy to be with. He?s very pedantic. He has opinions about everything. And Clancy, and me to a lesser extent, brutalized him. We drove him nuts, making fun of different things. He was easy to pick on.?
Arum loved hanging out with Ryan and Clancy. ?When we socialized ? and we did a lot of socializing ?Ryan was sort of like the uptight, very proper Irishman, and Clancy was like the Long Island, knock-back-a-beer type of Irishman,? Arum said. ?They played off that constantly. Clancy was always all over Ryan, always poking fun at how proper and conservative Ryan was. Clancy was like this devil-may-care, glint-in-the-eye type of Irish guy. I got such a kick out of being with them and watching this unfold.?
