Tait, NBA Announcer and MC Alumnus, To Speak at College

Release Date: February 5, 2002

Joe Tait, the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and a 1959 Monmouth College graduate, will speak about his career in broadcasting on Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. in the Monmouth College Auditorium.

Entitled “From MC to the NBA in 25 Easy Steps,” the program, which is part of the Monmouth College Alumni Lecture Series, is free and open to the public.

Tait began his radio career while a student at Monmouth College, doing play-by-play on the college radio station and sports reports on WRAM. He taught sports-casting at Ohio University from 1966-1968, becoming the network voice of Indiana University football and pre-game host of Indiana Pacers basketball in 1969. The following year, Tait began his longtime association with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 1987, he was named vice president of broadcast services, a job that he continues today.

Tait’s numerous awards include Sportscaster of the Year in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1991, 1996, and 1999. He was inducted into the Monmouth College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991, to the Media Hall of Fame by the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio in 1992, to the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1992 and to the Cleveland Sports Legends Hall of Fame in 2001. The Broadcasters Hall of Fame also gave the C.S. Williams Founders Awards for long and meritorious service in broadcasting to Tait in 1996.