TTU broadcasting icons honored in Hooper Eblen Center

By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information Coordinator

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For more than 30 years their presence within the Tennessee Tech community was undeniable. Three decades worth of storytelling and painting pictures through the air waves as their voices reverberated throughout the Upper Cumberland, bringing thousands up close and personal into the world of Golden Eagle athletics. The pair, which is as synonymous with TTU as the purple and gold itself, now has a new way for their legacy to be honored thanks to the latest addition in the Hooper Eblen Center.

Gene Davidson and Eldon Burgess, voices of the Golden Eagles from 1962-96, will once again have their places cemented within Tech lore as the dynamic duo is celebrated with a newly dedicated plaque in the halls of the Hoop. Donated by Martin and Mike Medley, sons of Luke Medley, founder of the long-standing WHUB radio station that carried Golden Eagle football and basketball games for many, many years, the plaque honors the broadcasting tandem that helped transcend sports radio across middle Tennessee for over three decades.

"They made quite a team for Tennessee Tech and Cookeville High sports fans," former station manager of WHUB for over 40 years, Stacey Mott claimed, referencing Davidson and Burgess' long tenure as the voices of the Cookeville High Cavaliers as well. "Gene could sit down for a little bit, make up a chart of the teams, go do the game and correctly call their names, including the opposing players. He had a fantastic ability to do play-by-play, and didn't need much preparation. He could just go out there and do it."

"Eldon was kind of our 'Dizzy Dean,' the 2015 Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame inductee, Mott continued. "He had more personal contact in the sense that he knew everybody and everybody knew him. That goes a long way in this industry. He had a good way about him."

The plaque, which praises the announcing artistry of Davidson and Burgess, displays pictures of both men while also illuminating the historical significance of the esteemed duo. The bottom of the plaque reads "Inducted into the TTU Sports Hall of Fame in 1996," which is still to this day the only time that a pair has been enshrined into the exclusive club together.

"The station was very fortunate to have had these two sportscasters for so many years," remarked Martin Medley, who grew up in the family broadcast business. "Their familiar voices touched many fans throughout the mid-state, first on the AM station, and later on WHUB FM, the 50,000 watt sister station."

Donned with the moniker "Dean of OVC Sportscasters" on the plaque, Davidson provided play-by-play of Golden Eagle football and basketball while Burgess served as both color commentator and engineer throughout the storied tenure that is depicted on the plaque as "One of the longest running partnerships of any sportscasters in Tennessee."

Natives of the region, the pair simply known as the "Gene and Eldon" sportscasting team,  worked their entire career in tandem since 1962 at WHUB and witnessed nearly every Tech football and basketball game for more than a quarter of a century. They traveled with Tech's teams to countless states, Canada and Puerto Rico, and in addition to all of the regular season contests, the duo also called three football bowl games and more than a dozen NCAA, NIT and WNIT basketball tournament games.  

"We are so fortunate that the Medleys made this contribution and are honored to be able to recognize Gene and Eldon in this fashion," TTU Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said in regards to the plaque, which fittingly enough hangs prominently right under the pair's Hall of Fame induction photo. "Their enduring impact to the Tennessee Tech family is unparalleled and we are forever in debt to them and their ability to colorfully bring the Golden Eagles into the homes of thousands for so many years."

Born Nov. 5, 1936, Gene Davidson began working at WHUB while as an undergraduate at Tech in 1957, and upon graduation in 1959, he did tape-delayed broadcasts of Livingston Academy on WLIV radio. He returned to WHUB in 1961, and one year later initiated his long-time association as broadcaster of Tech athletics. Davidson also teamed up with Burgess on broadcasts of Cookeville High School basketball and football games, calling Cavalier action for decades, before the two were enshrined together into the Cookeville Cavalier Football Foundation Hall of Fame in August, 2014. The native of Nameless, Tenn. in Jackson County passed away in 2001.

Born Mar. 10, 1931, Eldon Burgess' sportscasting career began in the late 1950s as engineer for the broadcasts of play-by-play announcer Raymond "Bull" Brown. In addition to his broadcasting duties for Tennessee Tech and Cookeville High, Burgess also spent years as the public address announcer for Cavalier football games. In fact, Cookeville High honored Burgess by naming the press box at Eddie Watson Stadium in his honor. The native of Brush Creek, Tenn. in Smith County passed away in 2014.

Celebrating over 75 years on the air, WHUB became the fourth radio station in middle Tennessee on July 20, 1940. In 1944, CBS Radio agreed to accept WHUB as an affiliate, a position that was normally reserved for stations in major cities at the time. The innovative nature of the station became evident at its roots as many entrepreneurs wanting to bring radio to smaller towns and cities visited WHUB to learn more about starting a station. For many years, WHUB was known for its commitment to local service and for broadcasting classic country and sports, before transitioning into its current format of talk radio.

Owned by the Medley family, WHUB was sold to Paxson Communications in 1996. It eventually came under the ownership of Clear Channel, and in 2008, Jerry Zimmer of Zimmer Broadcasting, took over operations. The Zimmer Broadcasting family of stations continues to be the home of radio broadcasts of the Golden Eagle Sports Network. Tune into 98.5 Kiss FM for Golden Eagle Football and 106.1 The Eagle for TTU Basketball.   

Pictured top right, from left: Martin Medley, Delores Davidson, Carol Burgess and Mike Medley