Veteran Georgia College broadcaster MacLeod reflects on 33-year career

In 1978, broadcaster Scott MacLeod arrived in Milledgeville from his native state of Michigan to begin work at a daytime AM radio station, where his duties included calling Georgia College baseball games. Thirty-three years later, the “Voice of the Bobcats” and award winner has become a staple in Georgia College athletics. MacLeod was inducted into the University’s athletic Hall of Fame in February.

Drake Simons | gcsunade.com

Georgia College sports broadcaster Scott MacLeod moved to Milledgeville in 1978 from Michigan and has been calling Colonial/Bobcat baseball games ever since. He began calling basketball games in 1989. MacLeod is known as “The Voice of the Bobcats.”

“He provides so much to this university. He’s more than just a member of the media,” Weston said. “With all that he knows and how long he’s been around, he’s an integral part of what we try to do here, and whenever I need help with something historical, he’s always there.”

MacLeod said he knew he wanted to be a broadcaster since he was 10.

“I got a chance to visit a local radio station within a couple miles of my home town and it opened my eyes,” MacLeod said. “I knew right then and there, that’s what I wanted to get into.”

In 1973, MacLeod began his career on the radio at a station in Kalamazoo, Mich.

“I was responsible for a four or five minute sportscast each day, and I also did some part time work as a DJ. I thought I was going to be the next big DJ but I grew tired of playing the same songs time after time, day after day,” MacLeod said “The sports angle of it is really nice for me because I enjoy sports. I really enjoy being around the games and players. And I’m able to do a decent job at it, so that’s why I’m still working at it.”

After finishing his degree at Western Michigan University, MacLeod moved down to Milledgeville after the radio station could no longer retain him.

He immediately began broadcasting baseball games for Georgia College and eventually started broadcasting both men’s and women’s basketball games in 1989.

MacLeod’s radio work in Milledgeville goes beyond Georgia College, as he also does football games for Georgia Military College and Baldwin High School. He also broadcasted John Milledge Academy football games for 20 years.

MacLeod’s favorite moments on the job at Georgia College have been when the teams experienced their most success.

MacLeod pointed to the four World Series trips the baseball team has made, two in the NAIA and two in NCAA Div. II, most recently in 1995 and 2010.

“The 1995 team came out of nowhere. I never expected them to get to the championship game, and they wound up making it all the way there,” MacLeod said. “Last year was another great run. I didn’t expect them to do as well as they did, but they had a very experienced team. And the seniors really pushed them to the regional championship.”

Basketball wise, MacLeod recalled the 2000 season in which the men’s team won the NCAA southeast regional and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight in Louisville, Ky.

“Unfortunately they lost the first game there, but it was a great time getting to play in Kentucky,” MacLeod said.  “And this past year with the women’s team and watching Chimere Jordan play was a lot of fun. She really had a phenomenal year.”

Even though MacLeod will be the first one to say that media and coaches should maintain a professional relationship, that hasn’t stopped him from admiring and respecting many of the Georgia College greats.

“You’re not supposed to be friends with them because you’re supposed to have a little separation, but a lot of times, that doesn’t happen when you’re calling the games,” MacLeod said. “You get very close with them for up to six months out of the year.”

MacLeod cited John Carrick, who coached women’s basketball for 27 seasons and longtime baseball coach John Kurtz as two primary coaches he’s enjoyed working with.

“Coach Carrick was really big and kept me coming back for more games and years, and Coach Kurtz was my first long term contact at the school and was a really fine man,” MacLeod said. “Terry Sellers has just been phenomenal. All the coaches here are. That’s the one thing that makes my job much easier, not just the play by play, but the sports end of it when I have to put together a sports cast. I can stop anybody, and they’ll talk to me for a couple minutes. They’re all articulate and willing to talk to me about their programs.”

And MacLeod has made his fair share of friends in the broadcasting booth as well.

“My favorite was Brad Muller because he was with me for years. I think four or five at the station. Then he became the SID here at the school, so we worked together 14 or 15 years,” MacLeod said. “He would do play by play on the women’s game, and I would do color, and then we would switch for men’s. We did baseball together and had so much fun. There were times that the games were secondary to how much fun we were having.”

Currently, MacLeod calls baseball games with Weston and basketball games with senior rhetoric major Chandler Lee, who he has dubbed “the next big announcer.”

“He’s got a potential to really go somewhere, and I hope he does,” MacLeod said. “He works so hard at what he does all the time. He’s very dedicated and professional in his preparation. His on-air work is better and better every year. He’s got a chance to do anything he wants to in this business. He’s got the skills and the talent and the drive to do it.”

Lee said that MacLeod has made a profound impact on him.

“He has taught me so much stuff beyond the business,” Lee said. “He’s taught me to take seriously preparation, how to be professional and how to handle yourself around people. It’s been a blessing to work with him, and he’s really like a second dad to me.”

MacLeod said the best part of his job is broadcasting the games themselves.

“You never know what’s going to happen. You think you’ve seen it all, and something new shows up,” MacLeod said. “After 30-plus years of watching baseball games, there’s always something that shows in a game or surprises you. Or in basketball, some guy rises to the occasion or a girl does who you weren’t expecting to. They come around and surprise you.”

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Apr 2 2011. Filed under Lead stories, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.