Ty Tyson

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Ty Tyson
Tyson in 1930
Born	Edwin Lloyd Tyson (1888-05-11)May 11, 1888 Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	December 12, 1968(1968-12-12) (aged 80) Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, U.S.
Education	Pennsylvania State University
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1922–1953

Edwin Lloyd "Ty" Tyson (May 11, 1888 – December 12, 1968) was an American sports broadcaster and

announcer.

Early life

Tyson was born in

, including eleven months of that time overseas.

Fred Waring, meanwhile, formed his famous band, the Pennsylvanians, and began touring the country. After playing at the University of Michigan in 1922, Waring was invited to perform on radio station WWJ in Detroit, then just a few months old. Bill Holiday, the station's manager and its first radio announcer, was looking for someone to replace him. Waring suggested Tyson, and Holiday immediately telegraphed a job offer, which Tyson accepted.

Radio career

Tyson handled announcing chores for various events at WWJ, including broadcasting the

of live sports broadcasts for the station.

On October 25, 1924, Tyson broadcast the first University of Michigan football game aired on the radio. Fielding H. Yost had given WWJ permission to broadcast the game against Wisconsin only because the game had been sold out. He was afraid broadcasting would hurt sales, but before the next home game Michigan was inundated with ticket requests. Sensing a good thing, Yost agreed to more broadcasts.

On April 19, 1927, Tyson called his first

) for WWJ.

Tyson continued broadcasting Tigers games on WWJ through 1942; the next year, the team granted exclusive broadcast rights to rival station WXYZ, with Harry Heilmann announcing. For the previous eight years, the Tigers had employed an unusual arrangement for their broadcasts, with Tyson broadcasting to metro Detroit while Heilmann's broadcasts anchored a network that stretched across Michigan. Tyson returned to call the Tigers' television broadcasts in 1947, and shifted back to radio in 1951 after Heilmann developed lung cancer. In 1948, founded the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association (now the Detroit Sports Media Association) in response to what he considered to be "second-class treatment" toward the broadcasters (by the baseball writers) in the Briggs Stadium pressbox in Detroit, also serving as the organization's first president.

Tyson also called Detroit Lions radio for one season (1951), and broadcast the Gold Cup powerboat races, boxing, and other sporting events in Detroit. He retired from broadcasting in 1953. On Father's Day in 1965, Tyson was invited by the Tigers' then-current radio announcer, Ernie Harwell, to return to the booth as a guest commentator. In 2000, the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association established an annual Ty Tyson Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting. Among its recipients are former Tigers announcers Ernie Harwell, Ray Lane, Paul Carey, Frank Beckmann, Josh Lewin, Mario Impemba, Matt Shepherd and current announcer Dan Dickerson.

Tyson died December 12, 1968, at Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pointe Farms, from an arterial ailment. He was 80 years old. He has been nominated on several occasions posthumously for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's Ford C. Frick Award and is yet to be named.

See also

• Detroit Tigers/Broadcasters

External links

• Bohn, Matt. "'Good Afternoon, Boys and Girls': The 1935 Tigers on the Radio". SABR.org.
• Detroit News article
• Tyson announcing a game September 20, 1934 NY Yankees Vs Detroit Tigers
• Michigan Sports Hall of Fame