Colorado University Athletics
Larry Zimmer To Return For Final Season In 2015
July 02, 2015 | Football
BOULDER — Larry Zimmer, the voice of University of Colorado football who has spanned five decades with the program, announced Thursday that he will return for his 42nd and final season working on the school's broadcasts on KOA-Radio.
Zimmer, 79, missed the last six games of the 2014 season after suffering complications from a fall in his home on October 4, the night after he did the commentary for the CU-Oregon State game in Boulder. After he was hospitalized for the better part of five months, he was able to return to his Lookout Mountain home and continues to make what his doctor feels will be a full recovery.
However, he has recovered to the point where he has committed to continue his role as color commentator for CU's six home games this fall, plus the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Denver. He will determine in the near future what, if any, road games he will be able to work.
His final home game will be Friday, Nov. 13 against Southern California, which also happens to be his 80th birthday. When all is said and done, he will have been involved in either play-by-play or commentary duties for 50 football seasons, 42 at Colorado.
“The stars have sort of aligned,” Zimmer said. “Fifty years… I'll be 80 years old, plus coming back from an illness. It sort of makes sense that this is the last year; it had been in the back of my mind that it would have been anyway. I am thrilled to be healthy enough to go back into the booth and do the thing that I love.
“I really want to thank the CU fans for all of their letters, notes and prayers,” he continued. “Without their prayers and their support, I really don't believe I'd be in the position I am today to make a comeback. I'd like to thank each one of them personally if I could. Brigitte (his wife) would bring me a stack a cards and letters every day from friends and fans, and that honestly kept me going. So many people wanted to see me come back, and to be honest, that provided me the extra motivation to get better.”
Almost as synonymous with CU as Ralphie, the school's live buffalo mascot, Zimmer has spent 41 years in the booth at Folsom Field and traveling with the team, broadcasting some of the Buffaloes' greatest moments. He has called 478 football games, including a string of 251 in a row until he fell ill, along with 525 men's basketball contests.
“Zim” has missed only 12 games CU overall; prior to the six due to illness, he had missed three bowls (two due to contracts forbidding teams to originate broadcasts) and three regular season games due to travel conflicts; his 400th at CU was also the 1,000 of his professional career. At their current school, only Bob Robertson, Washington State (535) has called more games than Zim, who is tied for fourth in consecutive years calling major college football (41st) behind Robertson (48), Bill Hillgrove, Pitt (45) and Don Fischer, Indiana (42).
“We are in the planning stages with several ideas, but one thing is certain, we will celebrate Larry's final season in the booth with the proper respect and adulation that the longtime “Voice of the Buffs” deserves,” 850 KOA sports director Mark Johnson said. “Beyond the 2015 season, we are hopeful Larry will transition into special assignments with our CU football broadcasts in 2016 and beyond.”
"CU Buffs fans, myself included, have memories of sitting on the edge of our seats listening to Larry Zimmer describe some of the greatest moments of CU football history,” CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano said. “Larry is a Hall of Fame legend who simply cannot be replaced. He's a valued member of the CU community who has contributed so much to our campus on and off the field. We'll miss Larry's insights on the radio, but we wish him good health and a well-deserved happy retirement."
CU athletic director Rick George called Zimmer, “A CU institution. His voice has been synonymous with our athletic program going back to the days of the Apollo space program. Whether it has been play-by-play or analyst duties on KOA or serving as a master of ceremonies for many of our functions, Larry Zimmer is CU. He is truly a part of our overall athletic history.”
In 2009, he was the recipient of the prestigious Chris Schenkel Award, named in honor the long-time play-by-play man for ABC Sports; it recognizes a sports broadcaster who enjoyed a long and distinguished career broadcasting college football at a single institution. To date, only 20 people have presented with the award.
At the time, Zimmer said of the Schenkel Award, “It is certainly the highlight of my career because it recognizes two of the things that I love the most, and that's broadcasting college football and my association with the University of Colorado through the years and all the people I've met.”
In 1992, he was awarded the Honorary C” for his contribution to Colorado Athletics, and in 2005, he was the recipient of the Forever Buff Award from the Alumni C Club. He is a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the CU Athletic Hall of Fame, the Broadcast Professionals of Colorado Hall of Fame and the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame.
Zimmer got his start broadcasting high school football and basketball games in Columbia, Mo., and Lawton, Okla. (1957-58, 1960-66) while also serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Missouri Tigers baseball team. The following year, he moved to Michigan and began broadcasting for the Wolverine football and basketball teams.
In 1971, he was hired by KOA sports director Bob Martin, when the Denver station both broadcast on radio (850 am) and television (Ch. 4). He was hired to do the play-by-play for CU football and the color commentary for the Denver Broncos. He would spend the next 19 seasons doing the analysis for Bronco games, and then took over for the next seven as play-by-play man following Martin's death. He also had spent time as the voice of the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association and the Colorado Caribous of the North American Soccer League.
One of the major highlights of his broadcasting career took place in 1980, as Zimmer joined the CBS crew that broadcast the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Although he was not in the booth, Zimmer attended the USA-Soviet Union hockey game that would come to be known as the “Miracle on Ice,” where he did phone live reports back to Denver.
But he became best known as the “Voice of the Buffaloes,” calling every game between 1971 and 1981. In 1982, CU strayed away from KOA and signed a three-year deal with a different network, but the Buffs returned to KOA in 1985 and Zimmer was back “home” after spending three years handling the play-by-play chores for Colorado State. After retiring as KOA's sports director in 2004, he shifted into the analyst role on football broadcasts with Johnson assuming the play-by-play duties for both football and basketball.
When including the games he called for Michigan (50) and CSU (34), it raises his total to 562 college games overall.
Born Nov. 13, 1935 in New Orleans, La., Zimmer attended Louisiana State University before transferring to the University of Missouri, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1957. He then served two years on active duty in the United States Army, earning the rank of 1st Lieutenant and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. He is married to the former Brigitte Bastian, is the father of two and grandfather of one.
Zimmer also taught a broadcast class in CU's School of Journalism for 11 years, and along with his wife has funded a scholarship at the college: the Larry & Brigitte Zimmer Sports Announcing Endowed Scholarship.
During his time as the Voice of the Buffaloes, here's what his tenure has endured while he has been a constant at Colorado:
| 64 | CU starting running backs |
| 51 | CU Board of Regents members |
| 45 | Super Bowls (7 with the Broncos) |
| 39 | CU starting quarterbacks |
| 22 | Colorado bowl games |
| 17 | Denver Rocket/Nugget Head Coaches |
| 11 | CU Presidents |
| 11 | Denver Bronco Coaches |
| 9 | CU Head Football Coaches |
| 9 | CU trainers |
| 8 | CU Head Basketball Coaches |
| 8 | U.S. Presidents |
| 7 | Color Commentator partners |
| 7 | Colorado Governors |
| 6 | Colorado Avalanche Coaches |
| 6 | Denver Mayors |
| 5 | CU Athletic Directors (that's 80% of 'em) |
| 5 | Ralphies (yep, every one of 'em) |
| 4 | Sports information directors (or 80% of 'em since 1952) |
| 2 | Arena Football League Franchises |
| 2 | NHL Hockey Franchises |
| 2 | Different Pro Basketball Leagues (ABA, NBA) |
..... The entire CU women's basketball history (41 seasons; 7 coaches)
… meaning 2006 total pregame and postgame shows… 30 years of weekly coaches shows, and, conservatively speaking,over 6,400 hours or 384,000 minutes on the air broadcasting CU sporting events (or the equivalent of talking CU sports, day and night, for almost 38 straight weeks).
