‍April Salter: Okay. Today, I am absolutely delighted to be welcoming one of the true legends in Florida to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast. As a Seminole fan, I am just so excited to welcome Gene Deckerhoff, who has been the voice of the Florida State Seminole for many, many years, has also been the voice of the Tampa Bay Bucs, and has been there with us through crushing losses, and jubilant victories.

It has been such a joy over the years, Gene, to hear your voice, and to have you lead us through the games, away games, especially, and so, welcome to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, Gene Deckerhoff.

Gene Deckerhoff: Oh, April, it's always great to talk Florida State, Tampa Bay Buccaneers football, and to talk about the great city of Tallahassee, and the free state of Florida. It's great to be in Tallahassee. We're dodging afternoon thundershowers, as we speak, and it's not supposed to rain today, but it's been beastly hot, as you know, and I think it might rain today. I won't have to water my Vandas, if it rains.

April Salter: That's right.

Gene Deckerhoff: I'm praying for rain, if you want to know the truth.

April Salter: Gene, you have had such a distinguished career with ... I guess you grew up in Palatka.

Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah.

April Salter: So, tell us a little bit about what that was like, and your early years in your career.

Gene Deckerhoff: Well, my first life was in Jacksonville, Florida. My second life was in Palatka where I went to junior college, and met my wife-to-be, and 59 years plus later, we're still married, and having a great time. Although, we're slowing down just a tad.But I was raised in Jacksonville. My dad was U.S. Navy, and, obviously, if you're a Navy-

April Salter: My dad was Navy, stationed in Mayport as well.

Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah. If you're a Navy kid, you move around a lot, but I was born in rural Ohio. My father was raised in Mineral Ridge, Ohio, and I lived with my mom, and my grandparents, and my brother and I, we lived in Mineral Ridge for a while. Dad was always stationed here, and stationed there, and then we moved to Guam, spent two years in Guam, and then Dad-

April Salter: We were in Guam as well.

Gene Deckerhoff: ... the Korean War started in April, and Dad's squadron got shipped to Japan, and so they sent us home, and we stayed with my grandparents in Mineral Ridge for a while. Just outside of Warren, Ohio. Then Dad got orders to Whidbey Island in the state of Washington, and my brother and I, we would float on logs that were all over the place, in the water, and had a great time there. Except in the winter, it would snow one day, April, and then the next day, it'd rain. So, you couldn't go sledding after the rain came, and it was the weirdest weather, the Pacific Northwest climate. But my mother was raised in St. Augustine, Florida. She met my dad, who was, at that time, stationed at Green Cove Springs Naval Air Station, which is no longer there, and the sailors would go over on weekend passes to St. Augustine, and my dad met my mother.In 1954, my father received orders to go to Eglin Air Force Base where the Navy had a detachment. They tested all kinds of equipment in that gigantic [inaudible 00:04:32] hangar they call it where they can take the temperature down to 30 below zero, or up to 150 above zero.But we lived there for two years, and then Dad got orders to NAS Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida. My mother put her foot down, and said, "You can play Navy as long as you want to, Anderson, but I'm going to raise our two sons here in Jacksonville." So, from 1956 on, Jacksonville was, and I still consider Jacksonville my hometown, although, I was not born there, but I went to high school there, took up the sport of basketball, scored 32 points in a game, junior college coaches were scouting-

April Salter: Not bad.

Gene Deckerhoff: They were scouting the big fellow on our team, and I got a letter two days later inviting me to come to St. John's River Junior College on a full scholarship-

April Salter: Great.

Gene Deckerhoff: ... and I accepted that, and moved to Palatka my freshman year, and met my wife on Labor Day Weekend, my wife-to-be on Labor Day Weekend 1964, proposed in February of 1965, married June the 21st, 1965, and when I finished in Palatka, I moved to Gainesville where I briefly spent about 18 months on the trimester system getting my BA degree in international relations, and moonlighted a little bit. I had three jobs, and took 21 to 23 hours a semester, trimester-

April Salter: Wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:.. so, I didn't have a lot of play time there, but we had our first son November of '66, and I graduated, finished my final final exam in late November of '66, and we moved to Jacksonville, and I had been in the radio business part-time in Gainesville and Palatka, and took a job with Southern Bell Telephone Company, then General Foods, and we were expecting our third son, I needed to make a little bit more money, so I moonlighted at a radio station, and then I took a full-time job, April, at that radio station, and it's ironic the way God moves in so many different ways.

But it seemed like that part-time radio job in Brandenton try to make extra money, ownership changed at the station, and the owner that bought the station was Bo Mitchell, the late Bo Mitchell, and Bo Mitchell, in addition to making millions of dollars in the oil business, he was also the voice of the Seminoles. So, I became a Seminole working for Bo Mitchell, and we carried Florida State football games on the weekends, on Saturdays, and I would be working Saturdays, and then starting the commercials on the network, and that was my owner, my boss Bo Mitchell.

April Salter: I see.

Gene Deckerhoff:. So, he wanted local sports, local news, and that was his formula for success on local radio, and he wanted play-by-play. I had played basketball, I'd never played football, but I did football and basketball play-by-play, April, for Bo Mitchell and the WTLO in Bradenton, and a consultant heard me, and he became the general manger of WTNT in Tallahassee in 1974, and he offered me a job to come to Tallahassee, and be the voice of the Seminoles. I could do basketball, but I could not do the football games until 1979, but since 1974, golly, that seemed like a long time ago, April, I was young back then. I was young back then. What was I? 29 I guess when we moved to Tallahassee, Florida, but that became a tremendous run at Florida State. Darrel Mudra was my first coach in 1975 when I did the color analyst on the radio network. In January of '76, Bobby Bowden was hired, and I did Coach Bob's pre-game shows, and we used to have an old reel-to-reel recorder kept in a closet in his office. I'd go by the office, and record his pre-game show, and kept my hands in that part of the business. Did the basketball, golly, 48 years of basketball, April, and in 1979 was named the football voice of the Seminoles, and it's been a great run. Coach Bowden was the finest human being I have ever known. I miss him dearly. Golly, we're coming up, what? Three years in August since he passed. Then through Channel 6 interviewing Bobby on his TV show, and then doing his TV show, and then the Seminole boosters hired me to produce, and so, the advertising, buy the satellite time, produce the show-

April Salter: Right.

Gene Deckerhoff:.... and I also served as the talent, and I just happened to be doing USFL football, April, and the funny thing how that happens, Burt Reynolds was a part-owner of the team. He's a rabid Seminole, as we all know. Passed away two years ago at 82. But he was a part-owner, so Vic Prinzi knew he had a job with the USFL Tampa Bay Bandits football team, and I got the play-by-play job, and we would interview Burt when he'd come to the games. He'd be in Hollywood doing movies, or whatever, but when he was in town, we'd always have him on the halftime, and I took the job with Seminole boosters to produce Coach Bob's TV show, and I sent Burt a letter, and said, "Mr. Reynolds, I'm producing Coach Bob's TV show now, and I've got a couple of ideas I'd like to pass on." And it came up with Great Moments of Florida State Football. I think it was 26 years, Burt Reynolds gave up his time to do 13 segments of Great Moments in Florida State Football, and it was a great relationship. Bobby, Burt, and old Gene here, and we had some great times over the years.

We recorded those segments in Jupiter where his home was. A beautiful place right on the waterway. Between his house and then the waterway was Jupiter Island, and there's some pretty fancy homes over there. The first time I think I really saw where you had one entrance, and then you had the service entrance, and these are ... Burt said, "If you think this is a nice house, if you've got some time, drive across over to Jupiter Island," and I did, and holy moly. But the involvement with the Bandits got me ... People had heard me do football games. Obviously, Seminole Network, but also with the Bandits, April, and Mark Champion, who was the voice of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 1989 took a job to do play-by-play at Detroit for the Lions, and the radio station called me, and said, "Hey, Gene. We want to talk to you," and I said, "Well, I've got a job." "We can get you from Florida State, we can get you the Buccaneers game." I said, "Well, I've got to get permission from Coach Bowden. If he says okay, then we'll do it." And so, anyway, long story short, Coach Bowden had spent a whole day doing TV commercials for me in Jacksonville, I told him he'd be home by two, he was not home at four, 4:30, six when I talked to Anne Bowden. At 7 P.M., I called and he was still not home, and while I'm on the phone with Anne Bowden she's worried now. This is before cellphones, and I said, "I'm sure he's okay. They're always slow over there getting those commercials done." Then she said, "Well, I hear somebody in the driveway, Gene. Maybe it's Bobby." Sure enough, it was. He was not in a good mood, which I could understand that. I got him on an airplane at 6 A.M. in the morning, I told him he'd be home by two, and here it is 7:00. He said, "What do you need?" Because I very seldom called him at home. I said, "Well, I've got a chance to do NFL football games on Sunday." He said, "Well, Gene, you've still got to do our games." I said, "Yes, sir. They worked out a schedule where they can fly me here, and fly me there," and he said, "Well, why do you have to ask my permission?" I said, "Well, Coach, we may need to do your TV show at two, or three in the morning, so I can get an airplane or drive to Tampa," and, honestly, as long a day as it was, April, I'll never forget it, Bobby said, "Well, Gene, you just wake my up after the commercials are over, and I'll do that TV show any time you want to do it."

April Salter: Oh my God.

Gene Deckerhoff: So, we had done them as late as 4:00 in the morning, and I'd drive home, change clothes, and go back to the airport, but there's not another coach ... April, not another person, not another coach, high school, college, pro, that would agree to do his TV show at two, or three in the morning, so his radio guy could go do an NFL game. But I'm always indebted to Coach Bobby, and in more ways than just that.

April Salter: Sure.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Number one, I'm a saved born-again Christian, April, the 9th of 2000. Bobby sent me a beautiful note with a lapel cross, and I owe him my life now, and my life in the future. He was a tremendous human being, and forget about the coaching. He was the best of that too, but just a genuine, great human being.

April Salter: Good guy. Absolutely. I think he made all of us very proud to be Seminole.

Gene Deckerhoff: Oh, boy. I get goosebumps talking about Coach Bowden. How about this, April? I worked with Bobby Bowden at Florida State for all those years. He started in '76. 34 years he was our head coach. I did the football play-by-play for 31 of those ... Let's see, 30 of those years that Bobby was the head coach, and then Jimbo came in, and then Coach Taggart, and then Coach Norvell, I did two seasons with Coach Norvell, the COVID season where we broadcast everything remotely from Doak Campbell Stadium. Even the away games, we had to watch the TV monitors, and that was the same thing with the NFL too. We could not go to the other stadiums that year. So, we had to look at a TV monitor, and a NFL game is what they call an all-22, which is a camera way up high that you see all 22 players on the field. That's why they call it the 22, and that was important for our analyst Dave Moore, because he could see the formations, and everything, I'd watch the play-by-play on the TV, and we did the away games from Raymond James Stadium. But, darn it, I worked with Coach Bobby Bowden. Let me tell you another tremendous human being, and that's Tony Dungy, and it just amazes me that I had been able to work with two of the finest human beings that God ever created, Bobby Bowden and Tony Dungy.

April Salter: Tell me a story about something that really stands out for you. I'm sure you have a favorite Bobby Bowden story. That is a wonderful one about how generous he was with his time.

Gene Deckerhoff: No. Bobby never met a stranger. You were either Buddy or Gal, one of the two. He called me Gene-y. I guess I earned a higher position, but everybody was, "Buddy," "Hey, Gal," "Hey, Buddy," but the story ...I always want to say Bobby Bowden is how that got me involved in the NFL. Without Bobby saying yeah, they were going to have to hire somebody else. I was able to do his TV show. Occasionally, we had Scott Atwell, who had worked at Channel 6, and was working with the alumni association, and if I had a late game where I could not come back with the team on an away game, then I would fly directly from that venue to where the Bucs were playing on Sunday, Scott would fill in for me. I think he did that maybe a half-dozen times, maybe a few more times than that but-

Gene Deckerhoff: ... Bobby, he was ... Scott did them when I could not do them.

April Salter: I actually had a chat with Scott this morning.

Gene Deckerhoff: Did you? Tell him hello, if you talk to him again. Is he back in Key West? No, he's a big developer now.

April Salter: He has now moved to Merritt Island.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Merritt Island. Okay. I knew it was somewhere on the east coast.

April Salter: Yes. For the Marine Sanctuary there, but he told me this story that was funny, that maybe you could share the details of, but it was something about your early days in radio when you would phone it in. You would read from the newspaper, and call in your radio broadcast, and maybe you were a smoker at the time.

Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah. Yeah. I was. I stopped in '98. Thank God. That's probably how I reached almost 80, but I stopped in 1998 after my best friend in life, Vic Prinzi died of lung cancer. Yeah. Gulf 104, I used to do the sports show in the morning, and afternoon, at 7:10 in the morning, and 5:20 in the afternoon. They'd have a little minute and a half sports segment, and on the road, when I was traveling, you'd have to grab that newspaper, and look at the baseball scores, and, at least, have that. I would tell the morning announcer who'd go home at four, "Can you give me the late night scores?" Particularly, the Braves scores. I'd do that minute and a half show with a telephone, and, here, at my house, I had a little studio I could do a direct line to the radio station, but, most of the time, it was over the phone.

But, yeah, those were the ... I keep forgetting about that-

April Salter: He mentioned something about something catching on fire.

Gene Deckerhoff: Maybe a newspaper one time. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe.

April Salter: He said it was pretty amazing that your newspaper was on fire, and you continued the broadcast as if nothing had happened.

Gene Deckerhoff: Oh, yeah. Those are stories that you got them in the back of your brain cells, but you really don't ... You mentioned about the great wins, and the horrible losses. I remember losing, but I can't tell you the final scores in those losses, but I, certainly, can tell you about the great wins that the Seminoles have had, and the Buccaneers have had.

Yeah. When I left WCTV, Channel 6 in November of 1983, Scott took my job, my place, and he and Bob Warren did the sports together, and then he was hired by the university communications to put a TV show out every day, and radio shows out every day, and Scott and Tom Brock went to work for Scott, and they worked together there, and then Tom went to the foundation, and Scott became the vice president of the alumni association, and then Scott and his new bride moved onto Tampa State. He moved on to St. Pete to work for his brother in construction, or something, and then he moved back to Tallahassee, and then back to-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I have not talked to him in a while, but I did know that he had ... He was with the Chamber of Commerce down in Key West, and that's his hometown. He grew up in the-

‍April Salter: He and I met. We're both from Key West.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Oh, okay. Well, then you know the story, but now he's in Merritt Island. So, he can watch those SpaceX rockets when they go up. He's got a pretty good view from Merritt Island to watch those things.

‍April Salter: I guess he does.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: There's a lot of those things going up too. I'm reading Elon Musk's biography, and I haven't gotten quite to SpaceX yet, or Tesla, but I just started the book. It's an interesting read so far, and I look forward to finishing it.

But, anyway, if you talk to Scott, please tell him hello.

April Salter: I, certainly, will, and one of the things that he mentioned to me about you, he said, "There's something about Gene. He has so much energy, and when you're with him, he makes you feel like a million bucks. He just has that power." He said, "It's like he's plugged into an electrical outlet." Where does that come from?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: It used to be 220 volts, and it's now down to about 110. No, I do-

‍April Salter: Where do you get that treating people in such a way that they feel so good when you've left?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I was raised well. I had a mother and father, and my dad, he was career Navy, so I didn't ... I played junior high school basketball, high school basketball, started three years in high school, started my freshman year, and then I got married my sophomore year, but my dad saw me play two games.

‍April Salter: Oh, wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: In all that time. My mother came to every game, and my mother was probably the inspiration of me getting into the sports business. She played softball back in the day. When we were on Guam, she played in a ladies league, and I'd go watch her play softball, and I learned how to keep a scorecard. In Jacksonville, we would listen to Cleveland Indians games on the radio, and, at night, you could hear the games, and we kept scorecards, and that's how I learned to keep baseball scorecards, and had an interest in baseball, learned how to read box scores, and my mother taught me how to throw the baseball, and hit the baseball, and that got me into sports. Then when I hurt my arm, when I was 11 ... No. This is when I was 12 and a half, and going into the eighth grade, I couldn't pitch anymore, I took a line drive in the nose, so I was flinching on line drives, and ground balls, so that ended my baseball career, age 13. And I took up this crazy game of basketball that I had never really-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... thought about basketball, and so I started playing basketball in the eighth grade, and it's crazy. The world was looking out for me. My dad, when he came back from a Med cruise, he bought a Vespa motor scooter, and I went all over Jacksonville with a basketball on the foot of that motor scooter, and I don't know how I survived-

‍April Salter: Don't stop for too long.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: But I did, and I would stand up on the back of the motor scooter, and I had this chain net that I'd start up on the back of the scooter, and put that chain up, and play hoops with anybody around, and then when we were through playing, and exhausted, I'd climb back on that scooter, and take that net down, and put it in the little box-

‍April Salter: Oh my goodness.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... and then put that basketball under my right foot, and drive that Vespa motor scooter. I don't know how I made it through that, April, but I did. As a result, the basketball got me even more involved in sports, and in Palatka, Florida, the end of that freshman year, the radio station did our games, and the program director ...I was on the debate team as well at St. John's River. We won a state championship, and finished second place my freshman, won the championship my sophomore year, and the radio announcer came to me, and he said, "Have you ever thought about being [inaudible 00:22:15]? I know you can talk. You're on the debate team," and I said, "I hadn't thought about that," so I had to pass the FCC exam.

I know a buddy and I, we both took the exam, we were in Palatka, we drove down to Tampa, and we took that test on a Saturday morning, and we both passed it. He went to work for another radio station, and I went to work for WPF in Palatka, Florida. That's where I did my first radio broadcast. But it was through basketball, and through sports that-

‍April Salter: Yeah.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Then in Gainesville, they fired the news director, who was the sports announcer, and I had six weeks left to go to finish my degree work, and so I knew basketball, and they said, "Well, we all keep the score book, and the sales manager is going to do the play-by-play after the first quarter." He said, "You know more about this than I do. You do the play-by-play, and I'll keep the scoreboard," and so that was my very first basketball broadcast was at WGG in Gainesville, and that was in 1966, and that was one of three jobs that I had when I paid my own way through college, and paid for a brand-new baby boy I know in November of 1966. He's going to be 58 years old this year. Oh my goodness.

‍April Salter: Wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: But that was my first sports broadcasting, and I had the radio bug. I went legitimate. I went to work for Southern Bell Telephone Company in the management training program, and then I left that, went to General Foods, and moved onto Bradenton with GF, and selling Post Toasties, and I think I had about 85 grocery stores that I serviced between Tampa and Marco Island, and down the ridge, Bartow, Sebring, Lake Mills.But then I thought, "Wait." All of a sudden, we're expecting our third child, and I needed a little extra money, and so I'd go down to the local radio station, knock on the door, and, well, I got a part-time weekend job, about 12 hours a weekend, and at $1.50 an hour, that, certainly, helped pay some of the bills, not many, but my boss at General Foods got wind of me doing radio, and he called me up. He says, "Gene, we think we pay our employees enough money, and do you want to spin those hot waxes, or do you want to sell Post Toasties?"Then I talked to my wife, and we decided, "Let's go full-time in the radio business." That would have been late '71, early '72, and I started doing basketball, and football in 1972 and '73.

‍April Salter: That's one of the things that amazes me about you, Mr. Deckerhoff. It sounds like from the very moment, from the time you were in high school, you just worked so hard, and I can't even imagine what the schedule must be like to cover FSU football, turn around the next day, and cover NFL football. Did you have travel coordinators, and a lot of assistants to help you? That just seems like so much work.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: The two games a weekend, for 33 years, a college game on Saturday, and a pro game on Sunday. Some pro game. Once we started getting into the playoffs under Coach Tony Dungy, we were awarded Monday night games. You had to reach the playoffs back in the day. Now it's changed considerably. For example, this year, the Buccaneers are playing in four, what they call, primetime games, either Sunday night, Thursday night, or Monday night.

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: That made it a little bit easier when you had those primetime games, but for a long time, our franchise was not that good.

‍April Salter: Right. 

‍Gene Deckerhoff: We'd been through almost two handfuls of coaches since I've been doing Tampa Bay. I was spoiled at Florida State. Bobby was here for 34 years. In 2001, September the 11th, and, I swear, April, every time I look at a clock, it seems like every day, I see 9/11, and it just brings back those horrible memories of the terrorist attack in our county. But airline service from Tallahassee ended abruptly. There were no planes coming into Tallahassee at all. They were still flying out of Atlanta, limited, and I happened to be doing TV commercials for a company called Pepco RV Center, Phil Potter was the owner, and those were his initials, Philip Eugene Potter, Pepco.

And I had just done a commercial in a little Class B RV called a Roadtrek. I called Mr. Potter up, and I said, "Mr. Potter, I'm going to have to buy one of those RVs that we just did that commercial in." He says, "Well, I could take care of that for you." He said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" I said, "I've got to do Coach Bowden's talk show on Thursday nights." He says, "When you get home from that TV talk show, that motorhome will be sitting in your driveway." I'll never forget, I got home. It was a Roadtrek 190. It was the second-smallest they made. Anne and I went out on the interstate trying to figure out how to drive that thing, and so that Saturday, we ... This is a Thursday night.That Saturday, Florida State played Wake Forest. It was a 4:00 game, game over at 8:00, by the time, I got home after recording Coach Bowden's Daily Minutes Show, it was nine, 10:00, and then Anne and I, and my youngest son Eric, we drove that Roadtrek to Atlanta, and we drove to the airport. I got maybe two hours of sleep in the RV, and got up and caught a 6:30 flight from Atlanta to Detroit, did the broadcast, and then flew back to Atlanta, and Eric and Anne picked me up, and brought me home. Now the next week, the Bucs had a bye week, and, by the time, the next game came up, airline service was back in business, but we owned an RV. April, for home games, I've been driving an RV from Tallahassee to Tampa, 6:05 A.M., arrive at Tampa 10:30, and do the broadcast, and before my wife retired 14 years ago, we would drive back home, because she had to be at work on Monday morning. So, it was a long day back then. Back in the day, before 9/11, I would take the RV to the airport, and if it was a late game, I'd get off the charter plane for the Seminoles, go out to the RV, change into my Buccaneer outfit, go back into the terminal, and fly to where the Bucs were playing that day. I'd fix a little cup of tea, didn't have a coffee maker at the time, I'd fix a little hot tea, and change clothes, and sit down a little bit, listen to the radio, get some scores, and then walk back into the terminal, and take that 6 A.M. flight to wherever the Bucs were playing. The trips to Europe were tough. They're probably the toughest assignments. The first Buccaneer game in London, the ACC scheduled the Seminoles to play North Carolina on a Thursday night. So, April, I was able to get Friday, I flew to London from Raleigh, North Carolina, and did that game. But, yeah, the next game was a little more complicated. Florida State played a home game against Maryland, and, at halftime, Tom Brock took over, and had a little Cessna jet take me up to Atlanta, then get on the big plane, and fly across the ocean, and got to Wembley Stadium three hours before kickoff. And the third game in London, we played the Carolina Panthers, and it was a different stadium, a lot further away from the airport than Wembley, and I got to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 35 minutes before kickoff. Then Carolina won the toss, deferred, and Jameis threw an interception on the very first play, and that was the beginning of a horrible football game. I think we turned it over five times, Jameis had three interceptions, two fumbles. In that trip, to get to Tottenham Hotspur, Florida State played Clemson at Clemson, and I did the first quarter, had a driver picked me up, and take me to an airport in the parking lot, a little small airport, took a little jet to Atlanta, and then flew all night to get to that game. Those were tough. But maybe the toughest-

‍April Salter: I can imagine that.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: April, maybe the toughest trip of all, we played the Miami Hurricanes here in Tallahassee. I say we, Florida State, the Seminole, we played Miami, that's a big game, and I'm booked to fly to Seattle on an American Airlines flight, and I'm sitting at my dining room table, in the family room, I am, and I'm watching a college football game on TV, and drinking a glass of wine, and, all of a sudden, my phone pops up, and it says, "American Airlines, your flight has been delayed." So, I go online, and instead of leaving at 5:55, or 5:45, something like that, in the morning to get to Seattle, the flight had been moved back to 2:00 in the afternoon, which I can't get to Seattle to do a broadcast, if it's-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: So, my flight was canceled. So, I called my broadcast manager, Jeff Ryan. He's at a dinner. The phone rings, I go to answer the phone, "Hey, Gene," I said, "My flight's canceled." "Oh, let me see what I can work out." He called every limousine service within 100 miles of Tallahassee, could not find a lift ... Because in Miami, everybody had limos. Everybody's out and about, celebrating-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... the football game, and he calls back, and he says, "Gene, I got a Hawaiian Airlines flight at 6 A.M. from Atlanta, but I've got to get you to Atlanta." I said, "No. No. My one son worked today with the police department. He's worn out," because he's a mechanic, but he had duty, football weekend duty. And my other son worked with me on the broadcast, and my third son was out of town. I said, "No, and I'm too tired to drive." I said, "Now I have an Uber account. Let me see what I can do." I went online, Uber, and one fellow said he would come by, and pick me up, and take me to Atlanta. Then he texted back, and canceled. So, I went back, and I said, "Tallahassee to Atlanta Airport," and a fellow responded, and picked me up at 10:30, and drove me to Atlanta. I got to Atlanta, I think it was 2:30, 3:00 in the morning. None of the gates were open. I got to the airport. The Uber ride was $480, and I think I had a $100 bill I tipped. I was reimbursed, by the way. Reimbursed by the Buccaneers, but that's the biggest Uber bill I've ever had, by the way, April, but so I Uber, and I get on that Hawaiian Airlines flight, and I land in Seattle, Washington five hours before kickoff, and spend a little time at the Sky Club going over stats, and notes, and then got another Uber to the stadium, and did the broadcast, and then flew back home. That was maybe the ... I can't say the toughest, but the weirdest trip I think I've had. I missed-

‍April Salter: That one was an adventure.

Gene Deckerhoff: I missed one half of football, Chicago, a beautiful day in October. We had played in Louisville the night before, the Seminoles, so I flew from Louisville, Kentucky to Chicago, plane landed a half hour early, and the driver was there to pick me up, take me to the stadium, and we got stuck in traffic.

It was such a beautiful day, I think half of the Chicago population were downtown, walking around. There was construction everywhere. Trying to make a left turn was impossible, and the traffic lights-

‍April Salter: And you're trying to get to-

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I'm listening to the first quarter on the radio before we got to the stadium. I missed a quarter in that one. That was against Chicago. Then a little earlier in the career, we were playing the Washington Redskins, that's what they were, at the time, now the Commanders, but I was flying another ... It was US Air, at the time, but same thing as American now, but when I got to the airport at 5:30, there was a ladder underneath the plane I was going to fly on, and that was not a good sign. They kept telling us the flight was going to be on schedule, but the Delta fellow came over to me, and said, "Hey, Gene. That plane's not going to fly. I've got three seats on my flight going to Atlanta."So, I took that, and we sat on the tarmac in Atlanta for 45 minutes, and I did not make the flight connection, and I missed the entire first half of that game. I did make it there at halftime, and did the second half. We were winning at halftime, April, but we lost the game. I thought I was going to get fired, but to mention it-

‍April Salter: They'd rather you miss the game than losing.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: The travel is all set ... In fact, I'm no longer going to have to drive to Tampa to football games. Now they're going to fly me. The Buccaneers will fly me to home games. I'll still have to go through Atlanta, but I have been flying ... I have not flown on the team plane, golly, since Derrick Brooks played for us, and that's a long time ago. But I remember Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp, the week of the FSU/Miami game. Sapp would always give me grief, and then Derrick would say, "Hey, I'll take care of Sapp. Don't worry about it."But I have not flown on the team charter for a long, long time, and they're going to fly me now to home. That nine hour round trip started a little wear and tear-

‍April Salter: Sure.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Even though, you've got the RV, you've got the kitchen, you've got the bathroom, and that's important when you get to be my age, but I'm going to catch a plane, and fly up on Saturday, and fly down to Tampa, and then fly back ... There's a flight that gets me home about midnight on Sunday night. So, we're going to see how that works this year, and maybe an option here the following year, which will be the 50th anniversary of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is year 49. Next year is year 50, and I'm crossing my fingers. There's a health clause in that thing. If I'm healthy, April, I'm going to try to do that 50th anniversary year, if I can-

‍April Salter: Wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... and that'll probably be ... I'll be going on 81. I'm crossing my fingers, April, every day, and see if I can continue to do it, but that's the sport. When you mentioned travel, that is hectic travel. There are people that have more hectic travel, but as far weekends go, I don't know many people that-

‍April Salter: Yeah. I don't know many people-

Gene Deckerhoff:I just don't know. I have this love affair with the city of Tallahassee. That's not the right word, but it seems like in 1962, the American Legion, they still do it today, had this thing every year. It's called Boys State.I was invited to attend Boys State, and came to Tallahassee for, as I recall, it was five days, and we stayed in the dormitories, and we ran for political office. I think I was elected to the Senate, tried to get the president of the Senate, I did not get that, and I'll never forget, he's long gone now, but he was a flamboyant politician from Tallahassee, Florida. His name was Mallory Horne-

‍April Salter: Oh, gosh, I know Mallory Horne.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: April, now I'm throwing out names here, and I'm just rambling on, tell me when to stop talking, but at Boys State, I met Mallory Horne-

‍April Salter: Yes.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... and he was dressed to the nines. He had on a beautiful suit, and he had these flashy shoes, and, golly, I'm trying to think of the governor's name, because I met him too-

‍April Salter: Lawton Chiles.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

‍April Salter: Lawton Chiles.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: No. No. This is way before Lawton Chiles. This would have been back in '62.

‍April Salter: Askew.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: No. No. Reubin Askew is one of my all-time favorites, a remarkable man. We were members of Faith Presbyterian Church at the time, and now Emmanuel Baptist Church, but when he was governor, he would come to church on Sunday mornings, had a security fellow with him, a highway patrolman, and he'd sit in the very back pew, and as soon as that prayer, and amen, he was out the door, and getting back to the governor's mansion, but, no, I had several occasions to be around, and be with Governor Askew, and he was a tremendous governor for the state.

Never met Claude Kirk. Haydon Burns was the mayor of Jacksonville when I was growing up, and he became the governor. Remember he had only a two year term-

‍April Salter: Yeah.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... and then, out of nowhere, Claude Kirk is elected. I worked for General Foods, and we had Tang ... This is a great story. The governor of the state of Florida flew up to White Plains, New York to tell the chairman, and the chief operating officer of General Foods, "I don't want you selling that god dang Tang in grocery stores in my state." I forget the CEO, at the time. Everybody called him Tex. I forget his last name. To this day, I remember-

‍April Salter: Why didn't he want that?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I remember the story of them saying, "That governor came up here, and pounded his fist, and told us not to put Tang and Start in his grocery stores in Florida."

‍April Salter: Why?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Because they compete with Citrus.

‍April Salter: Oh.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Tang was the powdered orange juice.

‍April Salter: Yes. I remember Tang. I loved Tang.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: They invented for the space program. Remember? That was one of my products, Tang and Start and Log Cabin Syrup, and Post Toasties, and Post Raisin Brand. The Gaines dog food. That was my product line. You had several divisions. You had the Post division, you had the coffee division, Maxwell House. There were five different divisions. Kool-Aid was another product, that was a separate division, but that's-

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I've been a student of Florida history probably since that trip to Boys State, and meeting Mallory Horne, who was the very first Floridian to be not only the Speaker of the House, but the president of the Senate.

‍April Salter: That's right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: He left a lasting impression.

‍April Salter: …with my governor Lawton Chiles.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah. Well, Lawton, he left the Senate, as I recall, and became the governor, and then Jeb Bush ran against Walking Lawton, and Jeb lost that first round, and then Lawton was term limited, but he passed away before his term was finished.

‍April Salter: That's right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Then Jeb Bush, Governor Bush won the next election, but I follow state politics, and local politics. I majored in international relations. I told my wife when we were dating, that I was going to be a U.S. Senator, "Come along for the ride." I've never run for office, don't plan to, but-

‍April Salter:  Well, Gene, that brings me to something that I find interesting. With sports, there's all kinds of rivalries, and sometimes it can get ugly, but you've always done a really good job of keeping the rivalries positive, being totally for your team, and yet keeping that civil.I think the political world could learn a lot from that. How do we do that?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Well, people are called fans, and it's short for fanatics. Okay? Fans. That's where the word comes from, and fans could be ... They can be boisterous. You wear a Seminoles shirt in Gainesville, you're in trouble. You wear a Seminole shirt in Miami ...I'll never forget, the team bus is going to the old Orange Bowl. We had to go there, and get off the expressway, and we're on the buses, and from six to 70, from six years old to 70, we were getting the one finger every time our bus drove down there. So, they grow up young, flipping that finger. In fact, we did a broadcast in Virginia once, Vic Prinzi and I, and they were playing the Virginia Cavaliers in the old Scott Stadium before they expanded. They put you in a real press box. We were in a box right next to the assistant coaches, and you had glass around you, but the fans are right there in your face.

‍April Salter: Wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: I'll never forget, I'm doing the broadcast, and we'd take a lead, and we'd score another touchdown, and Vic and I are exuberant, our coaches are cheering right next to us, and I think everybody on that side of the stadium turned around, and were flipping the finger. I said on the broadcast, I said, "You know, Vic, I didn't realize there were so many one-fingered Virginians in this state."

No. They're fans, and-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... politics has gotten ... It's nasty, it's bad. I don't like the nasty side of politics. It's at all levels. It's not just at the national level. You see some nasty stuff going on here in the city of Tallahassee. I've not been to a meeting, nor do I plan on going to one, but you read the articles, listen to the commentator, but it's become-

‍April Salter: How do we change that-

‍Gene Deckerhoff:..I can tell you, it was in the early 1800s, Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in a duel. Now that's pretty ugly politics too.

‍April Salter: That's pretty ugly.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: And we didn't have the internet, we didn't have Twitter or tweets, and all that stuff, and Facebook, and all this stuff, so you compound the thing. Was it Andrew Jackson was almost assassinated, and he clubbed a guy with his cane?

In fact, they talked about it at the convention last night. Maybe it was there on Fox. But I remembered the Teddy Roosevelt, the attempted ... I had forgotten it was in Milwaukee, but it was in Milwaukee-

‍April Salter: Wow.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... and he walked out of a hotel to give a speech, and a guy walked right up to him, this is before Secret Service, with a gun, and shot him point-blank in the chest. He had a 15 page, or 20 page speech folded up in his coat pocket, he had his eyeglass case in his shirt pocket. The bullet was slowed down by those two. The bullet was ... And he got up, and he said, "I'm going to go give the speech." He gave the speech, the doctors looked at him, the bullet ... It was more dangerous to take the bullet out than it was to leave it in. So, he lived with that bullet just below his heart for the rest of his life.I had read his biography last year, his auto ... By the way, read biographies, and don't read autobiographies. That's a little tip for folks. The autobiography that Teddy Roosevelt wrote, number one, it was long, but, number two, the language was different back then, but I enjoyed reading about a guy that I always thought was a hero, Teddy Roosevelt. He was running as the Bull Moose candidate, because, remember, when President McKinley was assassinated ... Hey, I don't know, I better talk sports, but history, I'm a big history-

‍April Salter: This is good. People don't necessarily know that about you.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: When President McKinley, who, by the way, was from Niles, Ohio, which is just outside of Warren, and close to Mineral Ridge, so I knew about President McKinley, but Teddy Roosevelt was the vice president, and according to his autobiography, the Republican Party in New York wanted to get him out of the governor's office. So, they talked McKinley into making him his vice president.

And so, who would have known that Teddy Roosevelt, because the president was assassinated, would become president, and when he ran for election the next time, he said, "This is my last term." Then he changed his mind-

‍April Salter: Yeah.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... and he wanted to run again, and the Republican Party ... I think it was Taft that followed, and they said, "No. No. You can't run, because Taft is going to be the next presidential nominee," and so he started the third party, the Bull Moose Party-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: ... and his quote after getting shot at, "It takes more than a bullet to stop a Bull Moose." So, that's the quote. I hate to even mention that in light of the horrific-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... that we just saw, but that was Teddy Roosevelt, and I saw the same thing in Donald Trump.

‍April Salter: Well, Gene, I think I could listen to you talk for many hours, but, unfortunately, we need to wrap up today.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah.

‍April Salter: I just want to thank you so much, not just for the interview today, but for your many years of excitement, and delight that you have given all of the Florida State Seminole faithful, and, of course, the Tampa Bay fans as well.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Well, fire them cannons, touchdown Tampa Bay. Alstott up the gut, touchdown Tampa Bay. How about Florida State? It's caught, caught, caught, Kelvin Benjamin. Noles take the lead with 16 seconds to go.

Those are memories that ... I had to finish with that, April, because that's what I do for a living-

‍April Salter:I just love it.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Every time I see Sapp, he says, "Tino, Tino, give me the call, give me the call." He wants to hear, "Alstott up the gut, touchdown Tampa Bay." Yeah. Great memories, April, great memories.

‍April Salter: Gene, can I ask you one final question? Can I ask you one final question?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Yeah.

‍April Salter: The broadcast industry has changed so much since you began, but there are still a lot of young broadcasters out there who would love to get your advice on their career. What would you say to a young broadcaster who is looking to make their mark in sports broadcasting?

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Three things for young folks, high school folks, even college-aged men and women, three things you have to do, you have to know the English language. Period. You have to use good grammar. You have to be able to write your pre-game show, your pre-game notes. Secondly, math. Math is crucial. Not algebra, I'm not talking about calculus, but just the simple thing, if you get one hit and three at-bats, you're a .333 hitter. Stuff like that. If you made five of 10 three point shots, you're hitting 50%, but you have to be able to do that math quickly in your head. You're not going to have a calculator to work with, or a computer, or an iPhone, or whatever. And the third thing is mind your mom and dad, or as you get older, mind your parents, but also listen to your teachers, and do what they tell you to do. I know it's tough. I had some rough times growing up. That puberty stuff is tough. The testosterone, and all that sort of stuff, and, "I'm the man, I want to do it," but mind your parents, and if you only have one parent, mind them, or her. I guess the fourth thing would be get in front of a mirror, and talk into a microphone as often as you can. I would do baseball games watching television, and calling play-by-play just to myself. I didn't have a recorder, but if you have a recorder, now we all do with the iPhone, you can record yourself. I'll tell you, Joe Zagacki, the voice of the Miami Hurricanes, he grew up with a fellow by the name of Chris Myers, both wanted to be sports announcers, and they would play this old electric football game where you had the football players run around by magnets, and all that stuff, and they would do play-by-play.Chris Myers now does NASCAR, baseball, and football for Fox Sports, and Zagacki does play-by-play for the Miami ... But they started out in their kitchen table playing electronic football games.

‍April Salter: Back 

‍Gene Deckerhoff: And for television, and that's why I say the mirror, get in front of that mirror, and learn how to talk, and see yourself up there, and you got to get the experience. Nowadays, I'll tell you, what has happened to the broadcast business, it's a great industry, but there's a lot of people without jobs, because of automation. A lot of people are concerned about this AI stuff, artificial intelligence, I know very little about that, but I read about it from time to time, but jobs are few and far between.

Nowadays, you don't just knock on the door at a radio station, and say, "I want to get a job," and then go to an audition. I don't know how many ... Okay. Joe's still doing a show, Joe Bull is still doing a show I believe live. You have a morning crew here at WWOD I believe, but a lot of the radio stations carry satellite programming, and it's not local talent. You've got guys that are talking to 500 stations.

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: The opportunity, I guess you have to intern, and, basically, most radio stations don't pay interns. I know Channel 6 paid one intern for the newsroom when I worked at Channel 6, but they would not have an intern not being paid, they would pay-

‍April Salter: Right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff:... but those opportunities are probably long gone. You just have to get your foot in the door, and if you have to do it without getting paid, I don't know how you pay bills, but maybe you still stay at home. That's why do it early, don't do it young. Don't have a mortgage, and decide to get into the radio business.

Know English, the language. Okay? I'm trying to learn Italian, I get about halfway through, and, anyway, I speak English.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: But then the math is this huge and then binding ... Obeying your parents, and obeying the law. Don't do any of this crazy stuff.

‍April Salter: Great advice.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: That's what I tell folks, and I also encourage folks to go to church on Sundays, if not Wednesday nights as well.

‍April Salter: There you go. Well, again, thank you, Gene Deckerhoff. You truly are a legend, and your impact on all Floridians is really felt throughout the state. So, thank you so much.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Thank you. Go Florida. Go Florida State.

‍April Salter: There you go. Go Noles.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: Go Tampa Bay, I love the sunshine.

‍April Salter: That's right.

‍Gene Deckerhoff: The free state of Florida, I love it.