DePaul University Athletics
Stellar Broadcaster Swirsky Called the First Game in Rosemont
2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S BASKETBALL
(DePaulBlueDemons.com will be posting feature stories this week that have appeared this season in the men's basketball game programs looking back at great moments in Rosemont. DePaul's final game at Allstate Arena is Saturday, March 4 against Xavier.)
CHICAGO - The date was Dec. 1, 1980. This was the first time DePaul stepped onto the court at what is now Allstate Arena. The Blue Demons were playing Gonzaga, a team led by John Stockton who later became one of the best point guards in NBA history. DePaul was led by All-American Mark Aguirre who would go on to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Pistons in the 1981 NBA Draft.
There was future NBA all-pro power forward Terry Cummings, Clyde Bradshaw, Skip Dillard, Teddy Grubbs and Bernard Randolph. Aguirre, Dillard and Randolph all played together at Westinghouse on the city's West Side. Grubbs was a high school All-American at King and Cummings was a star player at Carver---both on the South Side.
Chuck Swirsky remembers this game like it was yesterday, as he broadcasted the first game in Rosemont.
DePaul won 74-56 and would go on to win 13 in a row for the 1980-81 season. The Blue Demons lost to Old Dominion before winning 14 in a row to finish the regular season. They were ranked No. 1 in the country before losing in one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history in the first round to Saint Joseph's, 49-48.
"That game was really electric," Swirsky said about the Rosemont debut. "DePaul had moved to the big time, and I am talking the big time. When DePaul moved to the Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena), it was almost like an endorsement saying that DePaul has made it and they were no longer a little team tucked away under the L tracks."
"Here we are, DePaul was on fire and in the top 10, having a fantastic season. It was awesome. I remember coach Ray Meyer when we were talking about Gonzaga. And here's this school that no one really knew much about. At that time, DePaul was an independent team and we had to play teams whenever we get could them on our schedule."
The energy inside the arena that helped DePaul knock off Gonzaga is something Swirsky remembers vividly.
"The place was rocking---I mean, it was unbelievable," Swirsky said. "You're looking at a situation where we were it. There was no Michael Jordan in those days and the electricity was off the charts. Everyone knew that because we had reached a pinnacle of great success. We were at a period in our young basketball infancy that we were going to make history.
"DePaul was loaded and it was a statement saying we belong on the big stage and we can prove to everyone that we belong here."
Swirsky started his career after being recruited to come to Chicago in 1979 from Columbus, Ohio. He hosted a nightly sports radio show on WCFL from 7-11 p.m. Monday through Friday. It was a general sports-talk show that served to jumpstart Swirsky's career.
Originally from Seattle, Swirsky had many friends and connections around the country. One of his good friends, Jack Sikma, played collegiately at Illinois Wesleyan before going on to have a stellar career in the NBA with Seattle. One day, when Swirsky told Sikma that he had taken a job in Chicago, Sikma told him about one of his best friends and former teammates who happened to be an assistant coach at DePaul. His name was Jim Molinari.
"Immediately when I came to Chicago, I looked him up," Swirsky said. "We struck up a great relationship in 1979. We later became roommates until he got married. He was an assistant with Joey Meyer, under head coach Ray Meyer. I became thoroughly entrenched with DePaul basketball.
"I would interview Coach Ray all the time. I went to every game. I covered them for WCFL, especially on weekends since I was on the air when they were playing on weeknights. I became extremely close with Joey and Coach Ray and of course Jim Molinari."
In 1981-82, Swirsky moved to WGN. He became part of its broadcast team and covered pre, half, and post-games along with some play by play. He was very much involved with the DePaul program.
In the 1987-88 season, Swirsky became the Blue Demons' full-time, play-by-play announcer. He did this until 1993-94 before switching to calling Michigan games.
"I love sports and I love the passion of communicating," Swirsky said. "Basketball was always my first true love because I love the game. I think it's a great game because I really believe the core and the fiber and the foundation of the sport is always about being unselfish, about teamwork, about sacrifices, and it really should mirror what our lives should be about.
"I gravitated to the sport as a young boy, and the period of time when I covered DePaul and then did the play-by-play was really the renaissance period of the Blue Demons because they were just coming into their own as a power. I ate, lived, and breathed DePaul basketball. To this day, I can still tell you about games, where I was and what I was doing, the games I called and all those things."
Swirsky got to see the beginning of some of basketball's greats on his DePaul broadcasts. He watched guys transition from college to the NBA and some even become Hall of Famers. He says that it was obvious when watching guys like Aguirre and Cummings that they were something special.
"We knew Mark Aguirre based on the 1978-79 season when they went to the Final Four that he was the real deal," Swirsky said. "In 1979-80, we still knew that. And it carried over to his last season in 1980-81. We knew that he was great.
"Terry Cummings, I saw him play in high school and I knew that he was great. I knew Bradshaw was great. The type of recruit that was coming to DePaul had one goal in mind, other than to get an education because that was stressed from day one by DePaul and the athletic department. But the bottom line was that they wanted to play and to have a chance to show their skillset in Chicago with hopes of playing in the NBA.
"It was great because we were on national TV every weekend. And this is before college basketball was being televised 10 games a night. We were on NBC at least 3-4 weekends as the featured game. We were on WGN-TV which was a superstation at the time, and this was a great recruiting tools because all these kids in California or the East would get home from school or basketball practice and there's DePaul basketball on WGN-TV."
Swirsky has a very sharp memory and recalls many other games in DePaul basketball history from his years with the Blue Demon program.
"I remember the 1983-84 season when we played Georgetown in December," Swirsky said. "Georgetown had gone to the national championship game and lost to Jordan and North Carolina in 1982. Patrick Ewing, a 7-foot center for Georgetown, came into DePaul and we beat them on a Saturday night and the place was rocking. I mean absolutely rocking. It was a close game and DePaul won by two and it was unbelievable."
Swirsky also remembers a game at the Horizon in late December of 1980 when DePaul beat Louisville that he describes as "absolutely crazy," when Louisville was ranked in the top 10. Swirsky recalls this game as "one of the craziest I've ever seen."
Along with the fond memories he has from DePaul games and broadcasting, he also has many fond memories of coach Ray Meyer.
He tells an interesting story about his favorite memory of Coach Ray that has nothing to do with basketball.
"Coach Ray, after he retired concluding the 1983-84 season, became a broadcast commentator in 1984-85," Swirsky said. "The greatest thing about Coach Ray is we would have talks in hotels at breakfast and at shoot-around. They had nothing to do with basketball. It was about life, it was about experiences. It was about family. It was about normal routine things that you would never ever believe.
"He and I went to Graceland together. We played Memphis and Coach Ray and I took a tour of Graceland. Now, here we are, him and I are looking at Elvis Presley's mansion and this was a side of Coach Ray that I had never seen. Elvis had his airplane across the street in Graceland. And Coach Ray and I were just standing there talking about Elvis Presley. Coach Ray's world was he is a coach, he goes home, he has dinner with Marge, he goes back, and that is why his nickname was Coach. But man, I loved Coach. That man was sharp and I loved him."
Swirsky has done it all. From WGN to DePaul basketball, to Michigan and then to Toronto to do play-by-play for the Raptors. He now does radio play-by-play for the Chicago Bulls on ESPN 1000.
"The experience of doing play-by-play at DePaul really helped propel my career because I met a lot of people along the way," Swirsky said. "The networking of meeting people was invaluable."
He shared another personal story about how DePaul helped get him to where he is today.
"When DePaul was ranked in the top five for a number of seasons in succession, Dick Enberg, Al McGuire and Billy Packer were all people I got to meet," he said. "Coach Ray would always extend an invite when they would have production meetings. He would say `Chuck, come on, come with me' and I would tell him they wanted to talk to him. But he would always tell me to come listen. And I would go into a room and watch these guys pepper Coach Ray with questions and it really helped a great deal.
"As the years went by and chapters of my life changed from season to season from going to DePaul to Michigan to the Raptors and then to the Bulls, I saw how that experience with calling games for DePaul really helped me---no question about it."
Swirsky was just inducted in the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame on September 7, 2016, an honor that will stick with him forever.
"It is very humbling and my heart is full of gratitude that I am worthy of that," he said. "I don't know if I am worthy of that, but somebody felt that. And I am very thankful and very blessed. I guess it comes from the passion I have for the city of Chicago and for Chicago sports and for what the city has given me--- not necessarily what I have given them. It means that I bow as a servant for the next generation.
"I think life goes full circle. Just like I came into Chicago and didn't know a soul and how God has blessed me, that means in turn, I need to extend that same opportunity for others."
As DePaul finishes their final season at Allstate Arena, Swirsky will treasure the many memories he has from both the program and the arena.
"I am excited because a new horizon is out there for DePaul," he said. "I wish DePaul all the best. I love Jeanne (athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto) and I want DePaul to do so well and turn the page and have success.
"I am excited about their future. And hopefully things turn out where they can recapture some of the magic moments we had."