‘The Play’ made Joe Starkey famous, but he’ll retire after a lifetime of Cal memories

"Oh, the band is out on the field!" Starkey shrieked, calling it "the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!"

BERKELEY — Joe Starkey, whose radio call of “The Play” in the 1982 Big Game elevated his fame among college football fans, says he got compelling evidence of that 20 years ago while vacationing with his family in Rome.

Starkey, who Thursday morning announced that his 48th season working Cal games this fall will be his last, was poolside at the posh Cavalieri Hotel two decades ago, ready to enjoy a quiet afternoon with a book.

“In five minutes, the entire Rolling Stones band joins me at the pool,” Starkey recalled Thursday.

The late Charlie Watts, drummer for the Stones, sat down next to Starkey and the two began a conversation. Watts asked Starkey to join him in the pool and the two stood in the shallow end, cooling off on a hot August afternoon.

Minutes later, actor Lou Ferrigno, star of the TV program “The Incredible Hulk,” joined them.

“So I’ve got Lou Ferrigno on my left and a Rolling Stone on my right,” Starkey said. “And a guy jumps into the pool at the other end. He looks us over and Charlie says, ‘You know, they’ll bother you everywhere, won’t they.’

“The guy comes up to the three of us and looks us over and says, ‘Aren’t you the Cal football announcer?'”

Starkey, who will turn 81 in October, began calling Cal games for KGO-810 in 1975, when Mike White was the Bears’ coach and their star players included Chuck Muncie, Wesley Walker and Joe Roth.

He has been on been on the mic for 538 of the 545 Cal football contests since he began, calling his 500th Cal game against Oregon on Sept. 29, 2018.

“Nearly 50 years of calling Cal football games . . . just a legend in the Cal community,” said Bears coach Justin Wilcox, who was born the same year Starkey began his run in Berkeley.

“I wasn’t going to bring something like that up . . . that’s a lot of games, a lot of plays, a lot of catch-phrases.”

A favorite for Starkey is “What a bonanza!” which he employs to describe an exciting play by the Bears.

There has never been a more exciting one than the five-lateral kickoff return that Cal pulled to beat Stanford 25-20 back on Nov. 20, 1982.

Forty years later, Starkey’s frenetic on-air description of the play remains an iconic moment in Big Game lore:

“Oh, the band is out on the field!” Starkey shrieked, calling it “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!”

“It’s everywhere. It’s an entrance to conversations,” Starkey said. “I’ve had people talk about it literally all over the world.”

 

Cal will honor Starkey in its final regular-season game against UCLA on Friday, Nov. 25, dubbing it “Joe Starkey Day.”

The Bears’ schedule is highlighted by a Sept. 17 trip to Notre Dame, the first meeting between the schools in 55 years, a trip that has Starkey excited.

“I’m a south-side Irish Catholic from Chicago, so I grew up as a Notre Dame fan,” he said. “That will not be the case this time.”

Starkey began his broadcasting career in 1972 and has done radio or TV play-by-play work for the Oakland Seals, the Golden State Warriors, Colorado Rockies, San Jose Sharks and the USFL’s Oakland Invaders. For 25 years, Starkey served as sports director for KGO.

He is best known for his work with Cal football and the 49ers, for whom he called games from 1987 through 2008, which included reporting the on-field exploits of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young during an era when the team won three of its Super Bowls.

For all of those years, Starkey would wrap up a Cal broadcast on Saturday and catch a flight to somewhere across the country to work a 49ers game on Sunday. With all of the late-night college football kickoffs these days, Starkey admits he wouldn’t be able to take on both assignments.

He said he’s considered for several years when would be the right time to call it quits, and he drew on the philosophy of former 49ers coach Bill Walsh.

“We would always talk about when he would cut guys,” Starkey said. “His main mantra was cut ’em a year early, trade ’em a year early (rather) than a year late.”

Starkey didn’t want to be that guy who stayed too long.

“I’ve had a heck of a run,” he said, “and I may already be the oldest play-by-play guy in the country, for all I know.”