By Emily W. Jensen

The basketball leaves the player's hands, goes up and then falls into the hoop.

Boring.

Welcome to the art of naming the act of scoring a basket. Most sportswriters and sports announcers have grappled with their brain, trying to find some way of making their words as exciting as the actual scoring. And in the midst of this March Madness, as the NCAA Division I basketball championships are decided this weekend,, there is hope for the basketball score.

Former radio sports announcer Paul Coburn of Salt Lake City has 83 ways to describe "basketball = in hoop."

After collecting many from other sportscasters and making up some of his own, he wrote a book, The Sports Description Handbook for Sportscasters and Sports Writers. Besides basketball scoring, he also gives 41 ways to describe passing and receiving the football, 40 ways to tackle, 40 descriptions of a baseball pitcher's delivery and 47 ways to colorfully describe the batter's motion. Coburn recounts his sports announcing background, and his days as the first radio announcer in Cache Valley, in a self-published book, Music, Music, Music!! 60 Years of Broadcasting.

An alumnus of Utah State Univeristy, Coburn was the first announcer on Logan's first radio station, KVNU when it opened in 1938. He gave the play-by-play for both the Aggie football and the Aggie basketball teams and fed this information to Salt Lake City.

"[Radio announcing] seemed intriguing to me," Coburn said in an interview. "Before the game you go and chase teams, watch players, and memorize their numbers. It's a lot of fun."

Coburn later became a disc jockey in first Salt Lake City, then in Pocatello, Idaho, and then went to Seattle, Wash.

"I wanted bigger markets then KVNU," said Coburn.

So what if one wants to name the grand moment for the scoring team of when the basket drops into the hoop?

Some of Coburn's ideas may help. They could say the player "caged a toss," "flicked it through" "flipped it in," or "hit the target." Or perhaps with a little eloquence and a couple of exclamation points, a winning basket could be described that the player "speared the net" with the basketball and the team can now celebrate as being the NCAA champions.

"I don't have any favorites," said Coburn about basketball terms. If all creativity fails, "just say 'He scored,'" he said.

MS
MS

September 1998
October 1998
November 1998
December 1998
January 1999
February 1999
March 1999
April 1999
September 1999
October 1999
November 1999
December 1999
January 2000
February 2000
March 2000