Wednesday, October 17, 2018

WSU Broadcaster Bob Robertson Retires

Bob Robertson
Bob Robertson won’t be behind a microphone for a 590th time Saturday when 25th-ranked Washington State plays host to No. 12 Oregon in a Pac-12 football game at Martin Stadium.

A fixture in the WSU radio booth, the 89-year-old Robertson announced Monday he was retiring, effective immediately, ending a career that spanned 52 years, 10 United States presidents and 10 Cougars head coaches. He described more than 260 WSU football victories.

“I’ve been with the Cougars a lot of years, more than half a century, calling basketball, football for the fans around the Northwest and elsewhere around the country and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Robertson said in a news release distributed by the school. “It’s been great to be with you Cougars at your meetings and get-togethers, and I hope we can do it again and I’m sure we will.”

Circa Mid '70s
According to The Spokesman-Review, Robertson said age influenced the decision to step away from the booth five days before WSU’s game against the Ducks, which coincides with the first visit to Pullman by ESPN’s “College GameDay” show.

“As of this moment, I’ve now asked the athletic department at Washington State University to list me as a retired, former sportscaster for the Cougars,” Robertson said.

A member of the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame and Inland Empire Hall of Fame, Robertson in 2004 was a recipient of the prestigious Chris Schenkel Award. He became the first broadcaster west of the Mississippi River to earn induction into the broadcasters’ division of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He spent three decades calling Pacific Coast League baseball in Seattle and Tacoma. He broadcast multiple forms of pro soccer in the Pacific Northwest. The longtime voice of baseball’s Spokane Indians, Robertson branched out to also broadcast hockey, boxing, wrestling and hydroplane races.
The Fullerton, Calif., native attended Western Washington University, where he started his broadcast career. He married his wife, Joanne, in 1952.

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