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Best seat in the house: Buffs' announcer a voice from above
Published 10/10/2008 in None : GCHS
By JASON ELMQUIST
Randy Caddell has spent the last 20-plus years as a member of the ministry in Garden City, first as pastor at the First Southern Baptist Church and the last several years as the director of missions for the Western Kansas Baptist Association.
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Brad Nading/Telegram - Garden City's Randy Caddell is in his 20th year as the public address announcer for Buffaloes home football games. Along with working Friday nights at GCHS, Caddell is also a former pastor at First Southern Baptist Church.
On Friday nights in the fall, it is his voice that people hear coming from above -- as the public address announcer for the Garden City High School football team.
"I worked two years on the sideline doing the down marker," Caddell said. "I guess they figured that I couldn't count, so they moved me up to the press box. But when I finish this season, I'll have finished 20 years in the booth."
When Caddell and his family first arrived to the area in 1987, Caddell immediately turned to the high school to find a way that he could help the community. After those two years on the sideline, Caddell moved upstairs at Memorial Stadium to announce the 1989 home opener against Ulysses in Dave Meadows' second year as football coach at GCHS.
"I got more comfortable with it after the first or second year and I guess somewhere along the way it got to be routine and habit," Caddell said. "I just keep showing up. I'm like a bad penny. I keep showing up for ball games."
But this year, his job kept him from announcing his 20th Garden City home opener on Sept. 19 against Great Bend.
"I was out of town on business at a missions program in Colorado Springs and couldn't get back in time to be here for the home game. But that's the first home opener I've missed in 20 years," the Buffs' PA announcer said. "I was still hoping I would work it out on Thursday when I called Bill (Weatherly) and said, 'They're not going to turn me loose in time to get back.' And he growled a little and we went on from there. No, he's been real easy to work with."
Weatherly, the athletic director at GCHS, is one person who has had Caddell filling his ear the entire 20 years.
"Randy has been the voice of the Buffaloes over the PA for football ever since I've been here and he just does such a tremendous job," Weatherly said. "He's just one of those great voices you hear over the PA system. The crowd loves him. His new job created some difficulties, but we worked around him. By and large, Randy Caddell is the voice of the Buffaloes and we always want him to do that as long as he's capable of doing it."
When Caddell took the position as director of missions with the Western Kansas Baptist Association, the "Voice of the Buffs" looked to be hanging it up in the press box. But Weatherly's willingness -- and possibly stubbornness -- kept Caddell in front of the microphone.
"I thought about giving it up a few years ago just to give somebody else a chance or whatever because I'd been here for a number of years," Caddell said. "Plus, my new job -- when I left the pastorate to come in at this missionary position -- I knew I would be out of town more than when I was a local pastor and thought that might be a problem. But Bill said, 'Well, we'll find somebody to fill in the days you can't be there if you have to be gone.'"
But there are some days that Caddell says he tries not to miss if possible, such as homecoming and senior night -- two nights that the public address announcer is busy calling out names not just on the field, but along the sidelines.
"Everybody wants their name read correctly. And that's the only thing you have to get used to," said Caddell, who has also announced several wrestling and track and field meets. "You have to have a tough enough hide that if you messed up, just go ahead and admit you messed up because some mother is going to tell you that you messed up. People like you a little better if you just don't butcher their name too bad."
And it's that consistency that Weatherly says not only has him appreciating Caddell's time on the mic, but the fans as well.
"Everybody knows when he's gone," Weatherly said. "That's maybe the biggest compliment to him, that the fans know he's gone and they ask, 'Where was Randy tonight?' So he's got their ear and they're very used to what he does. And what he does, he just provides a vital role that people here just love him for."
What about when the day comes that the question will be answered with a, "He's retired?"
"It will be a change. Hopefully, we'd find someone who has that same quality of voice pitch and emotional control that you need in that position," Weatherly said. "But I don't even want to think about that. OK? And you can tell Randy that too."
The thought doesn't really occur to Caddell nowadays. For the foreseeable future he will continue to take his normal place at the 50-yard line, high above Memorial Stadium, with his pristine PA voice echoing through the speaker system.
"I've enjoyed it," Caddell said. "Didn't plan on ever doing an interview like this and get any credit for it, basically because I enjoy being up there and watching the ball games. I've got the best seat in the house."
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