Basketball preview: Twist of fate leads “˜Voice of Bruins’ to job he loves

Chris Roberts, the so-called “Voice of the Bruins,”
grew up in the very same area where his voice echoes throughout
each UCLA football and basketball game.   

“I’m a Southern California guy,” Roberts
said.

During the 1980s, he had tried unsuccessfully to get the
play-by-play job for UCLA football games. But a twist of fate led
him to the job. After leaving KFI in 1992, Roberts went to work at
KMPC.  John Reimenstorr, who had been calling
UCLA games up to that point, died of a heart attack one
month prior to the 1992 season.

As the only person at the radio station with play-by-play
experience, Roberts was given the job calling UCLA football
games.

“So 12 years later, here I am,” Roberts said.

Each week for the past 11 years, Roberts’ dulcet tones
have imparted some of the great moments in UCLA sports, from
John Barnes’ improbable 1992 comeback win over USC, to Tyus
Edney driving coast to coast to beat Missouri and send the Bruins
to their eventual national championship in 1995.

Growing up in the L.A. area, Roberts looked up to the
greats: Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Dick Enberg and Bob
Miller. 

“As far as I’m concerned, they’re the best
that there is in their respective sports,” he said.

The best game Roberts has called in his tenure at
UCLA? 

“That come-from-behind win to beat USC in 1992 was one of
the best.”

Roberts spent his earlier years in Baldwin Park, before going to
Cal Poly Pomona where his broadcasting career officially
began. Victorville, Indio, Pomona and San Bernardino were
the first stops on a journey that eventually landed him in Los
Angeles, with KUTE in 1973, as a play-by-play man during football
and basketball games for UC Riverside and Riverside City. Roberts
even served a stint as a disc jockey for KOST 103.1 from 1981-1992,
working on the Mark and Kim Show. 

The best team he has seen? Without a doubt, the Bruins
basketball team in 1995. “At the end of (the) college
championship series, you were kind of wondering, “˜OK, who are
they going to play next, the Clippers?'”Â 

Along the way, UCLA alumni Cade McNown (“the best college
quarterback I’ve ever seen”), Ed O’Bannon
(“he led that (1995) team on his shoulders”) and Troy
Glaus have made a believer out of Roberts.

As the football season has ended and seasons change, Roberts
moves from the booth to the sideline, switching partners from Matt
Stevens to Don MacLean. But Roberts himself remains unchanged, as
exciting to listen to as ever.

Looking ahead to the UCLA basketball season, the ever-present
voice of the Bruins is very optimistic about the team under new
coach Ben Howland.  “I love the way he runs his
practices, and he concentrates on defense first, and rebounding.
It’s really pretty impressive.”

Regardless of the season or playing surface, Chris Roberts will
be there to deliver the excitement. 
    

“To be with one of the great universities, too, and call
every game live, it’s very, very fun. And the fans have been
absolutely terrific to me, and so have the players,” he
reflects. “It’s a kick, every game’s
different.”

Despite the years of experience he has, Chris Roberts never gets
tired of doing what he loves.

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