Rare Radio Interviews with Sports Greats: Babe Ruth Anyone?

It was World War II. At its peak, the U.S. military had more than 16 million troops deployed in Europe, the Pacific and the Mediterranean. Alumnus Joe Hasel ’26 reached those G.I.s most nights, via The Armed Forces Radio Service.

“The Sports Interview” program, sponsored by the Armed Forces of the United Nations, put Hasel at the helm. He interviewed more than 120 of the most famous athletes and managers of the time, such as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Connie Mack.

Broadcasting’s list of historic programming repeatedly notes Hasel’s involvement as a groundbreaking sports announcer. In 1942, he provided commentary for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals for the first World Series game to be transmitted to troops around the world. Hasel was also the first to provide radio coverage of a road game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Brooklyn Dodgers and to announce the first television broadcast of the Cotton Bowl.

The recordings from Hasel’s interview program (which Hasel gifted to Cheshire Academy) capture the rise of professional sports in the United States. An interview with George Herman Ruth Jr. explains how he got his nickname. “I was in the training camp,” in Baltimore, Ruth said. “One of the coaches there said, ’Look at that big babe come in here.’ So the name has stuck to me ever since.”

A contemporary of Ruth, world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey was equally famous in the 1920s. In his interview with the boxer, Hasel asked about the importance of the 10 count. “It’s always best to take nine if possible,” the former champ said. The boxer “jumps up (too soon) with his hands down, and the result is that he is knocked out.”

Hall of Famer Connie Mack noted that the highest paid baseball player from 1892 to 1901 made $2,400 a year. At the time of the interview, Mack had been the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for 60 years. Asked who he thought was the greatest player he’d ever seen, Mack said, “Not many will disagree with me, (it) was Ty Cobb.”

Hasel was able to elicit stories from his guests that could still excite fans today. From Bill Klem, who was Chief of Staff of the National League Umpires, listeners learned that Klem was one of the first to use hand signals in a game. His decision to change how balls and strikes were communicated came down to a simple concern; Klem was losing his voice from yelling out the calls.

Female athletes also appeared on the show. Tennis Hall-of-Fame member Alice Marble talked with Hasel about her favorite tennis club. She said it was Wimbledon, but not just for the famous courts. “It’s great excitement having Queen Mary, who is a sort of patron saint of tennis,” watch the matches. “As a reward for winning, we are presented to her; it was a tremendous thrill for me.”

Hasel’s career in sportscasting began with a bit of luck and good timing. While working as a volunteer in public relations in the early ’30s, he was introduced to the manager of WNYC, one of the first radio stations in New York City. In 1936, Hasel, still as a volunteer, was invited to provide sports commentary for the station, which broadcast on 570 AM. He called Fordham football games, and announced a National Tennis Championship from Forest Hills. When a senior sports announcer was too ill to call an indoor tennis competition, Hasel took his place behind the mic, got a paying job, and remained in the world of sportscasting for at least 50 years.

About the same time, Hasel began doing play-by-play coverage for West Point Military Academy and Columbia University. He became well known and liked at West Point and his relationships there grew important during the war. He was told by colleagues that he was almost certainly going to be drafted, so West Point offered to make Hasel a captain and assign him to a public relations position with the athletic department.

Instead, when he was drafted, the Army requisitioned him to serve with The Armed Forces Radio Service. Pvt. Hasel was in place when some of the biggest news events of the time occurred. He announced the death of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and, fittingly, given his military broadcasting career, Hasel also brought to listeners the news about the WW II victories in Europe and Japan.

Hasel lost his father, who worked for Borden’s Dairy as a milkman, when he was 10 years old. He took odd jobs at the age of 14 and, according to his biography, occasionally went to school on Long Island, where he grew up. After Hasel graduated from the Roxbury School (what Cheshire Academy was then called) he started work in 1929 at the N.Y. & Queens Electric Light and Power Company as a correspondent.

In 1931, he married Kay Ungemach, his coworker at the electric company. That same year, sponsored by her employer, she became a USA Indoor Track & Field Champion who completed a standing long jump of 8.1 feet.

After being discharged from the military in 1945, Hasel returned to broadcasting, this time for the sports department at the ABC network in New York. He began announcing games for the New York Giants football team in 1948, when they still played at the Polo Grounds. About a decade later, Hasel joined two other sportscasters on WNEW, Al DeRogatis and Marty Glickman, who as a trio, broadcast the Giants games from 1961-63 after the team moved their home field to Yankee Stadium.

Former head of school Arthur Sheriff wrote Hasel in 1962 to ask him to be a member of an advisory board, the predecessor of today’s board of trustees. Sheriff said he would contact members “simply to seek advice and hope for occasional visits.” Hasel accepted.

In the mid-90s, Hasel contacted the Academy’s development office about his plan to donate his estate to the school. Brian Otis ’89, took the phone call and a plan for a memorabilia room took shape. Development office manager Barbara Vestergaard P’96 ’02, said she often spoke to Hasel when he called. “You could hear why he was successful in sports broadcasting; he had a distinctive voice. Even at 90 years old, he was very professional.”

Otis visited Hasel at his home on Long Island and was regaled with stories of the former sportscaster’s career. They discussed the transfer of the contents of his will. Much of the famed sportscaster’s memorabilia went on display in 2004 in the newly named Hasel Room in the Humanities Building. There, visitors will find rare copies of sports programs, photos of the sports elite and proof of how Cheshire Academy shaped a future star.

Excerpts of the original recordings by Babe Ruth were featured on NPR's “All Things Considered” radio show, as well as Fox News channel this past February. They are posted currently online at https://cheshireacademy.org.