Joe Tait Remembered for His Decades in Alliance

ALLIANCE, Ohio (News Talk 1480 WHBC) – The late Joe Tait is being remembered at the University of Mount Union, where he spent 30 years in the TV broadcast booth.

Though retiring from the Cavs in 2011, he remained with the Purple Raiders through 2015.

Tait was a member of the school’s Board of Trustees for a time.

The television booth at Mount Union Stadium was renamed the Joe Tait Broadcast Booth.

Here’s the release from Mount Union:

The University of Mount Union and the athletic department mourn the loss of long-time football television voice, broadcast hall of famer and friend Joe Tait.

Tait, 83, who passed away March 10 after a lengthy illness, began his relationship with the Purple Raiders in 1985 when then Director of Public Information Harry Paidas asked him to join him for a television broadcast of a Mount Union football game.

That began a 30-year run of Tait doing numerous Mount Union football games both home and away which also coincided with the Raiders first Ohio Athletic Conference title in 1985 and a run of 27 conference titles and 12 national championships until Tait retired from the booth in 2015.

In 2012, the OAC honored Tait with the Bill Nichols Award for service to the conference and in 2015 Mount Union renamed the television booth at Mount Union Stadium the Joe Tait Broadcast Booth.

Tait also gave of his time to Mount Union teaching classes and was a member of the Board of Trustees.

“Joe’s value to Mount Union is immeasurable,” Paidas said. “He was professional in every sense of the word and Mount Union has lost a friend in Joe Tait but the memories he provided are everlasting.”

“To say it was a privilege to know and work with Joe is the greatest understatement of my life,” commented Dean Marini, who has directed all of Mount Union’s television broadcasts since 1985.

Tait joined the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers as the radio play-by-play voice in their inaugural season in 1970 and did games for 39 seasons. His name is honored with Cavalier legends in the rafters of Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and in 2010 he was given the Curt Gowdy Award by the National Basketball Hall of Fame. He also did Cleveland Indians play-by-play for 17 seasons and was behind the microphone for Lenny Barker’s perfect game in 1981.

Tait’s affinity for Mount Union was rooted in his early days as a broadcaster as a college student at fellow NCAA Division III member Monmouth (Ill.) College. He also called games at another NCAA Division III school — Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology early in his career as a radio dee-jay in Terre Haute, Indiana.

All of us Mount Union including our alumni and former student-athletes who he called action for share in thoughts and prayers to the Tait family and we share in the memories that his calls and impact will live on forever.