Today’s sports fans probably wouldn’t recognize the names and station call letters that were fixtures during Bob Rubin’s era of covering sports in Colorado.
But listening to his recollections can serve a double purpose. Newcomers to the area can learn about the past. For the old-timers, Rubin’s refresher course can sharpen distant memories.
Rubin’s circle of contemporaries included men such as Bill Reed, the longtime voice of the Denver Bears; Starr Yelland and John Henry, who were the voices of University of Colorado football on competing stations; and Fred Leo, the play-by-play voice on one of the first telecasts of a Uni- versity of Denver football game before the school dropped the sport after the 1960 season.
“It was an enjoyable time for me,” Rubin said, looking back to a simpler time. “When I started (broadcasting), the only pro team we had was the Denver Bears and they were minor-league baseball. The people I worked with knew the sport, and they knew the people. They weren’t there just to hear themselves talk.”
Of all the men that Rubin remembers,Bob Martin, the iconic voice of the Broncos, has a place at the top of the list.
“Nobody was up to Bob Martin,” Rubin said. “He was head and shoulders above everybody else. He sat down in front of the microphone and just described the game. There wasn’t anything fancy, but he was very accurate.”
If Rubin had a trophy case, the centerpiece would be a span in 1968 when he sat in the play-by-play chair as a pinch hitter for Martin on the Broncos network.
“Bob was in an auto accident and had to miss three games,” Rubin said. “I already had a seat in the booth, so they just moved me over. I did games from Boston and Houston and a home game.”
Martin and Rubin met in 1954 when they were on the staff at station KMYR. Martin was fresh in town from Illinois, and Rubin was a local guy trying to make good.
“We just clicked,” Rubin said. “He was a good friend from the very start.”
Martin was the sports director at KOA radio until he died in 1990.
Rubin got his start in radio doing football, basketball and hockey games for the University of Denver’s campus station. The DU coaches at that time were John Roning in football, Murray Armstrong in hockey and Hoyt Brawner in basketball.
“I became good friends with Murray Armstrong,” Rubin said. “Ironically, one of my first assignments when I was hired by KOA radio in 1970 was covering the tearing down of DU’s football stadium.”
Over the course of his career, Rubin initially teamed with Martin doing high school games. Rubin and Leo teamed on coverage of the national AAU basketball tournament that for years was a sports fixture in Denver. But Rubin’s favorite assignment was doing radio for the Denver Rockets in the ABA.
“Basketball is interesting because one or two players can make a big difference in a team,” Rubin said. “Larry Brown still was a player when I first was involved.”
Rubin tells the story of being in the booth at a CU game when disaster almost struck in the somewhat strained association between Henry and Yelland. Line installers had mixed the feeds, putting Yelland on KOA and Henry on KLZ. The mistake was caught before either went on the air.
Rubin is retired and living in Denver. He occasionally attends a Rockies baseball game.
“Our sports have become a much bigger business than before,” Rubin said. “I think the feeling between the media and the players and coaches was a little more intimate than now. The fans probably have become more interested in the participants than the performance.”
Rubin bio
Born: Aug. 24, 1933, in Denver
High school: Denver East
Colleges: University of Colorado, University of Denver
Family: Wife Merle, son Michael, daughter Lori
Hobbies: Photography, cooking
Would like to see: All area sports teams win championships
