The Bottom Line

By Don Clegg of The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

MORGANTOWN - Dave Sims has been the voice of Big East football on the Big East Game of the Week telecasts for the past seven years but the two-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster got his first taste of college football at Rine Field on the Bethany College campus. "I played football my freshman year at Bethany,'' smiled the 1975 Bison alum. "I might have led the PAC in kickoff returns that season but that was mostly because we weren't very good. Teams were kicking off to us a lot that season.''

Thanks to Joe Kurey, Beth-any College's vice president of finance, I talked to Dave on the phone earlier last week and got a chance to meet him personally Saturday morning, when I stopped off in the broadcast booth at Mountaineer Field about 90 minutes before kickoff.

While Sims is most familiar to Mountaineer fans for his work with the Big East's football and basketball television packages, he's one of the best - and one of the busiest - play-by-play men in the business.

On Sundays, he handles radio play-by-play duties for Westwood One/CBS Radio's NFL broadcast and then hosts that network's Monday Night pregame show.

He also does college basketball for the same radio network, including the NCAA Tournament, and just tipped off a weekly college basketball show with Jerry Tarkanian - The Shark Tank - that airs on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Dave has called college basketball games for ESPN and ESPN Regional since 1991 and also conducts weekly "Inside the BIg East'' shows for basketball and football.

Think you had a busy week last week?

Check out Sims' itinerary.

"This has been an unusual week,'' he said. "On Sunday, I was at the Meadowlands doing the Jets-Dolphins game for CBS Radio and I was back there again Monday night for the Saints and Giants.

"Tuesday I was back in Philadelphia for a trustees meeting at my old high school and Wednesday I did the "Inside the Big East'' football show.

"Thursday I had a chance to get back to Bethany and get together with some old friends and then Friday we came here for a production meeting with Richie (Rodriguez) and his coordinators.

"This morning, I got up early to review my notes and was at the stadium by 9 a.m. for the noon kickoff.

"After the game, I'm driving up to Pittsburgh and I'll be Heinz Field tomorrow doing the Steelers and Patriots on CBS Radio.''

As is the case with so many broadcasters, Dave got his start in the newspaper business.

He interned in the sports department of the Philadelphia Inquirer for two summers while he was finishing up at Bethany and, upon receiving his degree in mass communications, was hired as a sports writer by the New York Daily News.

He's obviously come a long way since then but he still holds fond memories of his college experience in the Ohio Valley.

"I remember the first time I came out here,'' he said. "I was a big-city kid from Philly and the first thing I thought of was that saying about a place not being the end of the world but you could see it from there.

"Looking back now, though, my four years at Bethany were four of the best years of my life.

"I met a lot of great friends, including Joe Kurey, and it was a great bedrock for jumping into the media.''

Thirty years after picking up his diploma, Sims said he enjoyed Thursday's visit immensely.

"It was great to get a chance to go back,'' he said. "I saw a lot of people, went a lot of places and ended up having a couple of beers with some old friends.