When it comes to sports, there isn't much that broadcasting icon Bob Rathbun hasn't seen or done.

By Michael J. Pallerino

It's late-March and the Atlanta Hawks are at the end of a rare seven-game home stand. After whipping up on the Dallas Mavericks, the young Hawks are getting ready to head to Cleveland to take on arguably the sport's biggest draw in LeBron James and his seemingly unbeatable Cavaliers. The Cavs are trouble at home. Bob Rathbun knows this. As the voice of the Hawks for the last 13-plus years, he has seen a lot of "money" players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). And LeBron? There aren't enough words.

In between getting the kids off to school, watching game tapes from the last few games (of both teams), packing and preparing for an interview, Rathbun is in constant motion. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

It is the life he dreamed of growing up in Salisbury, N.C. The living-out-of-a-suitcase-waiting-for-the-next-game-to-call lifestyle was what he heard his boyhood heroes talk about every chance he had. And he didn't just read about their musings. He listened to them.

In the basketball crazy state of North Carolina, where the likes of the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Wolfpack can set off a frenzy at the mere mention of the word hoops, lies Salisbury, home of the National Sportscasters and Sports Writers Association. It was there a young Bob Rathbun met the likes of broadcasting legends Keith Jackson and Chris Schenkel of ABC Sports, and Lindsey Nelson of CBS Sports. It was there he heard stories from legendary writers Will Grimsley of the AP and Pulitzer Prize winner Red Smith.

"I was taught early on that you're not the show," he recalls. "I learned that you are the conduit between the fan and the show, the fan and the interviewee. This is a sacred trust you hold with your audience. From these greats, I learned the lessons of journalistic integrity, playing it down the middle and not taking sides, and to report, not editorialize."

By broadcasting standards, Rathbun got his start early. A phone call to a local radio station – WSTP – landed him an internship-like role at the ripe old age of 12. Learning the ropes from Marty Brennaman, who would go on to have a hall of fame announcing career with the Cincinnati Reds, Rathbun became a regular at the American Legion games at Salisbury's Newman Park.

And then, one day, he got the call. Brennaman gave him the microphone and let him call the bottom of the seventh inning of a game. And as fate would have it for Rathbun, and left-handed hitting first baseman Joey Brown, the game would take a major turn. After Brown hit the first and only home run of the season, Rathbun was the one on the air.
BOOM! A broadcasting career was born.

"I think back to that phone call and its implications," he recalls. "I truly believe that when you're on the right path and you're doing something that makes your heart sing, you're doing things for all the right reasons. That's when doors are opened that you could never open yourself. Circumstance and coincidences come out of nowhere. I think that's all a part of it."

From Salisbury, to calling games for Jefferson Pilot Sports, CBS, ESPN, and others, and as the signature television voice of the Hawks and Fox Sports South, Rathbun works more than 100 games a year and is a much-sought-after motivational speaker. Today, he proudly holds the seniority role of Atlanta TV play-by-play broadcasters. Rathbun, who also sits on the advisory board for On Court Player Development®, has won five Emmys, was named Sportscaster of the Year in Virginia (six times) and Georgia, and has been inducted into the hall of fame in Virginia, Catawba College and Salisbury (Rowan), N.C.