Voice of Stanford and 49ers was radio fixture for 56 years
Don Klein, who called “The Catch” and numerous other 49ers and Stanford highlights during a radio career that spanned more than 56 years, died Wednesday at a retirement home in Santa Rosa. He was 95.
With his typically lowkey style, Klein broadcast Stanford football and men’s basketball for many years before moving to the 49ers and rejoining head coach Bill Walsh, with whom he had become close at Stanford.
In the 1981 NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park, in which Joe Montana’s pass to Dwight Clark sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl, Klein called the dramatic play:
“Thirdand3. He has the ball, Montana rolling out to the right ... looking toward the end zone ... throwing under pressure ... throws his pass ... Caught by Clark! Clark’s got a touchdown! Dwight Clark has it! It’s a touchdown for the 49ers!”
The Washington native was in Hawaii at the end of World War II, having served there in the Navy, when he started
broadcasting recreations of the San Francisco Seals’ Pacific Coast League games based on the playbyplay coming over a Western Union wire.
“‘S1C’ meant ‘strike one called,’” former Oakland Tribune columnist Dave Newhouse wrote in 2011. “‘B1low’ meant ‘ball one low.’ ‘GO63’ meant ‘ground out, shortstop to first.’ The ‘crack’ of the bat was Klein tapping a drumstick on a wooden block. The ‘thud’ of a pitch in the catcher’s mitt was Klein hitting a padded cushion with the drumstick.”
A studio engineer would add recorded noise of crowds cheering and booing — even of planes supposedly flying overhead — Newhouse wrote.
When Klein moved to San Francisco in 1951 to handle the Seals’ games live, his son Raleigh said, “He had broadcast over 300 Seals games but had never seen them play.”
In 1957, Klein started broadcasting Stanford football and basketball games, including Rose Bowl victories under John Ralston following the 1970 and ’71 seasons. The 1970 season was marked by the Heisman Trophywinning performance of quarterback Jim Plunkett.
“He always wanted to be a sports announcer,” Raleigh said. “He used to say, ‘You get a great seat and free food. What more could you want?’ ”
When KCBS got the rights to the 49ers in 1981, Klein wasn’t sure he wanted to do the games because he was so entrenched in Stanford broadcasts.
“I thought Stanford had a shot at the Rose Bowl with John Elway, and the 49ers had been 214 and 610 the last two years,” he told The Chronicle’s David Bush in 2002. “But Bill said, ‘We’re going to the Super Bowl.’ ”
Whether that was wishful thinking or a premonition on Walsh’s part, Klein made the switch and handled 49ers games until he stepped down in 1986.
When “The Catch” is shown on NFL Films’ various flashback shows, the voice is usually Klein’s.
“NFL Films had us sign a release before the game,” he said in the 2002 interview. “I think they paid us $50. And they will use my call or Vin Scully’s, from the network TV.” He had seen the replay and heard his own voice thousands of times, he said.
Klein served as sports director of KCBS from 1957 until his retirement in 1990. He covered two Summer Olympics for CBS Radio — Rome in 1960 and Munich in 1972. During the latter event, he was forced into the role of a news reporter when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer were killed by terrorists.
He was so shaken by the massacre, his son said, that he did not cover another Olympics.
Longtime Bay Area sports broadcaster Barry Tompkins said, “I owe my career to him — 100 percent. KCBS hired me to do promotions, but I wanted to get into sports. He literally taught me how to do interviews. Then he taught me how to call a game. He always taught me, ‘The game is what’s important. You’re not more important than the game.’ I’ve taken that with me for 50 years. He was the complete pro.”
Jeanne Klein, whom Don Klein met in high school and to whom he was married for 72 years, died in 2017. Their son Gary died of a stroke in 2015. Besides his son Raleigh, Klein is survived by his daughter, Karen Brown of Windsor. A memorial service is pending.