(Sentinel Photo by Allen Hamil) Sports Director Denny Callahan recently called his final game at Le Mars Community School. Callahan has been a member of KLEM radio station in Le Mars for 48 years and has been in broadcast for more than 50 years. Callahan recently announced he will retire April 1.
PLYMOUTH CO. — His is the voice sports fans listen to for play-by-play action on game nights.
His is the voice that tells KLEM listeners “good morning” at 6 a.m., weekdays.
However now after nearly 51 years in radio broadcasting, 48 of them in Le Mars, Denny Callahan will retire as sports director and morning personality April 1, 2021.
“I’ll miss this quite a bit,” Callahan said after winding up the post game following the Le Mars Bulldogs boys loss last Wednesday night. “These nights of intensity and atmosphere. That’s what gets my blood percolating. I don’t want it to end.”
So how did a farm boy from Morning Sun end up at a radio station in Le Mars?
Growing up, he wanted to farm with his dad. He had an interest in hog farming, and with his 4-H project, had his own bloodline started.
“Then he sold the farm when I was a freshman in high school. So there was a change in plans,” Callahan said.
Never would he have imagined that a childhood memory of doing play-by-play commentary while playing ball with his brother, would evolve into a lifelong career.
“I’d listened to a lot of guys on the radio and always thought that was kind of fun to do,” Callahan said. “Then I saw this ad in some magazine, an ad from a place called Career Academy, that you could go and learn radio/TV broadcasting,” he said.
After high school, he chose the Kansas City location where he studied for four months.
“Down there, I found out how to be a broadcaster,” he said.
His learning really began on his first job in Grinnell, where Frosty Mitchell, sportscaster, was willing to take a chance on him. Mitchell was the voice of girls state basketball tournaments for many years, as well.
“I had a good teacher. He taught me a lot,” Callahan said.
After three years, Callahan had the opportunity to come to Le Mars and KLEM radio.
“I came here thinking it was going to be like a three year stop, my climb up the ladder. I was only 22 years old, I thought this was going to be a stepping stone and here it is, 48 years later,” he said.
He made the move with his wife Jerri, and a one-year-old daughter. Their second daughter and son were born in Le Mars.
For Callahan, one of his first big broadcasting moments was when the Le Mars Community Bulldogs won the state football championship in 1973.
“You know, they won that state football championship the first year I was here, so I thought I better stay a while. If they’re going to win championships this will be fun,” he recalled.
“Plus I fell in love with the city. People were so nice, they adopted me and made Jerri and I feel very welcome. We made a lot of good friends that are still friends to this day,” he said. “Now I’m on the third generation, those original friends have got grandkids and I’m doing their games now. It’s been fun.”
Callahan brought more than just a play-by-play to his broadcasts.
He describes the scenery, the crowd, the colors of team uniforms, all to give the listener a sense of being at the game.
Listening to Callahan broadcasting a game is also a little like having a history book open.
His play-by-play broadcasts and his daily sports news spots contain more than this is what’s happening on the field or court, and the event’s stats. It’s the background he brings to the each and every broadcast.
Callahan said he spends a lot of time preparing for each game day broadcast.
“That’s what I learned from Frosty Mitchell. You better be prepared because you never know what’s going to happen in a game. You should always have more material than you’ll use. If you come up short, you didn’t prepare enough,” he said. “There’s always a lot of stuff left on the table.
“I feel more comfortable going into the game knowing the teams both inside and out. The trick is knowing how to use it and when to use it. That’s stuff I just learned as I got deeper and deeper in the career,” he said.
One of the things he will leave behind is a large collection of sports files with a vast array of information.
“When I first started, I had nothing. There was nothing left here. I didn’t even know the records from the year before,” he said.
“Whoever follows me in here is going to have 50 years of files. They’re falling apart because there’s so much in it. I’ve had to dump some of it. The next guy is gonna have a treasure trove of information,” he said.
He’s collected stacks and stacks of state tournament books in the drawer that can’t hold anymore.
And up until 1997, he had also called many games for Westmar College. He still wishes he hadn’t thrown out all the Westmar sports information.
Callahan shared there are many special moments during his broadcasting career, but added there were several highlights, as it’s hard to narrow it down to just one.
The first was Le Mars Community winning the state football championship in 1973.
Another was in 1995 when Gehlen Catholic won a state baseball title.
“That was on a walk-off home run by Jamie Pick and that was special. I don’t think that’s happened too many times in the state tournament,” he said.
“Also in 1995, Gehlen won their first football championship too. There was a 99-yard run by Brad Sitzmann in that game that still stands as a state tournament record,” he said.
Then there was LCS boys state basketball runner up finish in 2015, losing by just 8 points.
“That was probably as much fun as I had doing a game because I worked with Tyler Borchers’ dad, Barry, on that game. I remember there were a couple times the referees made a bad call on his son and he started getting up out of his chair. I told Jerri, ‘get him back in the chair, put a seatbelt on that thing,’” Callahan said with a chuckle. “We used to have a lot of fun doing it. I still think back on that.”
“I’ve also seen two softball teams go to the state tournament in the last few years, a couple years and both girls basketball teams made it to the state tournament in the last few years. I was glad to see that,” he said.
And who could forget March 1983 when the Le Mars Bulldogs and Gehlen Jays basketball teams went to state.
“That was special. Gehlen had never been there and for Le Mars, it had been years. About everybody left town. Le Mars played the first game, and Gehlen played the last game of the day. That was fun seeing so many Le Mars people down there, in the old Vets Auditorium,” he said.
“This morning (Tuesday Feb. 23) I said I had one wish before I hung it up here, to see another state championship come back to Le Mars, I didn’t care what sport it was, and lo and behold, the LCS girls bowling team did that. Now I can officially retire,” he said.
Before he leaves, he will have the opportunity to once more broadcast from the state girls and boys basketball tournaments in the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, a part of the job he cherishes.
“I’ve had the privilege of calling state championships in all the major sports, basketball, football, baseball, softball, volleyball, and the chance to do so at state venues. I’m proud of that, too. A lot of people can’t say that. There have been a lot of state tournament trips the county teams have made, I’ve been there for them,” he said.
One thing people may not know is that Callahan has taped every game broadcast during his career.
“I tape every game and I listen back to every game and I learned that from Frosty Mitchell. I thought, you’re a sports caster and he’s doing this so this rookie should be doing this, too,” Callahan said.
“So that’s how I got started taping, and listening back, and of course having the tapes of the games led to making dubs for parents. I don’t know how many dubs I’ve done but there are a lot, thousands of them, out there,” he said.
Reluctantly this year, he made podcasts of his Saturday Coaches Corner interviews for the station’s website.
Callahan’s work day starts early and ends late on game days. As he’s gotten older, he finds an afternoon nap helps.
What’s kept him going in the business for 51 years?
“Oh, that’s an easy answer: the kids,” Callahan said.
“That’s what I’m going to miss the most,” he said with a tear in his eye. “Kids kind of help keep you young and just being around them, their energy, and the way they gravitate to me, it just makes me happy.”
He said the last week has felt like he’s on a “farewell tour,” at the games, with students showing their appreciation of his years in broadcasting.
“It’s just fun to interact with them and such a joy because I get such a kick out of watching these kids succeed, all of them. I wish they could all be stars and do something great in their lives in athletics, and I could be that little part that gets to tell everybody about it. But I’m going to miss doing that. And I hope the guy that follows me feels the same way about that, that has that kind of passion for the kids and what they’re trying to do. Be able to cheer them on like I’ve tried to do through the years.
“I’ve made a lot of good friends with the coaches, too, but it’s just the kids that I really enjoy being around and telling their story,” he said.
Callahan said along with the kids, he will also miss broadcasting football games with Keith Brown, too.
“We have a really neat relationship that we built together over the years. He’ll always be a good friend. But that’s the end of our partnership,” he said.
It wasn’t just sports Callahan gave a voice to. It was the Ice Cream Days parades and homecoming parades he gave color to each year for radio listeners.
“Just all those little duties. I do the homecoming coronations, have the equipment for that. That’s just part of my routine,” he added.
He will also miss working daily with his KLEM family, and all the good times they have shared.
Now there will be no more late nights, no post game, no stats to work on, no website to update.
“The website takes up a lot of time anymore, my sports website,” he said. “It shortens my nights on game nights to about four hours and I’ve gotta stop sleeping those short hours. I’m not up to that any more and it’s not healthy either.”
Callahan said he always wanted to walk away from the job on his terms. Some guys waited too long, and weren’t doing a quality job. That’s not what he wanted.
“My energy level is still there. I still get geared up for game night, still as much fun as it always was, but the preparation is a grind, the website takes a lot of time, and I want to do that right. But it’s just time-consuming,” he said.
Still, the time to retire came up rather suddenly.
“I must say this was something I’ve been thinking about, but it was kind of a quick decision this time. We were doing my Social Security stuff online and they wanted to know retirement date and I kinda threw this April 1 out there, and my wife didn’t believe that. She thought I was joking,” Callahan said. “But the more I thought abut it the more that just felt right. I’ve been in prayer that I hope I get the direction on when to do this, but it just kind of felt like that was the answer.”
The decision seems right for a number of years.
“I do have some health issues I’m not sick, I feel great, but I have some things I need to attend to to make sure i don’t run my health clear into the ground. If I want any kind of retirement, I better stop before I do serious damage that can’t be repaired,” he said. “And then I have kids I want to spend time with and be healthy enough to travel.”
Daughter, Traci, lives in Sioux Falls, daughter, Michelle, lives in Springfield, Missouri, and son, Chris, lives in Kansas City. The Callahans also have four grandchildren.
“That was another consideration, my youngest grandson at Springfield is a very good basketball player, I hear, I’ve never seen him play. He’s leading in scoring on his basketball team. He’s going to be a senior next year so we want to go down and see him play. We’ve listened to a couple of his games on stream, but I want to see him play in person. There’s only one more year to make that happen,” Callahan said.
He added his own children sacrificed so much so he was able to do his job the way he wanted to.
“I think a lot of times they felt like they were second in my life, but they really weren’t. Now I want to give back all 100 percent time to them. Something I haven’t been able to do much of my adult life as a parent,” he said with a catch in his voice.
He and wife Jerri will also be able to spend quality time together. She has been at his side most of their 50 years of marriage keeping game stats. For example, they spent their 25th anniversary on the top of a press box at one football game on a very cold night because there were many radio stations covering the game in the press box.
Callahan will be taking home boxes of awards and plaques, as well as some boxes of sports information to his basement office.
“I’ve got a box overflowing that has a lot of games I’ve done that seem significant to me,” he said.
Even when the job ends, one thing Callahan will continue to be is a supporter of high school athletics as he cheers on local athletes to greatness.
“I’m not sure what the last day will be like. It will be a mixture of emotions. The realizing of tomorrow being a lot different than the last 50 years,” he stated.
Callahan said the couple will continue to call Le Mars home, as it has blessed them with many good years.
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