Back where he belongs: Chester’s Carlisle Roddey returns to play-by-play seat after illness

For 44 years, Carlisle Roddey has been the play-by-play announcer for Chester Cyclone football games. His unique, down-home broadcasting style is known to many sports fans in this area.

On Aug. 20, the day before his beloved Cyclones opened their 2015 campaign against county foe Lewisville, the 78-year-old “Voice of the Cyclones” was in the Chester Regional Medical Center emergency room.

“I had knocked my toenail loose when I bumped my foot on a leg of the kitchen table,” Roddey said. “I’m a diabetic and somehow the toe got infected. Later on I was getting sick and didn’t know I was getting sick. I had never been sick a day in my life.”

Roddey’s wife, Lois, knew her husband of 57 years was not well. At the hospital emergency room Roddey was diagnosed with sepsis – blood poisoning.

“I told the nurse that I had to get out of there because I had a game the next night,” Roddey said. “She told me I wasn’t going nowhere because I was sick and what I had could kill me. That’s when I got scared.”

Broadcasting Cyclone football was set aside for the time. Roddey was in the hospital’s intensive care unit for almost four days and then another 11 days in the hospital. The stay included nine days of physical therapy.

Like having a conversation

Roddey was discharged Sept. 4, the night Chester played Rock Hill.

The Friday nights away from his customary seat in the WRBK FM 90.3 radio booth have not been easy for the charismatic broadcasting veteran. When asked just how tough it had been, Roddey paused a few seconds, glancing down at his discolored lower right leg and toes before saying, “You ever had your heart ripped out?”

With gradually improving health, Roddey returned to the broadcasting booth when Chester hosted South Pointe on Oct. 9. Roddey was an avid listener to his booth cohorts – Clint Davis, Jim Fuller and Mike Enoch – while he was laid up.

“They did a real good job,” he said. “I called them up one night at halftime and told them to quit telling lies on me or I’d tell the truth on them.”

They missed Roddey’s unmistakable presence.

“It’s a challenge,” said Davis, who was the play-by-play man in his friend’s absence. “He’s (Carlisle) been very encouraging and for him to have done it the past 44 years in such a colorful way is truly amazing.”

Listening to Roddey is like having a conversation perched on an overturned bucket in front of a dusty gas station. It’s informal, it’s casual and maybe a little irreverent. Roddey’s ability to connect with listeners stems from his natural inclination to shoot the breeze; there is no difference in his personality on, or off, the air.

One game missed

Roddey’s broadcasting career began Sept. 4, 1970. Chester ballgames were previously broadcast on AM channels, so Roddey is the only FM play-by-play voice that’s ever called Cyclone football.

Prior to this season, he had missed only one game. . That was to attend his wife’s birthday celebration approximately 10 years ago, and Lois Roddey remembers the night vividly.

“I told him I couldn’t believe he was going to a football game and not celebrating my birthday,” she said. “Well I guess it made him feel guilty because he didn’t go, but all that time (at the party) he would sneak off to listen to the game on the radio. I told him I wished he had gone.”

Lois Roddey said her husband’s Friday night absences from home has had its rewards.

“My grandson (Evan) and I would go out to eat and come back home and watch a movie,” she said. “That was our night. My other grandson (Andrew) would go with Carlisle to the football game. That was their night.”

Indeed the Voice of the Cyclones

Roddey’s radio style is only part of what he means to Chester football and this area.

“Carlisle has been a mainstay in the community for many years and the Cyclone football family,” said Cyclone football coach Victor Floyd.

Chester athletics director Ricky Campbell said, “Carlisle is a big supporter of Chester athletics and has been for a long time. He is indeed the ‘Voice of the Cyclones.’”

And it is that voice that that has held up to allow Roddey the opportunity to call many games over all these years but there is one that he remembers fondly – or maybe not so fondly.

“It was at Daniel High a few years ago (2008) and the game was for the Upper State championship,” Roddey said. “They had a tiny press box and when we got there it was so full we couldn’t set up in it. So we had to set up a table in the stands in the middle of Daniel’s fans. We ended up winning the game, 27-24, and after the game one of their fans told me on the air that I could have been nicer talking about their team. I honestly thought he was gonna’ whup me on the radio.”

Roddey also remembered the Cyclones’ back-to-back appearances in the 3-A state championship games – both losses in 2007 and 2008 – and said he hopes to stick around long enough to call another Cyclone state championship game with a different result.

“I hope the Lord keeps me here long enough to announce Chester winning a state championship,” Roddey said. “I would like to do this (play-by-play) for 50 years but I’m old as dirt now.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Back where he belongs: Chester’s Carlisle Roddey returns to play-by-play seat after illness."