Steve McClure graduated from Southport Significant College (Indianapolis) in 1963 with out a clue. No fault of Southport. That version of Steve McClure just was not completely ready for the world at Ball Condition that awaited him.
“I experienced no concept how to be a college student,” McClure stated.
He lasted a 12 months. Then a different semester. McClure’s father told him he was not heading to fork out one more dime of higher education if he did not make improvements to his grades. As a substitute, a family members mate drove McClure downtown to the Air Pressure recruiting office. “It’s what I needed,” McClure reported.
4 yrs in the Air Drive modified McClure. He re-enrolled at Ball Point out just after his tour and zoomed by university, “making ‘A’s’ as a substitute of ‘D’s.’” McClure, 77, attained his diploma from Ball State in 1971 in radio and television. He was off and managing in a occupation that spanned 51 a long time in various roles of sporting activities media and communications.
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McClure in no way truly stopped doing work. But he also never appeared to be transferring so rapidly that he stopped savoring his perform, no matter if it was masking golf and tennis for the Heart Grove Sports activities Network, the local network in Greenwood, Indiana, as he has the previous five several years, or operating as a spotter at Indianapolis Colts online games for 36 a long time, or working as a general public deal with announcer at Franklin College for the previous 16 decades.
“I think it is mostly that I have a passion for what I do,” McClure explained. “If you don’t have enthusiasm for what you do, why are you included in it? I never deemed stopping. Why would I? I’ve had persons inquire, ‘Steve, when are you heading to give up some of the items you do?’ I’d say, ‘Why, are you jealous?’”
McClure provides that last concern with a chortle. He pauses briefly and right before pondering the subsequent line. The highway forward for him is bleak. But he would somewhat focus on a little something else entirely.
“If you took a piece of paper and listed 1 as a result of 100 of all the items I’m grateful for, there wouldn’t be plenty of quantities,” McClure said. “I try to motivate other individuals to dwell in that spirit. I’m a guy of God and I’ve felt his existence in the course of this full ordeal. I’m settled in my beliefs so I’m cozy with those people feelings. Which is the way I want to be remembered: I lived my daily life.”
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McClure noticed his medical doctor 3 weeks in the past Friday. The discomfort in his decrease abdomen had grow to be unbearable. He experienced been addressed periodically for irritable bowel syndrome for the previous five years and thought that was all over again triggering the pain.
Next a CAT scan and far more assessments, a biopsy of his liver learned a malignant tumor that had distribute to his colon. Medical doctors laid out the possibilities for McClure and his spouse, Sylvia.
“It was not a tricky choice for us,” McClure explained. “Since it is an aggressive variety of cancer, the prognosis is not great. I could not are living the type of lifestyle I’m utilized to living if I’d absent through with chemotherapy.”
McClure does not know how lengthy he has remaining. Time is important. Steve and Sylvia, who have been married 34 several years, welcomed their daughter, Jenni, and granddaughter, Erin, to their household this week when they visited from Florida.
The news was, admittedly, “jolting.” McClure experienced been nutritious his overall lifetime. “It’s like a heavyweight boxer knocks you down,” he stated.
But he did not continue to be down prolonged. Kevin Conrad, who has worked with McClure the past 5 a long time with the Centre Grove Sports Network, compiled a touching video clip tribute from coaches, athletes and some others in McClure’s life.
“What I like about Steve is he has a way of getting into a push box and masking a game that was refreshing,” Conrad explained. “It was by no means like, ‘Ugh, we’re doing a further match.’ He had a huge smile and a hearty handshake. He was often an eternal optimist. You knew you have been going to have a great time broadcasting a game with Steve.”
At golf occasions, McClure would frequently go out on the program to interview and observe the golfers though Conrad worked in the clubhouse. But with a lot of downtime during all those extended functions, Conrad arrived to know McClure as a buddy.
“He truly relished in masking individuals little ones who may possibly not get the headlines in sports like basketball or football,” Conrad stated. “He had a way with people young children to get them to smile. He’s a expert, but you could explain to he also really loved what he was undertaking.”
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McClure appears to be far more like Sparky Anderson than Tommy Lasorda. But Dodger blue runs by way of his veins. He has attended the Los Angeles Dodgers’ fantasy camp 17 occasions, including final spring in Vero Seashore, Florida, the team’s spring education house.
“I was a damn excellent player in Minimal League,” McClure reported.
He played with the Indiana Central Tiny League program. When McClure was 12, Indiana native and then-Brooklyn Dodger Carl Erskine performed the countrywide anthem on his harmonica at his Little League All-Star activity. McClure was by now a Dodger enthusiast, but that sealed the offer.
“I hated the Yankees,” he explained. “I could not stand them and the Dodgers couldn’t conquer them till they finally did in 1955. The Dodgers have been my staff at any time since.”
McClure satisfied Erskine at a meal at the Indianapolis Zoo in 1994 when his wife, Sylvia, a longtime teacher, was becoming honored. Erskine was the featured speaker. Sylvia confident her partner to communicate to Erskine, who asked for his business card. A few days afterwards, a manila envelope arrived with registration for the Dodgers fantasy camp.
“I could not fill it out rapid enough,” he mentioned. “That was fairly a thrill for me. We received the championship that 12 months. I have absent to 16 a lot more camps and by no means won yet again. But I’ve fulfilled fellas from all more than the environment who have become some of my best buddies.”
Numerous of them have arrived at out to McClure considering the fact that discovering out about his dire health situation. McClure will make pals easily. He designed them at his 1st position at WRCR radio station in Rushville, Indiana, exactly where he was the information and sporting activities director and known as perform-by-engage in for Rushville and Eastern Hancock basketball and football online games. He then moved on to New Port Richey, Florida, to get the job done at an all-information, all-sports activities radio station from 1973-78 and then transitioned into a vocation in sports activities information and facts at Youngstown Condition, Cincinnati and Barry University (Fla).
“Good thing I was one,” he stated. “Because I was working all the time.”
He moved back property to Indianapolis in 1985 and observed a task at Sharp Ford by a longtime pal, but on the condition that he could continue on to pursue his enthusiasm in sporting activities. And he did, operating as the community tackle announcer for the University of Indianapolis basketball from 1985 to 2005. McClure also hooked on with the Colts as the interior press box announcer, a placement he held for 18 many years. Following encouraging to create a Spanish radio community for Colts video games for a pair of a long time, he labored as the spotter for stadium community handle announcer Mike Jansen for quite a few years.
“I like to just take on new issues,” McClure explained.
In current yrs, he has worked for Franklin School as a public handle announcer and has labored for the Each day Journal as a correspondent, in addition to his responsibilities with the Middle Grove Sporting activities Community. Sylvia typically joins him.
“He enjoys lifestyle,” Conrad reported. “He’s that sort of person. I really don’t think it ever became regime for him.”
Previous Friday, Steve and Sylvia went to see the band The usa at the Brown County New music Center in Nashville. What is the stage of living lifestyle if you are not out there living it?
“I try to continue to be my youthful self,” McClure mentioned. “That’s what I’ve carried out my whole lifestyle and I have liked what I do. I have a great deal of things to be grateful for.”