Bill Walton has made a career out of saying hilarious, curious and downright puzzling things as a broadcaster. We’ll put this one in the funny category, with maybe a sub-category of creepy.
During Saturday’s ESPN telecast of the St. Mary’s-Cal game, Walton shared this sly nugget about his days as a student on the UCLA campus.
“I majored in biology at UCLA,” he said. “On sorority row.”
How long has Walton been sitting on that one? The guess is that he’s been wanting to make that crack for years, but perhaps had never been given the opportunity by a play-by-play partner. But he obviously feels pretty comfortable and maybe a bit cheeky with his current lead announcer, Dave Pasch. And he got a good laugh from Pasch after making the joke.
We probably wouldn’t hear a remark like that from most other color analysts. Is that a Captain Obvious statement? If so, such a quip would likely be painfully awkward, if not outright inappropriate. But from Walton, it’s amusing. We expect those kinds of offbeat comments from him.
Though to be honest, it’s kind of an easy joke from him, isn’t it? We’ve come to expect so much more. I mean, this is a guy who throws out Isaac Newton, Michelangelo and Beethoven during a broadcast. To make a joke about getting intimate with co-eds at UCLA seems like material you’d hear from your drunk uncle over the holidays. Not Bill Walton on a live ESPN broadcast. It’s not that what he said was offensive (though perhaps a bit leering). Don’t we expect more from him because he’s capable of so much more?
But it’s OK, Bill. It’s the holiday season when everyone is probably a bit looser than usual. It’s a fine time to reminisce about one’s college days.
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About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.