Kent Pavelka joins the show

0:00Hey, I'm Josh Spiegel, host of the podcast, Lunatic in the Newsroom. If you enjoy journalism that drifts into my old panic, wild overthinking, and a guaranteed nervous breakdown, Lunatic in the newsroom is for you. It's news like you've never heard before. The only newsroom with a panic button. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and gasp and horror as the show spirals completely out of control. It's not just news, it's emotionally unstable. Lunatic in the newsroom. Listen today. Hey, everybody. Ben Doody at the World Herald. It's a special episode of the Pick Six Pod. It's the Husker Legend series. It's brought to you by Liberty First Credit Union, your local financial partner, proudly celebrating the people and stories that bring Husker fans together. We're going to have five of these. Husker Legends, the first Husker Legend is the voice of Nebraska basketball, Kent Pavellka. Hey, Kent. Ben, I'm just, I can't tell you how honored I am to be asked to do this and to be the first one.

1:04I mean, we talked about doing this, and I said, I'm going to be really busy. And then I thought, you know what, this is, this is an honor. So thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. Your first season on the Husker beat, as the voice of Huskers, 1974. Right. Right. Tell us, tell us how you got the job. Was that, is it predate your birth? Probably, right? May or may not. May or may not. I got the job. I went to UNL, got a broadcast major and was a broadcast major, got a degree in 1971, and I got a job in Fremont. I lived in Lincoln, I grew up in Lincoln. I was at a station, KGB, which you can still hear in this market. I stayed there three years, and it was just serendipity. I knew a guy at KFAB, they needed somebody to be a disc jockey, an all-purpose person. I was not promised any sports when I, when I took the job, but I kind of knew that was going to happen, and it happened that first year. So I kind of just fell into it, and I never left.

2:04Were you good, disc jockey? Yeah, I was, it was a different format than just like top 40 stuff. We were an adult station, played, you know, older music, and lots of news. It was the precursor to news radio, and so we did a lot of, it wasn't that, I was not a top 40 jock, if you know what I mean. I was more of a just a person, and yeah, it was fun that back in those days. You know, we played a lot of music and did a lot of news and sports as well. Fast forward to the 2026 Nebraska basketball 26 wins. They'll be the two seed in the big 10 tournament. This is the best Husker basketball team that you've called? Yes, yes, it's the best team. I don't know that it's the most talented. I would say there are two or three other teams that maybe were more talented. More athletic, more physical, but this is the best team, and anybody that appreciates the game, and all he had to do was watch them at their best this year,

3:05and you'd have to agree that, agree that, you know, they were really, it was a really well-orchestrated offense and defense, and put together, yeah, best team. I think I've ever seen it in Nebraska. There was a team in 1965, though, predating even me in college. I watched as a kid growing up that I think might be second best, and I still remember fondly that team. I noted your tweet, I think yesterday, about a text you got from Jerry Fort. Yes. Tell me about that text. Well, it can talk about just being a magical season. Can you imagine here I am in the last five minutes of this broadcast against Iowa, pretty emotional place on Sunday, and my phone lights up, and here's one of the best players in Nebraska, basketball history, from the very first team I broadcast the games he was on that team,

4:07saying, hey, Ken, I just wanted to let you know that, boy, I really enjoyed the games, and congratulations on your longevity and all that, and I thought, man, could this be a more perfect year, you know, to bring the old up to date to 2026. It was great. Do you hear from former players often? Well, you know, interesting, not that I heard from him, but I saw Taron Liu when we were in Los Angeles for the USC UCLA combination road games, and he was on at halftime with us for the UCLA game, and that was great too. I mean, it was just been pretty magical year. He was on, of course, he's probably the best point guard in Nebraska ever had, and played, you know, are you familiar with Taron? He's probably the most prominent in my generation, who's the most prominent in Nebraska NBA figure. What are Ty's reflections on this team? It's going to be an interesting year. Well, he's bad luck because I wish he hadn't come because that's the only game all year long

5:13Nebraska really got blown out in. So I'm blaming it on him, but no, he loves the team. I mean, he was not, he did not go overboard in his reaction to how they played that night. He's, he's watched us all year long. He's a big fan of Fred's, and he really loves where Fred has brought the team and in the program. So yeah, Fred Hoyberg was by all accounts fighting for his job a few years ago. He just signed a contract extension that takes him through the 2032 season. What do you make of that progression from the first few years to where it is now? Well, thankfully, there were, you know, there were some other things happening that he was able to survive, you know, athletic directors and, and chancellors and presidents and, you know, leaving and coming and, you know, maybe if it had been static, maybe somebody would have let him go. I don't know. I wish I'm glad they didn't, but I think it just speaks to what I've

6:15believed in forever, which is, and, you know, Tom Osborne used to talk about this. You, you, there's a coach at Colorado by the name of Bill McCartney, football coach, and they stayed with him and he, if had they not, I mean, he won a national championship and had they not, they, I mean, they were the dregs of college football. Bill Snyder at Kansas State the same way. So, you know, it's just so unrealistic to expect a turnaround from a subpar product to what is acceptable in, in a short period of time, but that's the reality, you know, you get a, you get a four or five year contract and, and maybe an extension if you do okay in one of those years, but if you don't get it done in five, six years, you know, it's, you're often, in your dawn. So, luckily, you know, uh, things came together and, and that did not happen. I'm always fascinated, Kent, by the interaction between a play-by-play guy and the people surrounding

7:15the program. So, you on the one hand, or remember, the media just like, just like us here at the earth world, Harold, but you are also with the team all the time, uh, more so in some ways, probably even than traveling beatwriters, et cetera. Um, what's that like being around guys like Hoyberg and around players all the time? Yeah, I knew, I, I thought we'd probably go here in this conversation. I'm glad we did because, um, you know, print journalists are still 100% journalists unless, you know, you're identified as a columnist and then you're allowed to have a little opinion here and there, but, um, you know, what I do and what I've done all these years is a hybrid between, um, you know, that objective and I challenge anybody to take a transcript of one of my broadcasts and take the emotion out of it and tell me I'm not a reporter, you know, I'm telling when you blive what's happening on the floor. But then I insert the emotion and you know, immediately that I'm a homer, you know, and I don't care. I mean, it has to be a, a negative,

8:21you know, shade cast on, on broadcasters. I, he's a homer, you know, he's not objective. That's what people want, you know, and that's what I've always delivered. But part of that, as you suggested, is, you know, having a different experience than your beatwriters do with the team. I mean, you do have access. I, I'm, you know, I'm around him all the time and, and it's, uh, I feel like I'm part of the program. I feel like I'm part of the team and I think they feel the same thing about me. So I don't know how they're, how else to describe what it's like to your question. You know, I feel like I'm part of the organization. The guys like Hoiberg like talking to you? Yeah, I mean, I think we're good friends. Hey, Thomas, how are you doing? Tom should tell. Sorry about that, Ben. That's, that's okay. Uh, another, another legend. Oh, man, Tom should tell. I ain't Ken Pavellka, both Nebraska legends. Hey, I want to ask you, uh, this, this wasn't even on the, uh, uh, things I had planned to ask you about, but because, uh, Tom walked by it and, uh, jog my memory in this, um,

9:25you read any of the Bill Moose book? I'm not yet. No. There's, um, you don't have to read it to know some of the storylines. And you are a fascinating person to get at least one of these storylines, which is Nebraska's conference affiliation. Yes. So in Bill Moose's book, he talks about wanting to get back to the big 12, um, and he says in the book, he notes in the book that Tom should tell, uh, had written along those lines. Tom is a big, Tom is a big, big eight guy. He's got big eight t-shirts. He's a historian of this place, um, in this region. He's also a Missouri guy. And so the old world of the big eight with Kansas and Mizzou and K state, um, she tell comes from that world. Moose wanted to get back to that world out of the big 10. That obviously isn't what happened. No. How, how have things gone from your perspective in terms of the Husker conference affiliation? Well, I mean, uh, they're just

10:27different chapters that you can't long for going back to the past because the past really doesn't exist. The old big eight, going back to the big 12 now would not be like going back to the big eight. That was a whole different animal. You're juices flowing by playing UCF and, uh, and well, I mean, it's just, yeah, you can't get in the car on Saturday morning and drive to Cincinnati. I mean, that's what tens of thousands of people did for, you know, road games in the big eight. And you couldn't, you had to leave a little early here for Oklahoma and Oklahoma state, but in Colorado, but all those places were drivable. That's one of the down things. Besides, what, what used to be a reality that no longer happens. I mean, that all that is real romantic feeling from the past. And then, you know, the big 12 different than the big eight. So going back to the big 12, first of all, you know, you've had an endless, I'm glad you asked about this because it gives me an opportunity to, to be, to be cynical. Go for it. You've had an

11:28endless parade of athletic directors and coaches and chancellors and presidents and members of the board of regents who come in. And the first thing they do is, is, you know, it's, it's predictable. There'll be a story in the World Herald for the new president or the chancellor, you know, my wife and I, we toured the state all 93 counties and, you know, and didn't take us long to stop at this cafe in Hebron and boy, we know what it is to be in Nebraska. And we're here, we'll go big red. We're here for the duration and five years later, they're gone. Point being that Bill Moose, this is pretty strong. In a way, it doesn't, it doesn't know what he's talking about because he wasn't here long enough to know anything about Nebraska. I mean, in terms of heritage and culture and whatnot. So these people with their, their opinions, I take it, I take them all with a grain of salt because they'll be gone soon. That's, I can't, Ken Pavellka is here with

12:35us at the World Herald on the Husker Legends series. They're too strong. No, nothing's too strong, Kent. All right. Again, the Husker Legends series with Kent brought to you by Liberty First Credit Union, your local financial partner, proudly celebrating the people and stories that bring Husker fans together, which is what we're doing right here with Kent. What are your expectations for this Nebraska basketball team in the postseason? Okay. Well, I mean, expectations and hopes and dreams and projecting to what it's going to feel like if they win lose, I mean, it's a long discussion here. Expectations. I don't know what my expectations are. I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's, you know, this is it, you know, you're at the stage of the season where you better play well or where you don't win and then you're done. And, you know, I think the fact that they're, they've had such a great year and they're,

13:38you know, they're going to be seated high enough that logically, they're going to get to play somebody who they're capable of beating in that first round, right? I'm hoping it's an unathletic SWAC team, right? It's going to be proud because no worse than a 13th, the absolute nightmare scenario is it's a year four seed and you're playing a 13th. That's the worst thing and that's even kind of hard to imagine. So it should be a 13 or 14 or 14 season. So, that standpoint, expectations. Yeah, I'm there. You know, I think this team is certainly capable of winning that first game until it happens for those of us who've been around while it's, you know, until they tell it's over, there's always this trepidation, this little thing that's been in your soul for 50 years about it's never happened until it does. You can't, you can't go there emotionally. When you're on the air in 1974, Husker Twitter is not yet a thing. And yet,

14:40Kent, here's a kind of a take I have about you. You despite coming up in 1974, I think Kent have been well made for the internet era and the social media era of Nebraska basketball. Social media cannot get enough of you and your calls. And we talked about this a little bit when we chatted a few months ago. Let's let me ask you about the Pavell Katron. It's just one kind of these guys at Husker Hoop Central have a site where you can go and I lost track of how many different things we can click on it. You've got your Banger Rang sweatshirt here. So all these different catchphrases. What's it like to have the Husker fan on the internet? Well, it's gravitate to it. It feels good to know that people enjoy, I mean, the people who do enjoy enjoy what you're doing. I mean, and it feels good to hear that they enjoy it. And

15:44and so why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you feel good about that? Right? I mean, I don't know what else to say except that I think longevity gives you a platform that I always used to tell people. You don't have, I'm not really that good. I just didn't get getting hired by anybody else. So, I mean, that, you know, you hang around long enough. You become an old shoe and there's a little bit of there's a good feeling to be would you have wanted to be hired by somebody else and leave Nebraska? I applied for one or two jobs back in the day, one or two out all these years. I I knew the Green Bay Packers job was open. I think they settled on a guy named Kevin Harlan. I can't figure out how they'd ever do that. But anyway, yeah, just a couple of things I sent a tape out for and here we are. I mean, all these years later, it just boom, Banger Rang. Give me a couple Harlan. Can you do a Harlan Kevin Harlan impersonation? No, I can't. He's got a, he's got a,

16:44he's pretty good. He's got a pretty, pretty big voice. He's really good in radio too. He does radio. Harlan on radio, one of the things that I think he's known for is if you ever have like a fan run, the field or that kind of thing that they don't usually show on TV cameras, Harlan will give you the full play by play of when the guy gets tackled by security and why not? That kind of thing. Give me a couple broadcasters who you have listened to growing up or you still listen to now. Who do you, who do you like listening to? Oh, I think everybody in the, in the big 10 is really good. I, you know, I'd up quite frankly, I don't listen to a lot of other radio play, by play announcers, maybe in the car on the way home from Lincoln to Omaha. I'll pick up something, but there's so much talent out there. Everybody's that I listen to is so, so solid. They're different than I am. I've never heard anybody like me. I mean, as far as just getting out of the out of control,

17:45like I do kind of, but growing up, the guy that I was hired by, you probably maybe have heard the name Lyle Bremzer. He was there did football for 46 years and he was, you know, when I sat next to him as a 24-year-old in the football booth, I thought, I want to be him, you know, and he wouldn't give up the microphone for 10 years and finally I got to be him. And I'm glad I hung around because, again, there's something really rich about being around for all these years, you know, and still being still doing it. You live in Omaha, you told me you encounter your fair share of craten fans around here. What's, what? No, no, this is not blue. What's your experience with the craten Nebraska rivalry from an Omaha fan standpoint? Look, you're going to get me in trouble here because I got to be politically correct. I can't, well, I can be honest and then I can get, you know, I got to still live here, right? My friends over the years, you know, when you're,

18:52when you beat somebody over and over and over again, and by the way, there was, there was a 20-year period where Nebraska did the same thing to craten before, you know, from 1977 when they resumed the series, whenever it was tough. I mean, you take the, the modern series, it's about 50-50, but during those years, it was hard to live here because, you know, all of my friends would be patronizing. Let's put it that way. Oh, you guys are going pretty, pretty good, you know, and, you know, and then behind your back, I hate these guys. All right, 100% is your friend's craten fans in, in Omaha? No, because I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've thrown them aside. Yeah, I absolutely know, but yeah, I got a lot of friends that are craten friends, but we go back and forth, and listen, we don't, we don't take, we take the gloves off too. It's the Husker Legends series with Kent Pavellka. It's brought to you by Liberty First Credit Union, bringing Husker fans together, a couple more for Kent and then we'll get out of here.

19:53You have a preference between football and basketball as a broadcaster? Oh, I love football simply because of the enormity of it. Nothing like sitting behind that microphone and the windows up in the broadcast booth, and there's 80,000 people out there, and you're calling the game, and you get the touchdown called before the crowd comes to a crescendo, and you're playing it kind of like a musical instrument that way, and you feel this huge power, you know, empowered, and you know how many people are listening, and it's just a really good trip. And a challenge to do well, just like basketball is, there's nothing, nothing like the emotion of this season, this cut, this, but being behind the mic for this basketball season, for the, you know, you name, we go through another 30 minutes here talking about the big games this year, and the emotion behind them, and the end of the game, and the calls that end up on the internet. It's hard to compare, but it is what it is, and so what

20:53I've tried to do since being out of the football booth for a long time is to do this as, as well as I can, and I've left football in the dust in my memory. You have a favorite call from the Husker season so far? This year? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. That's for somebody else to talk about. I guess there's the, the call it was, you know, just totally blown might be the favorite call. I mean, how do you, how do you, how do you make the favorite call a call that you couldn't even get out? I mean, that's Marcus Lawrence. That'd be Illinois call, right? I think you're a smidge heart on yourself. Now, I mean this. I listed a lot of basketball in the radio half for a long time. One of the things that I think Husker fan appreciates about you, you're over the top as you have described, but you can tell what's happening. Some, the play by players who get on my nerves a little bit is if you're listening to the game in the radio, you actually don't know what's happening. Well, yeah. And, and so on that Illinois call, we wrote about it. And I like to actually

21:57go and transcribe the call in part because it allows you to think through the mechanics of it. And who's where? Yeah. And what happened? And if you listen back to that call, I think you will, you could reenact it for us if you want. Well, but you know where the ball is? Well, that's always been the number one priority. Two things I, I, I, I knew I needed to do, since I sat next to this man, I'm telling you, the legend, Lyle Bremser was you are obligated to do something for the fan that's not there that can't see it. You've got to paint a mental picture. And that gets into the detail of where the ball is as, as well and as minutely as you can without stumbling over yourself, which I do. But so that they can see that, I mean, people see it in their minds and they don't even realize it's a mental picture, you've painting a mental picture. That's what you're describing while you like these guys. But at the same time, the obligation I have always felt is not only to be able to do that for the person that's not there, but also to

23:01impart the emotion of the arena. So you have to do both. At least that's my formula. If you have a big moment coming up, you obviously have the big 10 championship, big 10 tournament, maybe have a championship game, paying how to brass. It goes, you have the NCAA tournament, the schools never won a game before. When you get to, for example, that first NCAA, when, do you think ahead on what you might say or is it all spur of the moment? I thought about what I might say for 50 years. What might you say Kent? And seriously, I have thought about it for all these years. What I'm going to do if that happens. Now it's like days away, right? I've given some thought to it and I've got a few notes scribbled down that I think I need to say that will tell the story of all this time that has gone by without a win, but I don't intend to just jump into that. I'll just, I'll just, whatever I say, I say,

24:04I mean, whatever, however it feels, and then I'll go to those notes, I think. All right, Husker fans, he's a legend. Kent Pavellka, you can hear him on the Husker Radio Network. You can see him all over your social media feeds, all March long, maybe even in April, depending on how, how things go, but we'll see about that. Kent, thank you so much for stepping back. Again, thank you. It's really an honor for you. I just asked me to do this. I appreciate it. All right, it's Kent Pavellka. That's the Husker legend series, brought to you by Liberty First Credit Union. We will have four more installments of these. Next one's coming up in May. And so we will see you then. And of course, see you soon on the Pixx Pot of the World Cup. This is Mike Folo of Lexicon Valley. And I'm Bob Garfield. Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words? Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language? Hey, us too. So join us on Lexicon Valley to true over the history, culture, and many mysteries

25:07of English. Plus some life cracks. Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts.