Wes Durham, the voice of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, will be reunited with his dad, Woody, the voice of the North Carolina Tar Heels, when the teams meet Saturday.
Q: How many games does this make with the two of you calling opposite sides?
A: This will be 15 in football, and I’ve lost count in basketball. He keeps count. He has the record and he’s ahead, obviously because of basketball. But football, I’m ahead. ... It was weird the first time we did it, and now it’s kind of becoming old hat. I tell people this all the time: It’s still a different feeling, still a different game.
Q: Do you have any rituals?
A: Not really. My mom is flying in early. She wants to spend time with my two 10-year-old twins. ... It’s always fun. It’s always neat.
Q: When you are calling a game and your dad’s right there, do you ever wonder what your dad just said, what was his call?
A: No, but it was weird in ’95, the first time we did this ... Here I am ready to do the game and I sit down and I look over there and there’s my dad. And I thought, “God, this is weird.” That’s really about the only time I’ve thought of it. We’ll talk at halftime and we’ll talk before the game. Usually we have a hard time talking after the game because he goes to their locker room and I go to ours. So things change.
Q: What’s your favorite call that he’s made?
A: My favorite call that he’s ever had was one when I was 8 years old. It’s Walter Davis’ jump shot that got Carolina into overtime [against Duke in 1974]. They came from eight down in 17 seconds. And actually, it’s a bit of an injustice that all people hear now is “the shot.” Back 10, 12 years ago, I had a chance to hear most of it, the last minute of the game. It’s really good. That’s by far my favorite call because Walter Davis was one of my favorite players.
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