Vince
Curry is regarded as the best race caller that Queensland
has produced. In fact, his broadcasting was respected
nationwide.
Vince, who died in February 1983 at age 54 , started
his calling career with 4GR in Toowoomba.
Born at Oakey, near Toowoomba, in 1929, Vince was
captivated by racing at an early age. He used to do
phantom calls of races, and was noticed doing this
as a teenager.
He became course commentator at the Toowoomba gallops
when aged 16. Upon leaving school at age 17, he joined
local radio station 4GR, and made his mark as an announcer
and commentator before transferring to Brisbane in
1960 to replace the retiring gallops caller, Ron Anwin.
He
was appointed sporting director of that station on
the death of Tom McGregor, a legendary sporting coordinator.
He
called the first night trotting meeting at Albion
Park and continued on with the night trots for two
years before handing over to Wayne Wilson.
At radio 4BC, and through radio stations Australia
wide, Vince became a household name and instantly
recognised voice.
As well as his horse racing descriptions, Vince also
excelled at describing a variety of sports, including
Davis Cup tennis, test cricket. Olympic Games track
and field and swimming, and one of his main loves
- boxing.
Vince had a dry sense of humour, and it was during
one of his boxing broadcasts at Brisbane's Festival
Hall that a funny incident occurred.
Vince was seated ringside
at a table with fellow commentator, John McCoy.
At the conclusion of the bout, Vince stepped up onto
the table to hoist himself into the ring to interview
the winner. But the table collapsed, and Vince crashed
to the floor and broke a collarbone.
As McCoy escorted him to an awaiting ambulance, Vince
declared - `'they should ban boxing, it's too dangerous.''
Vince called athletics at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
He called an Australian gold medal winning performance,
only to find out that the radio broadcast line to
Australia had gone dead.
Bear in mind this was back in an era when there was
no live television coverage of the Olympics.
People back home were glued to their radios in the
wee hours of the morning, awaiting the various sporting
descriptions.
Vince didn't even have a recording of that gold medal
race. He had, as fate would turn out, called what
he considered the greatest call of his career to one
person - himself.
He
also well remembered a meeting at Toowoomba where
the entire course was blanketed by fog. "I only
knew the race had started when it was signalled by
the dropping of a handkerchief. I calculated the running
of the event by stop watch allowing 12 seconds per
furlong and out of the fog they popped at the 50 yard
mark, just enough time to call first second and third
before they raced off in to the fog again."
Vince
Curry is regarded as the best race caller that Queensland
has produced. In fact, his broadcasting was respected
nationwide.