BUFFALO, N.Y. — For Buffalo native Greg Papa, the timing was impeccable.
His first season as the radio voice of the San Francisco 49ers was a remarkable one for the team, and thus he will be in the booth on Sunday calling Super Bowl 54, as the 49ers clash with the Kansas City Chiefs for NFL supremacy in Miami.
Papa works for KNBR Radio and hosts a daily sports show, as well as broadcasting 49ers games on 25 affiliated stations along the team’s radio network.
The long and winding road
San Francisco is about as far away as you can get from Buffalo in the continental United States.
But Papa still holds a special place in his heart for his native city.
“Oh my Lord, are you kidding me? It’s my hometown!” Papa exclaimed during a telephone interview with WGRZ. “I think of Buffalo every day. I’ve got family there … My mom is there, my sister’s there, my brother’s there. ….I have great affinity for Buffalo and always will.”
After graduating from high school in Williamsville, Papa left Buffalo to attend Syracuse University in the early 1980s, and even at a young age he was identified as a future star.
While still a student, Papa was profiled in a March 12, 1984 Sports Illustrated article where he was identified as “the next Marv Albert.”
By that time, though, he had already gained valuable experience working in the sports department at Channel 2 as a teenager when his brother, Gary Papa, was a member of the Channel 2 sports team.
During those days he recalls being “sent all over town with a film camera …shooting whatever they needed, from bowling tournament to Bills practices.”
Don’t talk to that kid!
Asked if he had any “Don Zimmer stories” he’d like to share, the recollection of an episode from his early days still sparks a chuckle from Papa.
He was perhaps 16 when he traveled with Gary to Toronto to cover a Boston Red Sox game against the Blue Jays at the old Exhibition Stadium.
It was after the Red Sox infamous and dramatic 1978 collapse where they lost a pennant race to the New York Yankees after leading by as many as 14 games in what will forever be known as the “Boston Massacre”.
As the team manager, Zimmer took a lot of heat for it.
“My brother told me to ask Don Zimmer if they choked in the Series against the Yankees. Now, that’s a strong word … when you say ‘choked’ ... and when I asked Don Zimmer that he just went off. I’m just a kid, and he’s swearing at me. I think he fired off the Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV and then came up with seven more! Then he started going around to Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynne, Jim Rice and all their players, saying, ‘Don’t talk to that kid!' ”
The episode, however, also taught the aspiring young sportscaster a valuable lesson.
“It taught me to never ask an athlete or a coach or a manager if they ‘choked.’ That’s a deadly word and they don’t like to hear that term. And I also learned that word choices are important in what we do,” Papa said.
Greg’s brother, Gary Papa, left Buffalo in 1981 for a job at WPVI in Philadelphia, where he enjoyed a storied career until he died of cancer in 2009 at age 54.
“It’s still hard for me to talk about,” said Greg, as his voice strained with emotion. “My brother was a genius, and was my hero in so many ways. He was someone I looked up to greatly.”
There’s some van in this man
There was someone else in Buffalo who Papa looked up to greatly, and who would influence his style in the broadcast booth.
“When I was a kid, all I ever wanted to be was the next Van Miller,” he said, recalling the longtime play by play voice of the Buffalo Bills.
“When I look highly on my profession and look back on it, I think Van was such a big influence on what I’ve done. … There’s no question Van was the single biggest influence on my style in all sports.”
Indeed, when one hears Papa speak, whether calmly over the phone or excitedly while on the air, it’s hard not to notice some similarity.
“There’s no doubt I’ve got a little bit of Van in me,” he said.
Setting his own course
Though he insists he’s “not at the level of Van Miller,” Papa, who turned 57 in October, has had a long and distinguished career in sportscasting.
He has plied his craft mostly in the Bay Area, having held down stints as the 20-year play-by-play voice of the NFL Oakland Raiders, as well as the voice of the MLB Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants, and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Papa was also the voice of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, and earlier in his career he was a member of the Indiana Pacers’ TV and radio team.
A sad journey home
Greg visited Buffalo several times over the past summer to spend time with his ailing father.
Frank Papa, who took over National Fire Adjustment Co. Inc. which was established by his Greg’s grandfather in 1922, expanded the Amherst-based company into the largest public adjusting firm in the United States and Canada.
His brother, Ron, runs the company today.
“I was able to spend some quality time with my dad, who suffered a fall outside the pancake house in Williamsville that left him in need of assisted care. He was in pain and had difficulty sleeping, so sometimes I would just crawl into his bed with him," he said.
Greg’s last sojourn home was for his father’s funeral on July 30, when he passed away at the age of 93, just as the 49ers' training camp was getting underway.
“I eulogized him at his funeral on Monday and did my first 49ers game on Saturday,” he said.
That Saturday would also be when Papa would unveil his new touchdown call, as he took to the microphone for the first time for a new team.
It was one that, in part, would also provide him with an opportunity to pay homage to his late father.
Touchdowwwwwwwn ….. San FRAN-SIS-Co!!!!
Papa says his touchdown call for the 49ers was modeled in part after the touchdown call by his friend and colleague Mitch Holthus who is, ironically, the play-by-play voice of the team the 49ers will be facing on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Holthus is known for saying “Touchdown … KAN-SAS CITY!”
Papa’s call for the 49ers has the same number of syllables and seemed a natural fit.
However, it also true that the touchdown call that Papa adopted for the 49ers is in some ways is a nod to his late father.
“My dad's name was Frank … like Francis Papa. And that’s the name of this city, named after St. Francis of Assisi, and it all seemed to work. He was proud of everything I did, and I just felt like it was a nice way to remember him,” Papa said, his voice once again becoming emotional.
An excitable call for excitable times
Buffalo is used to excitable calls, perhaps no more embodied by longtime Sabres broadcaster Rick Jeanneret.
But unlike Jeanneret, whose body remains still despite the fervent pitch of his voice while calling goals, Papa never sits down during a game.
As seen in this video, he alternately pounds the counter, flails his hands, and sometimes grabs anyone next to him as he paces back and forth in the booth.
It’s part of his game, which he hopes will be a great one this Sunday.