Steve Albert, Oral History

 

Recorded: November 12, 2019

Interviewed by Kathleen Siebert Medicus

Transcribed by the Kent State University Research & Evaluation Bureau

 

[Interviewer]: [00:01:8] This is Kathleen Siebert Medicus on November 16, 2019, at the Kent State Campus University Library as part of the May 4 Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. Could you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Steve Albert]: Steve Albert.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you. Welcome, Steve. Do you mind if I call you Steve?

 

[Steve Albert]: Absolutely. Thanks, Kate. Nice to meet you.

 

[Interviewer]: Nice to meet you. Thanks so much for being here today.

 

[Steve Albert]: My pleasure.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:26:7] I would like to begin with just some very brief information about your background so we can get to know you a little bit better. Could you tell us where you were born, where you grew up?

 

[Steve Albert]: I was born in Brooklyn, U.S.A. Brooklyn, New York. And yeah, that’s where I basically grew up. A little community called Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Great place to grow up and played a lot of sports. And we were right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean, and it was just a wonderful place to be. 

 

[Interviewer]: [01:03:4] So, what brought you to Kent State University for college?

 

[Steve Albert]: You know, I went to Kent State because they didn’t have a hockey team. And I wanted to start one myself and that way I could appoint myself the play-by-play announcer. I knew that all the other teams, the football and basketball teams, had professional announcers so I figured I had no shot. So, if I started my own club or team, I can make myself the play-by-play announcer. I had a tremendous passion and determination to do that; I knew that that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—and it worked out.

 

[Interviewer]: [01:42:2] How long had you known that? When did you—age three?

 

[Steve Albert]: I guess—I think when I came out of the womb. No, actually I was probably about six or seven years old. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a sportscasting family. My two older brothers also became sportscasters. We all wanted to play. We all wanted to be players but we were too slow, whatever, too small. And so, we, in our minds, did the next best thing. And decided to broadcast the games. When we were little kids, we would sneak off into a little room in the house, turn the sound down on a sporting event. We created out own little broadcast booth, our own little press box, and we announced the games ourselves.

 

[Interviewer]: That’s so sweet.

 

[Steve Albert]: And it just kept leading on. Thank you. It kept leading on to other things and other things. But I knew when I got to Kent State and they constructed the ice arena—I returned for my junior year in the fall of 1970. You know, after the shootings, and that’s when I saw that there was an ice arena and I said, “The time is now.” We were able to create a team—organize a club. And I’m so happy to say that it’s still going strong to this day. It’s great. 

 

[Interviewer]: [03:05:2] I’m just a little curious about what you first impressions when you arrived on campus in, what year? ‘68?

 

[Steve Albert]: 1968 was my freshman year. When I arrived on campus, I remember I did not go straight to my dorm to meet my roommates or to check in. I took my bags—I flew from New York to Cleveland and then took a service, a bus, to the campus of Kent State. And the first thing I did was go straight to WKSU, the radio station.

 

[Interviewer]: [03:41:6] With your suitcases?

 

[Steve Albert]: With my suitcases, to make sure I could get a job at the radio station and I signed up to get work at the station and then, once I had that all set up, I went to Manchester Hall and started my life at Kent State. I was very, very, very eager to get started with my broadcast career at that level—

 

[Interviewer]: [04:08:5] They must have been impressed that you arrived at their door with—you hadn’t even unpacked yet, and you were looking for your job.

 

[Steve Albert]: It’s interesting. I don’t really know if they were or weren’t, but all I know is I was fiercely determined to get it started. It’s all I wanted to do and, thank goodness, I was able to get through four years. I jokingly tell people that Kent State was twelve of the best years of my life, but I actually made it in four.

 

[Interviewer]: You did it.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, I graduated well on time.

 

[Interviewer]: You weren’t a “super senior” for the next year.

 

[Steve Albert]: I also tell people that I graduated in two terms: Lyndon Johnson’s and Richard Nixon’s. But no, I did it in four years and I was happy and then I went right into professional sportscasting, play-by-play.

 

[Interviewer]: [04:57:8] After you graduated?

 

[Steve Albert]: After I graduated, in Greensboro, North Carolina, announcing for a hockey team in the Southern Hockey League. But within weeks of being in Greensboro, I got a call from a team called the Cleveland Crusaders in a rebel league, known as the World Hockey Association. They were raiding players from the National Hockey League and I did an audition. I got the job and I wound up in the shadows of Kent State University, my first professional job basically, for all intents and purposes, with the Cleveland Crusaders and I couldn’t have been happier. [Narrator’s note: Actually, I got my first professional job when I was a senior at Kent State. I announced a few games for the Springfield Kings of the American Hockey League. The Kings would hire broadcasters in various cities throughout the league rather than travel a full-time play-by-play announcer, I assume as a cost cutting measure. When Springfield came to Cleveland to play the Barons, Joe Tait, the voice of the Cavaliers, called their games.

Well, one time he had a conflict and knowing that I announced Kent State hockey, he called me to see if I could fill in for him. It was a dream come true and I went on to announce a handful of games when Joe was unavailable. It was an invaluable experience.]

 

[Interviewer]: Right back here in the area.

 

[Steve Albert]: It was unbelievable. Yeah, loved it.

 

[Interviewer]: [05:37:6] So, I understand you have written out memories, your experiences, of the events surrounding May 4, 1970. So, this might be a good time to let you go to that and share that with us.

 

[Steve Albert]: All right. Thank you so much.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah. It’s an oral history of, you know, what happened to me personally on that day. Let’s get to it. Here we go.

 

[Interviewer]: Great. Thank you.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah. It was Monday morning May 4, 1970. I went to my class in child psychology, which began at 11 a.m. Everybody knew that a demonstration had been scheduled for twelve noon. The building was on the other side of the campus where the demonstration was to take place. I remember when I first registered for this class, I kind of grimaced when I saw that it was a two-hour session. But after the shootings, I realized that that extra hour may have changed the course of my life. Had it been a more traditional one-hour class, I probably would have had to walk across campus toward my dorm which was in the direction of where the shootings took place. I would have seen the crowds gathering and perhaps, out of curiosity, gotten closer to where the events occurred and who knows what would’ve happened.

 

While in class, I remember that the teacher showed an instructional movie and, in this film, a baby was crying loudly. It was the second hour of the class, sometime after twelve noon and, over the din of this baby crying, we heard the sound of sirens outside the building. We counted about nine cars which seemed like ambulances streaking by. We obviously came to the conclusion that something was wrong.

 

My classmates and I ran out of the building and students were running all over the place. I ran as fast as I could toward my dorm on the other side of the campus. When I reached the lobby, I could hear a woman’s voice on the P.A. system. She was screaming, “Go up to your dorms. Grab anything you can and get the hell off the campus.” To this day, I still remember the urgency in her voice. I got to my room and my three roommates and I frantically went through our dresser drawers and grabbed whatever we could. I remember just randomly throwing articles of clothing into my little satchel. I threw on my Kent State jacket and the four of us hurried downstairs and ran outside. The road leading off the campus was overflowing with students and overrun by cars, it was bumper to bumper, horns honking loudly.

 

At this point, we weren’t even sure what we were running from. Of course, we were well aware that the National Guard was on campus. They’d been there all weekend. We had heard there was shooting, but we didn’t know what extent. I mean, we found out later that the panic to get off the campus was because perhaps the shooting wasn’t over. Remember, this was well before the age of cellphones, social media, Facebook, instant information. So, we had not yet fully known any details. All we knew was that something happened at that demonstration. The caravan of cars trying to get off campus looked like something out of one of those old black-and-white science fiction movies, like Godzilla, where the monster is on the loose and chasing everything in its path. It was just crazy.

 

The four of us managed to hop into some stranger’s car and we hitchhiked to Akron where one of our roommates was from. Once we got to his house, he drove us to the Akron-Canton airport. The three other roommates, including myself, were from the New York area. We were dropped off at the airport, which again looked like something out of a horror movie where people were trying to escape and get on a plane by any means possible. I wanted to call my parents and tell them not to worry but the lines in front of the payphones were packed with students who had the same idea. The lines to get a plane ticket were also massive. I can only imagine what my parents were going through not knowing if their son was safe. I finally got my ticket and boarded the plane.

 

That flight, for some reason, is a complete blur but I remember landing in Newark airport, getting on a bus to Manhattan and then taking the subway to Brooklyn and then taking another bus to my house in Manhattan Beach. I remember people looking at me kind of funny on the train until it dawned on me that I was wearing my Kent State jacket. The news was out, even though I still didn’t have a clear picture of what exactly took place earlier in the day back in Ohio. During my trip home, I was still unable to reach my parents. I remember walking into the house just before seven o’clock that evening. My folks were relieved but hadn’t yet fully grasped the true gravity of the situation until we all sat down to watch Walter Cronkite on TV. Kent State was the lead story and it was at that moment when I finally learned that four students had been shot to death by the National Guard and others were seriously injured. Up till then, I’d only got dribs and drabs of information.

 

My story doesn’t quite end there. During my last three years of high school, I had been a ball boy for the New York Knicks. My brother, Marv, was the radio play-by-play announcer for the team. I had learned later that, on May 4^th, Marv was desperately trying to reach me. He was scouring the wire services at his radio station for any bits of information so he could let my parents know what was going on. The news of what had happened was still somewhat vague and unconfirmed, but things got even more tense when it was reported that a student from New York had been shot and killed. It was an incredible relief for everybody in my family when I walked through the door safe and sound on Monday night.

 

The very next day, I got a phone call from Knicks trainer, Danny Whelan, who knew I was attending Kent State. Danny had called to invite me to sit on the Knicks’ bench at Madison Square Garden for game seven of the NBA Championship against the Los Angeles Lakers, which was on May 8. That turned out to be one of the most iconic and memorable nights in sports history. It was the night Knicks captain, Willis Reed, who was unlikely to play because of a severe thigh injury, surprised the fans and hobbled onto the Garden floor to a deafening roar. I was standing right there on the court near the Knicks’ bench in total disbelief that I was witnessing, in person, this incredible moment. Willis, who could barely walk, dragged his leg onto the floor and promptly hit his first warmup shot. The crowd got so loud the building was literally shaking.

 

The Lakers, who were warming up on the other side just stopped, turned around, and watched Willis. I looked into the eyes of their legendary players, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, and I could see right there that the game was over and the Knicks would win their first NBA Championship. The Lakers were totally psyched out. In the final minutes of the game, Danny Whelan instructed me to gather up all the Knicks’ warmups and take them into the locker room. Danny knew that it would be bedlam when the buzzer sounded and all the Knicks’ gear would be scarfed up by the fans for keepsake. After the Knicks won the title, they ran into the locker room, and I was the first person they saw before the celebration began. The whole thing was unbelievable. It was like a strange dream. In just a matter of a few days, I went from being on the campus of Kent State, the scene of one of the most tragic events in our nation’s history, to one of the most glorious and celebrated nights in New York sports history. It was absolutely surreal.

 

A few weeks later, after completing take-home exams, the father of one of my roommates drove us back to Kent State to pick up the rest of our belongings. When we arrived, I’ll never forget, it looked like a ghost town. Everything looked grim. The campus, which was always so green and vibrant, the grass and landscape always so well-manicured, looked dreary. It was like a black-and-white movie. We went to the dorm, quietly packed everything together, got back in the car, and made the long drive back to New York. I returned to Kent State in the fall of 1970 for my final two years and graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications. When I returned, I started the Kent State hockey team. I’m proud of what we started and I’ll always be proud to say that I’m a graduate of Kent State University.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you. Thank you so much. 

 

[Steve Albert]: Thank you.

 

[Interviewer]: That must have been quite a week. I can’t imagine.

 

[Steve Albert]: I remember everything almost in detail to this day. It had such a dramatic effect on me and it will for the rest of my life.

 

[Interviewer]: [14:30:4] When you hitchhiked, did you hitchhike from campus or did you get down to Highway 76 and then get a ride to Akron?

 

[Steve Albert]: We hitchhiked directly from campus. It was bedlam, pandemonium, on the street. I don’t remember exactly the name of the street I was on because we were running around, as were everybody, like chickens with their heads cut off, and we just—somebody waved at us, said, “Come on into the car.” We pounced into the car. It was like, literally, dove into the car and then drove to Akron where my roommate—one of my roommates, Nick, you know, his family resided there and he was able to ultimately drive us to the airport and we waved goodbye and I made my way back to, in this case, Newark Airport, because I guess we had no flights into LaGuardia or Kennedy, the other New York area airports. But I was just so fortunate to get to any airport at that point.

 

[Interviewer]: Just wanted to get home.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah. I couldn’t even believe I got on an airplane because you could not believe the hoards of people because Kent State—

 

[Interviewer]: [15:48:2] I haven’t heard anybody talk about what it was like at the Akron-Canton Airport.

 

[Steve Albert]: At the airport, yeah. Kent State had a lot of New Yorkers and a lot of kids from Long Island and I don’t know how many from my area in Brooklyn. But nevertheless, the airport was packed to the gills with Kent State students all clambering to get, number one, to the payphones. And, you know, which is a word we don’t—an expression we don’t hear much these days—payphone. And then to actually board an airplane. I couldn’t believe there was a seat left and we managed to get on and, like I said, that flight, for some reason, was a blur, but I do remember the rest of it.

 

[Interviewer]: [16:35:4] I’m sure you were in shock at that point.

 

[Steve Albert]: I probably was traumatized to some degree not even knowing that I was traumatized. And it took—it took several days to process all of this and digest what had just happened and—it takes a while. And then to have to come back to the scene was somewhat devastating. And to see the campus in that—in that way.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. Just so abandoned.

 

[Steve Albert]: So abandoned.

 

[Interviewer]: [17:05:3] Did you stay overnight or literally just got your stuff and then drove back?

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, it was— it was a whirlwind situation.  

 

[Interviewer]: It was a long trip.

 

[Steve Albert]: We just gathered our stuff, put it in our suitcases, and threw it into the car of the father of one of my roommates and it was a quick turnaround. It was probably within an hour. And we were right back on the road again. Yeah and—

 

[Interviewer]: [17:30:2] What were you doing, at that point, in terms of finishing your course work from that quarter? Did you—?

 

[Steve Albert]: We had the take-home exams.

 

[Interviewer]: You did.

 

[Steve Albert]: And you know, as a result of those being take-home exams, they obviously stepped up the intensity of the questions and made things a little tougher because they knew we could research. But of course, we didn’t have the kinds of research we have today, you know, on laptops and on computers. So, I literally had to go to a library where it was nice and quiet and I could focus and concentrate and I had like mounds of questions from the different courses that I had taken. They sent large envelopes to every student, I assume, because I got mine. And then I was in the library for hours just doing my work. I had books piled up to get things done, get the answers to these many questions. And then, you know, it was relief to finally complete that and then you stuffed it back in the envelope, went to the Post Office, and sent it back to Kent State. And it was very bizarre, very odd, but these were difficult and strange times.  

 

[Interviewer]: [18:50:9] Absolutely. Do you have any memories you’d like to share of when you arrived back on campus in the fall? Did you have the same roommates? What were things like?

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, basically the same faces, yeah. When we got back and got back into the flow of being a student, a couple of things I recall. Suddenly, there was great pride in being a Kent State student. It was just a terrible thing that had happened, you know, tragic on so many levels. But we were proud to be back on campus. You know, a lot of kids didn’t come back. Their parents wouldn’t allow them back thinking, Hey, they don’t want a repeat of this terrible event. But I was determined to come back. I wanted to get this hockey program off the ground and, thank goodness, successfully, we did.

 

And the other thing that I recall, pretty vividly, was that, as a result of this just horrific event, suddenly all these entertainers and activists and everything wanted to come back onto campus. And people like George Carlin, one of the greatest comedians on earth, came back to entertain. If I’m not mistaken, Bob Hope came to campus and to entertain. He did a theater in the round at Memorial Gymnasium. I remember the great singer Johnny Mathis coming to town and they told me at the radio station, “Can you run over to the gym,” a couple of hours before Johnny was going to go on stage, “And do an interview with him?” And I said, “Johnny Mathis? You want me to interview Johnny Mathis? I’m a sports guy. What do you want?” And it turned out, I went over there and it turned out, he was a great track star in high school and maybe even college and he was really into sports and so I got into that with him. We did like a ten-minute interview or something like that and he couldn’t have been more engaging and accommodating and nice. He was relieved that somebody was talking to him about anything but music and singing and everything. It was like a nice departure for him to talk about his previous life as a track and field star. So, he got a blast out of it and I loved meeting him and talking to him. But it was people like that who came and visited the campus. Of course, a lot of activists came on campus and everything. The school suddenly, for a very unfortunate reason though, was on the map. Anybody and everybody wanted to come to this campus.

 

[Interviewer]: [21:58:8] And was a busy year for WKSU, I’m guessing.

 

[Steve Albert]: It was, it was. And then, of course we got, as I mentioned, the team off the ground. Every Friday and Saturday night we had games at the newly-constructed ice arena and it became a big hit on campus thanks to a lot of hard work and preparation. I got the services of a coach who had played defense at Boston University, was a skating instructor, a gentlemen named Don Lumley and he helped me construct this team and create and formulate a whole new team on campus. But we were kind of outcasts and rebels. We were not sanctioned by the university. However, we were getting 1,500 to 2,000 people into that small arena every Friday and Saturday night and it was like a party atmosphere. It was very entertaining. We played great music and had contests. And we went out and got sponsorship and had game programs and, most of all, we got the games on WKSU, which was my dream to do. So, my dream came true. I came to a school that didn’t have a hockey team. This comes full circle from one of your first questions. And I got this darn team on the ice and I got the games on the air and I was off and running with my career as a play-by-play announcer and a sports broadcaster.

 

[Interviewer]: [23:33:4] That’s also a really important service to your college because it was really important that year for students to have activities and social events and just to help people, you know, have a normal college experience again.

 

[Steve Albert]: Sure, right. Well, it was—

 

[Interviewer]: That sounds like these games were a big part of that.

 

[Steve Albert]: They were a big part of that and it wasn’t only done for selfish reasons.

 

[Interviewer]: No, of course not!

 

[Steve Albert]: So I could get myself on the air, but it was also to formulate, create a team that Kent State could be proud of. And I’m so thrilled that it’s still up and running to this very day.

 

[Interviewer]: [24:12:6] And you’re visiting this weekend for an alumni reunion.

 

[Steve Albert]: A hockey reunion alumni event this weekend. It’s so great to be able to talk to some of the guys, the original players. We were then known as the Kent State Clippers because, as I mentioned, we weren’t sanctioned by the university so they wouldn’t allow us to become the Golden Flashes as of yet. So, we had a contest and somebody came up with the idea of Clippers. It just—it was alliterative, it sounded nice: Kent State Clippers. And so, that’s what we were for a number of years.

 

And one of the things I was most proud of, as well, is from this university and from this hockey team, we were able to produce four announcers to the highest level of the hockey play-by-play profession, the National Hockey League, as play-by-play guys. I mean, I can rattle off their names as well. It was Mike Fornes was the play-by-play voice of the Washington Capitals. Rick Peckham, the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s still announcing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. And Paul Steigerwald, who wound up announcing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I announced for the New York Islanders. So, four people from this little group that we created became NHL play-by-play announcers and the great thing is, this year, we’ve resurrected the broadcasts of the Kent State games. It had been dormant for many years and, through the help of the Mass Communications and Journalism Departments here at Kent State, we’re able to get the games back on the air. It’s streamed live and we have very passionate, very dedicated, highly motivated students who are engaged now in the production and broadcasting of these games. And I’m so thrilled that I could be a part of the beginning of Kent State hockey almost fifty years ago now. And man, I’m old. And then to—

 

[Interviewer]: None of us are getting any younger.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, yeah. And then to have part of it re-created again, reinvented. And to be a part of both chapters in Kent State hockey history is a great thrill.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you.

 

[Steve Albert]: And that’s my story.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you mind if I ask a couple more 1970, May 4 questions?

 

[Steve Albert]: Go right ahead.

 

[Interviewer]: [26:50:3] I’m kind of curious, your narrative started on that Monday, May 4. I’m just curious if you have any visual memories of things in the few days leading up to that. That weekend before, or there was unrest downtown. Did you see any of that or—?

 

[Steve Albert]: Well, there were—I didn’t see—I wasn’t downtown. I didn’t see the fire at the ROTC Building, but there were a couple of things that happened. Let me see if I can formulate it verbally. 

 

[Interviewer]: Take your time.

 

[Steve Albert]: I was working on a term paper, a television paper, at the old Kent State Library. Not this current structure that we’re seated at right now.

 

[Interviewer]: It was in Rockwell Hall.

 

[Steve Albert]: Correct. I was working all day and night on this term paper and I walked out of the building, it was pitch dark outside, and I didn’t even realize how much time had gone by. It was now eleven o’clock at night and there was a curfew on campus. This was Sunday night, May 3. So, I walked out of the library at Rockwell [Hall] and had books under both hands, both arms. And a bunch of National Guardsmen ran towards me with their rifles and bayonets sticking out and, you know, it was a pretty alarming scene. And they said, “Halt! Who goes there?” I said, “Well, I’m a student, and I was working on a term paper in the Library, and I’m just walking back to my dorm.” So, they said, “You realize there’s a curfew?” I said, “I actually wasn’t aware of that.” And I said, “Do you mind if I walk back to my dorm?” They said, “Well, we have to escort you.” So, I had these guys on both sides of me walking me back to Tri-Towers, where I was then. I think it was at Wright Hall at the time, and not a word was said. It must have been about a, I don’t know, ten-minute walk. And you just hear the rustling of the leaves on the ground and us walking towards the dorm and I didn’t say anything. I was pretty nervous. I felt okay, I felt safe, but—I didn’t think they were going to do anything—but, it was just a kind of an odd situation to be in.

 

[Interviewer]: Not a normal situation.

 

[Steve Albert]: Was not normal, no. And so, they safely escorted me back to my dorm. I said, “Thank you very much.” They said something like, “Be careful.” Whatever, and I went into my dorm. There was another situation, I think it was earlier in the day that day. It may have been in the morning or day. It had rained and a lot of mud was created outside my dorm and a lot of the students were releasing a lot of anxiety and tension and there was like mud fights and mudslides going on outside the dorm. Can you imagine students at a college being just a little mischievous? So, anyway, they were getting a lot of energy out, which was great.

 

[Interviewer]: Mud fights are one way to do that.

 

[Steve Albert]: It was very—it was harmless, basically. However, I guess the National Guard got wind that there was something going on in front of our dormitory, there was some activity going on. It was loud and noisy and I was watching all this from upstairs from these large windows in the dorm. I was gazing, almost like it was a press box. I was looking down on everything and I remember the kids playing in the mud, the students, and then, all of a sudden, a battalion of soldiers came marching toward the dorm with rifles and all that stuff. And one of the graduate assistants kind of saw what was going on and he ran out, outside, and confronted the soldiers and waving his arms, waving his hands going like, “There’s nothing here. Nothing going on here. Nothing to get excited about.” So, I couldn’t hear anything because I was too high up but I could view what was going on, visually. What he must have been saying to these guys was, “Please, don’t start any trouble here. The students are just releasing energy. They’re playing in the mud. This is nothing to be alarmed about or anything like that.” So then, the next thing I see is they did an about-face, in unison, and marched away and that was it. So, thank goodness this grad assistant had the wits about him to do that. That he was there, he could see it, and he was the one who ran out to stop this. God only knows what would have happened if they kept marching towards these kids. Who knows? You just never know. 

 

[Interviewer]: Right. Mud could’ve been thrown, I mean, yeah.

 

[Steve Albert]: I mean, look what happened on May 4^th. Those are the things that stand out to me in the day or days leading up to the actual May 4^th event.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you happen to remember the name of that resident advisor? I know that’s hard.

 

[Steve Albert]: I do not. Yeah, I wish I could provide you with that information, but I don’t remember that person’s name. Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: [33:06:3] Were people in your dorm nervous about what was happening on campus? I mean, was there kind of a different mood in the dorm?

 

[Steve Albert]: Oh, it was a totally different vibe that weekend. You know, from the moment Governor Rhodes put the National Guardsmen on that campus and then the ROTC Building was burned down, and then there were fires started downtown in Kent. There was a lot of tension and anxiety and stress. On campus, we had heard that there were people from other campuses, activists, whatever, that were looking to get things going on campus and they were making speeches and all that. Yeah. I mean I was not really into the activism thing, I was so involved in sports. I was so intent on getting my hockey program going and all that and I was so focused on that. And, although I was a broadcasting major, a telecommunications major, I did take interest in the fact that all these reporters and newspeople were on campus. I recognized many of them from the networks. I remember one of them, I’m trying to remember his name. One of them I remembered, he was doing a standup. He was with CBS on campus and I remember him also, when I was younger in high school, watching him when he was reporting on the John F. Kennedy assassination in the Book Depository in Dallas, Texas. And there he was on the Kent State campus reporting what was going on at Kent State. And I remember a lot of the students were walking by and booing—booing them—they were booing the reporters like, “Get off our campus.” You know, like that. I think his name was Pettit, his last name was Pettit, the newscaster. So, in any event, I was observing all this stuff going on beforehand, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: [35:29:9] Another thing I’m wondering, when you were back home that summer in 1970, was this something a lot of people asked you about in your hometown? Did you feel like you were kind of representing Kent State to a certain extent?

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah. That’s a great question. And the answer is not as much as you’d think. Yeah, I mean people obviously saw it on the news and all that and my friends knew I went to Kent State—I was going there. I guess a few of them must have asked me, “Are you going to go back?” And I said, “Oh, absolutely. With more determination than ever before, I’m going back. For many reasons.” And they said, “That’s great. That’s great that you’re going back.” And they were very supportive and all that. My parents—it never even came up. My parents never said, “Maybe think twice before you go back to this campus. You never know if something can happen again.” But I didn’t think anything was going to happen again. I think what my friends and maybe relatives must have thought that, Why Kent State? Why did it happen there? Of all campuses? I mean you got Stanford, you got Cal, you know, UC Berkley. You got all these activist-type schools and protest-type schools. You’ve got Columbia, you’ve got Harvard. Why Kent State? And I honestly had no answer for them. You know, it just happened to happen at Kent State. Then it followed at Jackson State. You know, it’s lovely to have your school on the map, but that was for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately.

 

[Interviewer]: Well, unless you have anything else you’d like to add, I think we can close here.

 

[Steve Albert]: I think we’ve covered it all, Kate. I appreciate you inviting me to do this.

 

[Interviewer]: Well, and I really appreciate your taking the time to sit down and share your story. Thank you so much.

 

[Steve Albert]: Thank you.

 

[recording pauses]

 

[Interviewer]: [37:36:5] This is Kathleen Medicus back again with Steve Albert. We’re going to add another story to his oral history. I was asking him about his experience with the draft and the Vietnam War.

 

[Steve Albert]: When I was a senior in high school, my mom took me to the draft board office in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and I had to get my draft card. So, I was eighteen at the time and then I go to Kent State and it was during Vietnam, of course. They had a draft lottery. So, the day came and I was up at WKSU, where I went to the wire service machine and they were spitting out the corresponding numbers to your birthday and that is how you found out what your number was. So, it was a very anxiety ridden day. But I had first access to it, before a lot of the students, by being at the radio station. And so, they’re telling everybody, you know, “Here comes your birthday.” Blah, blah, blah. “And there’s a corresponding number next to it.” And up popped April 26, my birthday, and the number 3-4-0 popped up out of 365. So, I took a big deep breath and a sigh of relief, knowing that the higher the number, the less likely you would be called. Also, I was a student at Kent State. They had what was called a 2-S and we called it “too smart,” 2-S. Although, in my case, we make the exception. But it was 2-S and so that, unless you flunked out—and boy, were you incentivized not to flunk out, and motivated. So, thank goodness, with a high number and decent grades I was able to stay in school for the duration of the conflict in Vietnam. Then, of course, when President Nixon had the United States invade Cambodia, he escalated the war and that really drove the intensity on campus to another level. The unfortunate result of that was the May 4^th massacre on the campus of Kent State. 

 

[Interviewer]: When you first stated your lottery number and you just said the number three, I thought, “Oh no.” Thank goodness it was 300-something.

 

[Steve Albert]: I kept going three, four, zero. Yeah. That was quite a—

 

[Interviewer]: [40:23:8] You never did get drafted? Doesn’t sound like—

 

[Steve Albert]: No, I did not. I did not. The funny thing is there’s an addendum to that story that has a little bit to do with me. When I was a senior in high school, my brother, Al, who had been a hockey star at Ohio University, he was goaltender, got a tryout. Was good enough to get a tryout with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. My oldest brother, Marv, and I went up to Kitchener, Ontario, to watch him try out. Marv was then the play-by-play voice, radio, for the New York Rangers. You know, I was an aspiring sportscaster. I was getting ready to go to Kent State the next year and Al had just graduated from Ohio University and he got this unbelievable tryout with our childhood team, the New York Rangers, our hometown team. And he—make a long story short, he—when he was on the ice wearing a Rangers’ uniform with all these great players from the National Hockey League, he got drafted. During the heart of Vietnam. So, he went. He had to leave training camp. It was immediate. They don’t mess around. He had to get on the next plane to a fort and do his six-month basic training. But fortunately for him and for us, he never had to go to Vietnam.

 

[Interviewer]: He didn’t go to Vietnam.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, he stayed in the United States. As a result of his tryout with the Rangers, they were nice enough to put him on a Rangers’ farm team, a minor league team, in Toledo. He played for the Toledo Blades in the International Hockey League for a little while and wound up announcing for them. So, he was on his way to becoming a professional announcer.

 

[Interviewer]: Being drafted didn’t completely derail that for him?

 

[Steve Albert]: Right, those plans. Crazy, huh? I mean, how your life takes twists and turns, you know.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, and those were turbulent years and many people’s lives took turns.

 

[Steve Albert]: Yeah, they were. But, you know, your life goes on and you try to keep it on the right track despite all this tumult going on around you, yeah. There’s a book here somewhere, ready to be written. We’ll see about that.

 

[Interviewer]: Well, thank you again for sharing these stories, I really appreciate it.

 

[Steve Albert]: Thank you, Kate. Thanks for asking.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you.

 

[End of interview]

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