★ About Charlie
A dreamer from Holly Springs
Charlie McAlexander, known across the Southeastern Conference as Charlie Mac, spent five decades as one of the most decorated play-by-play broadcasters in college sports.
★ Thirty miles from everything
Gumption, and a little fear
Charlie grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi, about thirty miles from Ole Miss and close enough to Memphis to hear what was coming out of Sun and Stax. His first baseball hero was Luis Aparicio at Russwood Park. The first record he bought was Little Richard's Long Tall Sally, paid for with money from cutting lawns.
He was not a great student, and he will tell you so. He started at Ole Miss, went on to Northwest Mississippi Community College, and graduated from Delta State University in Cleveland, where he played baseball. He came home and coached high school football, basketball, and baseball before a thousand-watt station in Holly Springs, WKRA, put him on the air for ninety dollars a week.
From there it was television in Greenwood, Jackson, Memphis, and Nashville, play-by-play for four SEC schools in four states, network radio, and ESPN. Along the way he never learned to kiss up, and he never stopped singing.
“I have done things people said I could not do. Well, let us see.”
Charlie Mac, More Than a Game
★ The honest call
Never a big-time homer
His first trip to Tiger Stadium was in 1976, and LSU ran up 512 yards on Ole Miss. Charlie said on the air that Ole Miss did not deserve to be on the same field that night, and there was a knock on the booth door at halftime. He kept calling it straight anyway. The announcers he admired most did the same: Cawood Ledford, Jack Cristil, Verne Lundquist, and Keith Jackson.
★ CMac's Dandy Dozen
The people he admired
Twelve in each category, in no particular order. Here are a few names from each of Charlie's lists in the book.
The athletes
Walter Payton, Archie Manning, Ray Guy, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Lance Alworth, Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens, and Secretariat.
The coaches
Bear Bryant, Johnny Vaught, Vince Dooley, Nick Saban, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan, Pat Summitt, Margaret Wade, Eddie Fogler, and Ray Tanner.
The announcers
Keith Jackson, Verne Lundquist, Ron Franklin, Marty Brennaman, Kirk Herbstreit, Jack Cristil, Tom Hammond, Brad Sham, and John Rooney.
The sportswriters
Tony Barnhart, Rick Reilly, Lewis Grizzard, Dan Jenkins, Edwin Pope, Furman Bisher, Fred Russell, and Rick Cleveland.
★ Family
Betty, Emily, and Carrie
Charlie is married to the former Betty McClatchy of Holly Springs. They have two daughters, Emily and Carrie, and grandchildren Sarah and Hank, who has sat in on drums with his granddad's band. Betty, as he puts it, dealt with the travel, the jobs, the politics, and all the times he was gone. They live in Nashville, Tennessee.
★ The grandkids
Sarah and Hank
★ The memoir, now taking preorders
More Than a GameA Life in Sports
Stories & Second Chances
“I've been a lot of places. Can't hit a moving target.” From Holly Springs to the SEC booth, the games, the legends, the fear that drove him, and the second chances that kept him going, told the way only Charlie tells it.
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