Ty Tyson

Edwin Lloyd "Ty" Tyson (May 11, 1888 – December 12, 1968) was an American sports broadcaster and radio play-by-play announcer.

Tyson was born in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania and he attended Penn State University. As a young man, he played ball and acted in nearby Tyrone, Pennsylvania. While acting in a play, he met another young man from Tyrone, Fred Waring. The two became fast friends. Tyson spent his early years jumping from job to job, including stints in the coal, wallpaper, and papermaking industries, a time in stationery with his father, and as mercantile appraiser. In addition, he spent two years of World War I in the Army, including 11 months of that time overseas.

Fred Waring, meanwhile, formed his famous orchestra, the Pennsylvanians, and began touring the country. After playing at the University of Michigan in 1922, Waring was invited to perform on WWJ in Detroit, then a radio station just a few months old. Bill Holiday, the station manager and nation's first radio announcer, was looking for someone to replace him. Waring suggested Tyson, and Holiday immediately telegraphed a job offer. Tyson accepted.

Tyson handled announcing chores for various events at WWJ, including broadcasting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the opening of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. What he is best known for, however, is his pioneering work on play-by-play of live sports broadcasts for the station.

In 1924, Tyson broadcast the first University of Michigan football game aired on the radio. Fielding H. Yost had given WWJ permission to broadcast the game against Wisconsin only because the game had been sold out. He was afraid broadcasting would hurt sales, but before the next home game Michigan was inundated with ticket requests. Sensing a good thing, Yost agreed to more broadcasts.

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