RIP Jim Norman

[Rhody74]

One of the nicest guys you’d ever meet:

[Brian Forster]

amen

[Rhodysk]

Grew up listening to him for the away football and men’s basketball games. Great guy! Heaven gained an angel

[Rhody74]

You’d hope they’d name something for him, like the Jim Norman Press Row.

[reef]

RIP 33 year career at URI you will be missed

[RF1]

RIP. Always a class act.

[Rhode_Island_Red]

More than anyone else, Jim Norman WAS URI.

[Brian Forster]

He deserved a better ending to his career at Rhody

[neil]

...and for the entire ram basketball family...thanks for all those post games on 138.

[Rhody123]

Terrific guy. Saw him last when they had the Rhody Grand Team Ceremony. He told me how he had lobbied the NCAA to create a receiving category for Tight Ends in their record book so Brian Forster’s accomplishments wouldn’t be lumped in with all receivers as the tight end position was such a different kind of receiver and should be recognized as such. Jim Norman was a huge part of URI Athletics. R.I.P. Jim.

[rambone 78]

My family and I knew Jim very well.

He will be missed.

[Brian Forster]

No mention in the ProJo??
Amazing

[damram]

Sad to hear.

[ramster]

No mention in the ProJo??
Amazing

It was in the Projo

https://www.providencejournal.com/sport ... basketball

The longtime voice of the URI Rams, Jim Norman, died last week in South Kingstown.
Norman was on the air for 34 years and called 1,286 straight football and men’s basketball games. He brought to listeners the exploits of such URI greats as Sly Williams, Tom Ehrhardt and Tom Garrick.
Norman was a mentor to student-athletes, journalism students wishing to break into broadcasting and athletics communication work, and to sportswriters and broadcasters around the country. He was also the school’s sports information director.
Born in Providence in 1935, he grew up in the South Kingstown village of Perryville and watched Rams basketball legend Ernie Calverley play in Rodman Hall on what was then the Rhode Island State College campus.
Norman was a 1957 URI graduate and, as a student, he worked as manager of the baseball team, editor of the student newspaper, manager of the radio station, and treasurer of the student senate, while also broadcasting basketball and football games on the college radio station.
His long career earned him induction to the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame and the Rhode Island Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, the Words Unlimited Hall of Fame, the Providence Gridiron Hall of Fame and the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame. The Meade Stadium press box is dedicated in his honor and, in 1995, he was named by The Providence Journal as one of Rhode Island’s “Top 40 Most Influential Persons in Sports for the Past 40 Years.”
Besides Roberta Homan Norman, his wife of 61 years, Norman leaves his children, Laura Norman Wilkinson and her husband, Robert Steven Wilkinson, of Warwick, James Luther Norman and his wife, Carolyn Snow Norman, of Warwick, and David Whitford Norman of Kingston; his sister, Barbara Norman Fracassa of Snug Harbor; and several grandchildren.

[Brian Forster]

Thank You

[ramster]

Thank You

You are welcome.

[Ramtastico]

I will never forget “subbing” for Don Kaull on a couple of radio broadcasts during a holiday tournament at Toledo. I told Jim radio work looked easy and he told me to show up later that evening. The first game of the doubleheader went to overtime and we had a ton of airtime to fill. Jim asked me a few questions and I quickly realized what a hard job it was! Jim was a true gentleman and got me through those two games, but I always apologized that he had to do play by play AND the color commentary as I was a deer in the headlights at times! Rest easy my friend!

[reef]

What year was that Ram ??

[Ramtastico]

It was November 2010, We beat College of Charleston and then Toledo. Crazy tournament. Drive by shooting (no deaths) at the team and my hotel. Got lost in Michigan with Bonzie Colson and Carl Koussa in one of the team vans looking for a nightclub and got pulled over with Bonzie driving. I tried to get Jim to join us but he was a smart man.

[Puck Frovidence]

I've been wondering about this for quite awhile, does anyone have any old tapes of Rhody games (any sport) that they recorded off of the radio? I don't know if taping games like that was common but it's the sort of thing I did as a kid. I never heard Jim broadcast a game but it would definitely be cool to listen to one now.

If anyone has tapes of URI sports or really anything from old WRIU broadcasts it's pretty easy to record them to your computer and upload them online. I'd be willing to walk anybody interested through the process if you've got stuff like that and want to share/preserve it.

[Ramtastico]

My wife taped it but it was so bad I think I burned it. I will check. I did do a good interview with Al Skinner at the end of the first game where I asked him some strategy questions and he did the rest of the interview giving me the finger.

[reef]

You said 2010 you have the dates right ?? Bonzie and Skinner were in the late 80s ??

[Ramulous]

Bonzie May have been on the staff.

[Rhode_Island_Red]

And IIRC Jim hadn’t done any games since 1990 or so.

[Ramtastico]

WOW, I AM GETTING F-ING OLD. Let's try this again! It was 12/27-28 1991! We beat Toledo 1st round. The Howard/NCA&T game went into OT, and the next night we played and beat NCA&T. Yes, Bonzie was on staff.
Sorry about this, but I went back and looked at the last time we played Toledo away and should have realized 2010 was almost 20 years before! I have been following this team WAY too long.
And yes, it was Jim Norman I did the game with. At least I got that right.

[NYGFan_Section208]

WOW, I AM GETTING F-ING OLD. Let's try this again! It was 12/27-28 1991! We beat Toledo 1st round. The Howard/NCA&T game went into OT, and the next night we played and beat NCA&T. Yes, Bonzie was on staff.
Sorry about this, but I went back and looked at the last time we played Toledo away and should have realized 2010 was almost 20 years before! I have been following this team WAY too long.
And yes, it was Jim Norman I did the game with. At least I got that right.

RIP Jim Norman. God bless the fact-checkers?

[Iggy1979]

https://www.ricentral.com/narragansett_ ... 9027b.html

[Ramulous]

Nice story....thanks for sharing Iggy!