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Bill Raftery is 81 years old and going strong as a college basketball broadcaster for CBS, and he is as colorful as he is knowledgeable about the game as a former head coach at Seton Hall.
The New Jersey guy is full of zest and full of famous catchphrases, too, which he’s used on the air for decades now. Fans who are plugged into college basketball enough have grown up and grown older listening to Raftery call games, and this time of year is especially special for Raftery because it’s March.
But on Pardon My Take, a podcast done by Barstool Sports, Raftery explained how one of those catchphrases that is so unique to him nearly was gone from the airwaves. According to Raftery, his “Onions” call that he belts out after a player makes a clutch shot late in a game or shows moxie in leading his team to victory was almost taken from him and from his viewers.
“(Broadcast partner) Ian Eagle looked at me, like, where did that come from?” recalled Raftery about the first time he used the “Onions” call when he was with ESPN. “It was appropriate for the moment, and the interesting thing about it, I used it a couple more times and ESPN said we don’t want you to use that, so I stopped using it, knowing they were sending the checks, obviously. Then some writers started using it in their articles. I got a call from ESPN saying, you know what, you can use that again.”
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So, it looks like you can thank those writers all those years ago for using “Onions” in their stories, allowing the catchphrase that is so special to so many fans to survive for decades now.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
