The New York Times-20080125-Many Lessons Still to Be Taught By an Old Master

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Many Lessons Still to Be Taught By an Old Master

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Marty Glickman is still teaching.

His student is Marv Albert.

The voice coming out of Albert's computer one day last week was Glickman's, calling a Giants-Packers game in September 1971 and then a Bills-Jets game in December 1973. Albert, dressed casually in black, listened as he leaned on the edge of his desk in his Manhattan penthouse.

Glickman, the one-time Olympic sprinter who died in 2001, had a voice like a short-distance runner. It leaped out of its blocks and accelerated powerfully with the action. The words were easy to discern despite the speed of his delivery.

Albert doesn't listen long and never needs to. He is a master of his craft, as admired and imitated in his day as Glickman was in his. His Glickman football archive reminds him to stay precise in his N.F.L. work for CBS Radio. Albert will call the Super Bowl.

He heard Glickman set the Giants' and the Packers' backfields and call the formations.

All that detail, delivered quickly and efficiently. Rat-a-tat-snap!

Is it split backs? Albert said, reciting Glickman's field geography lessons. Is it a single back? An empty backfield? Is the quarterback under center or in a shotgun? Is it a slot-right formation? An I-formation? Is the flanker to the left?

He takes his weekly tutorials with Glickman, who once dominated New York sports as the first play-by-play announcer for the Knicks and as the voice of the football Giants.

If I didn't do it, I'd be O.K., he said. Maybe it's a comfort zone. But if you're honest about your work, you question what you do sometimes.

And Glickman, with teachings from a different era, provides some answers. Albert worked as Glickman's researcher on the High School Game of the Week television series and at age 19 got his big break by filling in for Glickman on a Knicks game in 1963, his mentor's last season with the team. Albert became the radio voice of the Knicks in 1967 and followed Glickman on Giants games in '73 when Glickman parted for the Jets.

He'd call me after games to say, 'Good job, kid,' Albert said. He pronounced it keed.

Albert is no longer a kid. He is 64 and married to his second wife, Heather, who was in and out of the apartment as he talked about Glickman. Their 5-month-old pug, Trixie, climbed Albert's lap to lick his face and kept cozying up to their suspicious 10-year-old pug, Ruby, who is still dealing with the recent death of her companion, Lulu.

The Czar stayed over here one time, he said, referring to Mike Fratello, his TNT colleague, and his big highlight was, because pugs have problems seeing things, Lulu walking right into a wall. Not what she had in mind.

While Albert might never admit to learning anything from Fratello, the fruits of Glickman's tutelage are evident (even without any of Glickman's basketball games in his archive) when watching Albert call N.B.A. games on TNT and the Nets on the YES Network. Albert has tailored the lessons for his more humorous personality, for the specifics that are not required on TV and for the often renowned partners he teases.

Glickman's court geography is Albert's. A ball doesn't magically appear in the forecourt. How many ways can a ball get there? Twenty? Thirty? Describe them. Is the ball in the right corner? Is the player on the right baseline? Is he going left or right?

One day early on when I was doing the Knicks on radio, Marty picked up on something that only he would, he said. He heard me say an awful lot of guys were driving straight down the lane. He said, 'Is that really that many? Aren't they going across the lane?'

Younger announcers study Albert as surely as he schooled himself on Glickman.

From that Giants-Packers game in 1971, here is what Albert has heard Glickman say: They're in a double-wing formation once again. Coffey the only deep back. McNeil is split very wide to the left. Going back to pass is Fran Tarkenton. Setting up, throwing deep down to the right side is Kotite. Down to the 15, to the 10, to the 5, to the 1-yard line. He's hit down at the 1. Kotite streaking down the far side, taking the perfect lead pass from Fran Tarkenton and it's first-and-goal to go for the Giants on the 1.

Albert's football style is less excitable, but in Glickman's call of Ken Ellis's runback of a missed first-quarter field goal by Giants kicker Pete Gogolak, there is much to respect. He's in the middle of the field, Glickman said, his voice quickening. He has two men to beat, now he has one man to beat, just Fran Tarkenton. He cuts to his left. The Giants are catching up to him. He gets to the 30-yard-line, to the 20-yard-line, going down to the 10, he cuts back. Touchdown. Touchdown. A magnificent run by Ken Ellis.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Marv Albert, right, listens to old football broadcasts by Marty Glickman, left, to keep himself sharp during the season. (PHOTOGRAPH BY WHN/ASSOCIATED FEATURES, INC.)