When Harry Met: Terry Teat, Sand Rock High's football PA announcer for 44 years

Terry Teat is the public address announcer for Sand Rock High School’s home football games — and did you know that job (a volunteer one at most, if not all, schools) is addressed by the Alabama High School Athletic Association?

From pages 21-22 of the AHSAA’s Sports Handbook:

“Selecting an announcer is an important decision. The person selected should have some public speaking experience, knowledge of the event, the ability to follow instructions and the wisdom to know when to speak and, more importantly, when not to speak. The public address announcer should never try to entertain from behind the microphone, and he should always remember that this is an educational event that is taking place in a classroom.

“The good public address announcer is an individual who sets the proper atmosphere for the event by doing advance preparation for the game, having the proper voice quality, knowing the game, knowing when to speak and maintaining a professional approach to the game at all times. The unseen but heard voice is an important part of the administration and the enjoyment of interscholastic events.”

Teat, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday Oct. 29, got the Wildcats’ PA announcing job shortly after graduating from the school in 1978; he was 19 years old.

“The athletic club was looking for somebody to do the job; they had heard I had a desire to study broadcasting and to work as an announcer,” he said. “That never happened, but I’m glad to have had the PA job offered. I enjoy the atmosphere of a ball game; it’s fun to watch and to call the plays.”

The 2022 football season marks Teat’s 44th consecutive year of PA announcing for his home school. That is a lot of games, almost 500, about half of which Teat has announced from the press box atop the Wildcats’ home field, Russell Jacoway Stadium.

SRHS Principal Ben East said Teat’s work with the microphone makes a great impact on the football games. “He does a great job of promoting our school,” East said, “and during a game does a great job of keeping fans of both teams interested in what’s happening on the field.”

Head football coach Stan Heath echoed the administrator’s remarks, adding that Teat is “totally committed to his work; our society has lost that kind of service and it’s refreshing to see it performed so well in our community.

“Because of his commitment and the fact that he is a volunteer,” Heath said, “he’s a role model for our students and fans.”

There have been many special occasions for Teat during his four-plus decades of PA announcing Wildcat football — 1981, for instance, when the school had its first 10-game season, won its first regional championship and went to the state playoffs for the first time.

Another great time for Teat and Sand Rock fans came four years later when the Wildcats had their first undefeated season (15-0) and beat Repton 14-6 in the final game of the playoffs to win the Class 1A state championship. The Wildcats had another deep foray into the state playoffs in 1997 but lost to Lawrenceville in the Class 2A final.

Now, a bit about Terry Teat away from the stadium.

Teat’s family moved to Sand Rock from Columbus, Georgia when he was in the sixth grade. “I’ve been in the area ever since,” he said with a laugh. “My family loved being in this area; they liked the way it looked, the mountains, it was a quiet place.”

As a SRHS student, he played baseball. “I love the game, then and now," he said. “I pitched, was the catcher and played first base.”

Teat was hired in 1978 to work in the communications field by the TDS phone company of Leesburg, and later moved to Fort Payne to work in that field for LADD Engineering Co., and also served as plant manager for Hopper Telephone in Altoona.

He retired from the telephone communications field 10 years ago to concentrate on another career that had been building since high school days.

“I’ve always been a picker,” Teat said. “I love yard sales, estate sales, antiques of all kinds … buying and selling, too.”

His “junking” days finally led him to open Peddler’s Market, an antique store on Alabama Highway 68 West, not far from the entrance to Sand Rock’s “downtown.” It’s said that on a given day, you will find customers from all around the state shopping there, and maybe a couple or two from Georgia or Tennessee. “I do love this kind of work,” said Teat, who also is a licensed auctioneer and holds regular auctions onsite.

By the way, Teat and his wife, Terri, have been married for 41 years and are parents of a son and daughter who have blessed them with seven grandchildren.

A never-to-be-forgotten memory of Sand Rock football from 1980: In his popular weekly Gadsden Times high school prediction column, sports writer John Alred noted that Sand Rock had lost its previous seven games with the Gaston Bulldogs by a combined score of 167 to 41. He said Gaston would crush the Rock once more in that year’s meeting, at the Bulldogs’ home field in North Gadsden.

I called Alred, now a retired Calhoun County newspaper publisher, and asked if he remembered the prediction and game that followed: “I had predicted Gaston winning, crushing the Rock into tiny pebbles, something like 35-20. Well, Sand Rock came down here and beat Gaston, 19-6 and left a present for me,” he said with a laugh.

What was the present?

Alred told the story in a 2006 Times article: “When I came to work next morning, there was a big (some estimated the size at more than 500 pounds) boulder on the sidewalk right in front of the door. They had painted something on it about me and Sand Rock, kind of paying me back for not picking the Rock to win. It was so big we had to get men with sledgehammers to break it up before we could move it.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Terry Teat's 44 years as Sand Rock's football PA announcer