UGA’s football radio announcer, Howard, has an E.Z. listener

ATHENS – Scott Howard is the radio play-by-play announcer for the Georgia Bulldogs football team. 

In a sense, he is an artist, too.

His palette is green grass, red coats and silver britches. His paint-by-numbers are stat sheets, down markers and game clocks. His Saturdays carry him everywhere from between the hedges of Sanford Stadium to the houndstooth hats of Tuscaloosa and the bluetick hound dogs of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

Howard’s predecessor, the late, great Larry Munson, used to beckon his listeners before every game to “get the picture.’’ 

Howard not only urges them to “get the picture” but paints it with beautiful brush strokes.

It couldn’t have been easy filling the shoes of the legendary Munson 15 years ago. But Howard has been in the booth for some of Georgia’s biggest games and greatest moments. His tongue raced Sony Michel down the sidelines at the Rose Bowl. His binoculars chased Stetson Bennett across the field in Indianapolis in the national championship game.

Along the way, he has built a large and loyal audience.  And, on Monday, the week of Saturday’s SEC Championship Game, he met one of his listeners.

If E.Z. Cleghorn, of Warner Robins, isn’t the biggest cheerleader in the Scott Howard Fan Club, he certainly is the most appreciative.

A Georgia fan listening to the game on their car radio can  construct a visual image of a quarterback sack or game-winning field goal across their radio dial.

E.Z.’s world is all audio … no video. Even though the radio can take him somewhere he cannot be, even if he were there, he could not see it. 

He has been blind since birth. 

He has never seen a sunrise. He has never laid eyes on a tailgate party. The beauty of the autumn landscape cannot take his breath away the way it does for you and me. 

“Scott is so good at painting a picture,’’ E.Z. said. “It makes it possible for me to love and understand football, and I appreciate that.’’

In a visual world, a college football game is a large and busy canvas. Howard must describe the action the same way a writer reaches for colorful words. The difference is that a writer can pause and reflect. Howard’s nouns and verbs are moving targets in real time.

“That’s the one thing in my head every game,’’ Howard said. “Sometimes I overdo it. I get behind on the play-by-play because I’m trying to be descriptive for somebody who is not watching what I’m watching, so they can feel like they were there.’’

I have known Ernest Zachary Cleghorn – better known as E.Z. – for the past 15 years. He was born prematurely on Feb. 13, 1986, the day before Valentine’s Day. His heart and lungs were barely formed at birth. He weighed only 1 pound, 6 ounces and could fit in his mother’s palm. Doctors told his parents not to go home and paint the nursery but to plan for a funeral.

But he became known as a “Miracle Child.” He was featured in newspaper and television stories, including CNN. When he came home from the hospital after two months, he received a letter from President Ronald Reagan, commending his fighting spirit.

He grew up to be a gifted singer and is now a voice teacher. He always wanted to meet one of his musical heroes, Ronnie Milsap, who is also blind. So E.Z. called me. And it wasn’t because I had the country singer on my speed dial. I knew Milsap’s sister-in-law, Kay Powell, who lived in Macon. And we made it happen in 2016 … the year E.Z. turned 30.

His parents died eight months apart in 2021. But E.Z. remains remarkably self-sufficient. He still lives in the house where he grew up in Warner Robins.  He does not use his visual handicap as a crutch. He always talks about “seeing’’ people or “watching” something … as if he really can.

A few months ago, E.Z. told me about another item on his ‘bucket list.’’ He wanted to meet Howard. I told him we would make that happen, too. Never block a blessing.

As a child, E.Z. was a huge fan of professional wrestling announcers Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross. (Schiavone once was a radio producer with Howard and his son, Chris Schiavone, now works with Howard in the Georgia broadcast booth.)

E.Z. later became a Georgia football fan because of Howard, who did color game commentary with Munson, as well as his positions as the voice of Bulldogs basketball and baseball.

“He has been one of the voices in my head since I was a teenager,’’ E.Z. said.

Howard’s rise to becoming the most recognizable voice in the Bulldog Nation started with an impeccable case of good timing. He arrived on the UGA campus as a college freshman in 1980 – the year Herschel Walker led the Dogs to the national championship and Munson’s epic Buck Belue to Lindsay Scott call at the
Georgia-Florida game.

When he couldn’t find a job in radio after he graduated, Howard went to work for Delta in baggage claim.  He had a short stint at a radio station in Cochran. So he put everything he owned in a storage facility in Warner Robins and moved to his parents’ home to regroup. He landed on his feet in Milledgeville in the late 1980s at WMVG-AM and WKZR-FM, where he was a disc jockey and sports director.

“I was on the air all the time,’’ he said, laughing. “If it had to be done at the radio station, I had the chance to do it.’’

After three years, the hard work and dues-paying carried him 74 miles up Highway 441 to Athens, where he served as sports director for radio stations WNGC-FM and WGAU-AM and FM. He sat to Munson’s left as his color analyst from 1993 to 2008. When Munson retired, Howard was promoted and joined in the booth by another E.Z. – former Georgia quarterback Eric Zeir.

Howard was gracious when we met with him for almost an hour at his office on South Milledge Avenue.
Appropriately enough, it was only a few days after Thanksgiving because E.Z. told Howard how grateful he was for him having such a huge impact on his life.

He later told me that Howard was one of the most “genuine’’ people he had ever met.

Of course, E.Z. asked him about everything from the number of chairs in the booth in the new press box to what kinds of food was served, if they all wore headsets and how many spotters he used.

Howard was amazed as he listened to E.Z. rattle off impressions of so many of his famous football calls … and even some of the commercials. 

He was touched when E.Z. told him:  “Everything you do means probably more than you know.  If you think of an audience of one, I will be proud to be that audience.’’

 The voice of the Bulldogs reached over and placed his hand on E.Z.’s shoulder.

“You realize that from here on out,’’ he said, “every time I do a game I’m going to be thinking of you listening to it.’’