Ted Leitner seldom wanted an Aztecs team to win more than he did Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.
Leitner wanted success for 29 other San Diego State men’s basketball teams as their play-by-play radio broadcaster. Just two years ago, the Aztecs played for the national title. Tough one to top.
A difference Tuesday was State beating favored North Carolina in the First Four game of the NCAA Tournament would’ve extended the 78-year-old’s broadcasting career.
Milwaukee, where Tuesday’s winner will play Friday, dazzled like Hawaii in Leitner’s imagination.
“In all my years with the Padres after the Brewers came into the National League, I don’t think I ever uttered the comment, ‘I really want to go to Milwaukee,’” Leitner said by phone a few hours before Tuesday’s tipoff.
“But now, I tell you,” he said, laughing, “I really want to go to Milwaukee.”
Above all he wanted the win Tuesday for Aztecs coaches, players and fans, he said.
But Leitner has described play-by-play as bliss, and a 95-68 Aztecs defeat, he reiterated Tuesday, marked his final play-by-play performance.
North Carolina played so well, it became clear late in the first half the Aztecs and Leitner would be on Wednesday flight to San Diego.
The Tar Heels led 35-13 through 14 minutes.
“They’re doing everything, and everything right,” Leitner said.
“Carolina, flexing their muscles big-time,” he added.
Then came a quick, colorful riff, a Leitner specialty going back five decades in San Diego.
He mentioned Dean Smith, the former Carolina coach.
“Fantastic coach,” Leitner said. “Great friend of Steve Fisher. Who started all of this for SDSU. I have been so privileged to be along for the ride. As Larry Lucchino used to say, ‘You’re in the vapor trail. You’re in the vapor trail, you’re not great.’”
About the Aztecs, he was matter-of-fact.
“Just overwhelmed, just overwhelmed,” he said. “When you don’t make shots, you look bad, that’s all.”
The halftime margin was 24 points. Only one half of play-by-play remained for a broadcaster who’s informed and entertained generations of San Diego sports fans. Who called games for the Aztecs, Chargers and Padres.
Leitner acknowledged beforehand that if the Aztecs lost, he may not again work in broadcasting.
His glaucoma argues against him doing more play-by-play.
He would be terrific at talk radio — if someone hands him a mic.
“I’m not sure what there will be as a next,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I’m obviously too old for television. In radio, there just aren’t many jobs available in any market, including San Diego. It’s all podcasts.
“I don’t know that there will be any broadcasting after whenever this final game is.”
If this was indeed Leitner’s final play-by-play call, it wasn’t inappropriate that State got blown out.
Numerous overmatched San Diego teams, in a variety of sports, revealed and further developed Leitner’s ability to entertain, regardless of the game’s competitiveness.
He was thrilled to have an audience, whatever the score.
“God, I love this,” he told Chargers color analyst Hank Bauer long ago, during a commercial break.
“What the heck is wrong with you?” Bauer responded. “We’re down three touchdowns, and we’re in a 1-15 season.”
“Hank, I just love it so much,” Leitner said.
Leitner’s dad couldn’t figure him out, either.
“Broadcaster?” he cracked, after his teenage son told him that’s what he wanted to be. “You can’t put two sentences together.”
Turned out, Leitner could talk two hours without a hiccup.
“Ted, you don’t talk in sentences, you talk in paragraphs,” Padres CEO Jeff Moorad told him. Calling him a Padres icon, Peter Seidler made him a Padres ambassador, a role he still has.
g off Tuesday, he referred to Aztecs players as old souls, saying they enjoy helping others. He lauded his successor, Jon Schaeffer, telling him: “I kept my word, I’m outta here, I punched my ticket.”
“Believe me,” he told the audience, “I’ll miss you more than you’ll miss me, and that’s not putting myself down — I mean it 100%,” he said, adding: “It’s been a tremendously wonderful, wonderful time.”
