We call Louisiana Tech broadcaster Dave Nitz “Freeway Dave” because in the early 1980s when the Lady Techsters were in their infancy, they went to the West Coast, handed Long Beach State and USC and UCLA their hats, and came on back to Ruston en route to one of their earlier national championships.

Dave did the games. But that was the only time anyone saw him, was courtside during the games. Then he and his rent car were gone.

“I wanted to see everything; had never been out there,” he said. “I rented a car with ‘unlimited mileage.’ I exceeded that.”

Back home, Lady Techsters coach Leon Barmore, on an old manual typewriter, wrote “The Ballad of Freeway Dave,” a lyrical piece that chronicles the hijinks of a West Virginian alone in the West Coast fast lane, and loving every minute of it.

Barmore became a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame several years ago; Freeway will join him when he’s inducted as a Distinguished Service Award recipient during Induction Weekend June 6-8 in Natchitoches. (Ticket info is at LASportsHall.com)

The Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism is the most prestigious honor offered to sports media in the state. Recipients are chosen by the 35-member Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame selection committee based on nominees’ professional accomplishments in local, state, regional and even national arenas, with leadership in the LSWA a contributing factor and three decades of work in the profession as a requirement.

Freeway came to Ruston in 1974 and told wife Marlene to strap in for two or three years. But when the Tech footballers visit Austin in late August to take on the Texas Longhorns, it will mark the start of the 45th season Dave has called Tech contests.

Lump in basketball and baseball and he’s called more than 3,000 Tech events. This summer was his first in more than 35 years to not be a play by play guy for a professional baseball team; he’s called more than 4,000 pro baseball games.

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(This originally ran in Sunday editions of The Times and The News-Star, 2-3-2019. And Lord YES, I tried to make a photograph of Ida Lupino work; photography was different back then. So … you’re stuck with Timmy and Spencer, good guys for sure, but they ain’t no Ida Lupino!)

Weekends are big for FOX Sports broadcaster Tim Brando this time of year. This week he’s about to finish up four college basketball games in seven days, each on a different campus.

But last weekend was even bigger than usual — and he didn’t have a game. His job is to call the action; last weekend, he had a Friday-Saturday doubleheader, and he WAS the action.

Friday night in Houston at the Gridiron Greats Gala benefitting the Lombardi Foundation at the Post Oak Hotel, he was one of four honored with the Inaugural Lombardi Foundation Award — Timmy was named “Legendary Broadcaster.” The event also raised $300,000 toward research and treatment of children’s cancer.

Then Saturday night in New Orleans at the 35^th annual Louisiana Italian/American Sports Gala, Brando was inducted into the Louisiana Italian/American Hall of Fame.

Super Bowl Weekend came a week early for Team Brando.

“The coolest part was having all my family with me,” said Brando, who often goes by the more comfortable and fitting “Timmy B.” Usually during college football and basketball seasons, he is pulling away from his pink brick house in Shreveport’s Southern Trace neighborhood — the girls at his house won the brick color battle long ago and just about every other skirmish since—and he travels solo to college campuses across the country.

But not this time.

He had a Villanova at Butler game last Tuesday, then Michigan State at Iowa Thursday, then got to Houston Friday and there they were, waiting for him. Team Brando includes Terri, his wife of 40 years, daughters Tiffany and Tara and their husbands and the newest additions, granddaughter Wilma Scarlett (Tara) and grandson Spencer (Tiffany), named after Timmy’s football colleague and brother-like friend, former Oklahoma All-America back Spencer Tillman, also in Houston for the event.

“They gave Big Daddy B his hugs; can’t beat that,” said Brando, who’s embraced the role of granddaddy with as much passion as Tom Brady embraces the role of New England’s quarterback.

The boy’s serious.

Speaking of good football players, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and NFL HOF safety Ronnie Lott were inducted as Lombardi Fellows. Brando led the on-stage conversation with those two and their former teammate Tillman; the three were tri-captains for San Francisco’s win over Denver in Super Bowl XXIV. It’s no surprise that the tireless and versatile Brando, who today represents “the new guard of older sportscasters,” he said, was a sort of emcee for an event at which he was honored.

“I’d like to think I’ve got a few more years left, but I really am,” said Brando, who’ll turn 63 later this month. “Other than Al Michaels, I’m probably the next oldest guy. You got a walker I can borrow?”

Saturday at the Italian shindig, well, “that was pretty cool too.” First he was back on his home turf; throughout his long award-winning career, one that more or less began when he was a teenager, Brando has never missed a chance to sing the praises of his hometown of Shreveport or of his home state.

Plus singer Deana Martin was there — daughter of the late Dean Martin, Italian as pasta — and former Houston and Oakland quarterback Dan Pastorini, the national inductee. Brando was the Buddy Diliberto Media Award winner, honoring the popular New Orleans icon who passed away in 2005 after a half century of sports commentary in New Orleans.

“Buddy D was the man,” Brando said.

Speaking of Timmy’s favorite Italians, a familiar name gets his vote as Best Actor.

“Are you kidding?” he said. “Since On The Waterfront, everybody’s been trying to be the next Marlon Brando.” And by the way, no relation, a question Timmy answers often.

Best Italian Entertainer? “Dean Martin. Coolest Italian star in my opinion. Made what’s hard look easy.”

Five-tool player in this bureau.

Finally, Favorite Italian Actress? “Ida Lupino was incredible,” he said. “Grew up watching her in all kinds of movies. Incredibly gifted and talented, an independent, strong-willed woman.

“Whatever you wanted her to do,” he said, “she could do it.”

The same can be said about Brando, a future Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer who you can see in some basketball gym (or two or three) this week. He’s not as Italian and not as pretty as the fetching Lupino — “We’re still recording her on ME TV,” he said — but he’s just as good at his job as she was at hers.

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