Ralph Bertam Puckett, used the Radio Name BERT WILSON
Bert was born in 1911 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. From the time he was a young boy he knew he wanted to be in broadcasting. He was a ham radio operator in his teens and was the first person to contact Admiral Richard Byrd and his expedition from Antarctica in 1934; he began his sportscaster career in 1922 at local Cedar Rapids WMT-AM, announcing the Raiders baseball games from the roof of a nearby house. He was not allowed to broadcast from the ball park, as the ball club was afraid his broadcasts would cut down on attendance at the games. He spent 10 years at WMT before moving on to Chicago. In his early days, one of his favorite sports to cover was hockey. He wrote an article in a local newspaper about whether the "fights" in hockey were real or fake!
In 1943 Bert was the official announcer for the Indianapolis 500.
From 1944 - 1955, Bert did play-by-play for Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs. He had several catch-phrases, but most knew him as the "I DON'T CARE WHO WINS AS LONG AS IT'S THE CUBS" guy. His other catch phrases included "Sic 'em, Cubs", "It's A Beautiful Day at Wrigley Field", "Bring On The Bears", when the Cubs were doing poorly at the end of a season, which was most of the time!, and "Bingo to Bango to Bilko"
The "Bingo to Bango to Bilko" phrase refered to the double play combination of ERNIE BANKS, GENE BAKER AND STEVE BILKO.
The Cubs were contenders in the 1945 World Series during Wilson second season. He was the last announcer to broadcast a Cubs World Series game against the Detroit Tigers. (see Charles Billington's book "Wrigley Field's Last World Series"). Wilson also called Chicago Bears football in the 1940's.
Following the 1955 season, Wilson signed with the Cincinnati Reds to do play-by-play on television. Before he left, the Cubs held a BERT WILSON DAY to honor his years of service.
He died from heart failure November 5, 1955, prior to the start of the 1956 season at the age of 44.
He is under-recognized as a fine announcer; listed in Curt Smith's book "Voices of Summer" as one of the 101 All-Time Best Announcers!
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