I sat next to him for 38 years during Wyoming football and basketball games.

Tomorrow, when Wyoming opens its 2022 football season at Illinois, I won't be. 

After nearly four decades, Wyoming's "Voice of the Cowboys", Dave Walsh, won't have the play-by-play call for a Wyoming game. Through all the great moments and the bad, he has been Wyoming's Voice, its radio connection to the excitement, and heartbreak, of Poke football and basketball.

Dave and I were together for nearly 1,600 Cowboy games, a lot of them memorable, a few quite forgettable.  We were together through nine football coaching staffs, eight more basketball staffs.

Saturday he and I won't be in the radio booth together.

He stepped aside this summer after one of the nation's most illustrious and successful careers in the sports broadcasting business.  I know it was a very difficult decision for him, although we didn't discuss it.  With the class he always exuded he simply said it was time.

Long ago we talked about this eventuality. But I never really thought much about it as the season's rolled by.

That eventuality has come. Tomorrow's game in Champaign will be quite different, for me and for you. How could it not?  Dave was always there, always excited, always prepared, always professional, always passionate, his shirt impeccably pressed, his tie straight as an arrow. He loved what he did, he loved the Cowboys.  He rooted for their success as much or more than any of us.

When the Cowboys made a big play on the field, or hit a key basket on the court his excitement was contagious.  It was real.  Fans couldn't help but get excited while listening to his call from wherever they were? I did too, and I was sitting next to him seeing the same thing! 

Watching the games alongside him and hearing his call for all those years made me appreciate him even more than maybe even you did.  He was an artist with words.  Stop and think how difficult it would be to describe what you are seeing accurately with excitement.  Painting a picture so you could imagine the scene.  His voice was his first gift, his ability to describe what he was seeing was his second.  It's a special talent that few are fortunate to have.

He had it, and Wyoming was the beneficiary of it.  I believe Cowboy fans appreciated what they had in Dave.  He was beloved, and without question the most famous Voice in the Equality State. 

Dave was born to excel in the broadcasting profession.  He came out of Chula Vista, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, and graduated from San Diego State.  He got his start in radio in Brawley, Calif., a city in the Imperial Valley, and ended up in Wyoming doing play-by-play for the CBA's Casper Wildcatters.  It wasn't long after that he was doing UW games.

My first memories of him: what a great guy, but most especially what a voice!  Sitting in my living room with him for the first time and visiting with him, well, that voice blew me away.

Little did we know way back then that he would become a household name in Wyoming, a household voice, THE Voice. Sitting there getting to know each other, neither of us couldn't have imagine the honors that he would rightfully earn.  He was a nine-time Wyoming Sportscaster of the Year as selected by those in his profession.  He was inducted into the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and a year later into the University of Wyoming Intercollegiate Hall of Fame. In 2020 he was named the recipient of the National Football Foundation's Chris Schenkel Award, a distinguished collegiate football broadcaster in his own right.  It is one of the most prestigious broadcasting awards in the country. Dave is one of just 26 broadcasters to have his name on that award.

I called him the other day, and we began reminiscing.  The visit brought back great memories.  I cherish those times.  He and I made them for over half of our adult lives.  Outside of our families, we probably spent more time together than with anybody else.

So many of those experiences are not only special to me, they are dear to me.

There is not near enough space here to recount them.  But they could certainly fill a lifetime. 

I have had the good fortune of working with two of the longest-standing play-by-play voices in collegiate athletics history.  First it was Larry Birleffi, the original Voice of the Cowboys.  It was my please to sit next to him for nearly 20 of his 40-plus years of play-by-play broadcasting.  He was the original Voice. 

Dave continued the tradition with his inimitable style (Oh the Score) and grace.  He certainly deserved the title.  

Honestly, when Larry stepped aside I didn't believe there would ever be another "Voice" like him. 

I was wrong, incredibly there was.  Really, how many universities and their followers could be that fortunate. Wyoming has been. 

So, tomorrow I'll be sitting beside the new Voice of the Cowboys, although he's not new to any of us.  Reece Monoco is the next in line.  He's very well aware of the lineage, and he embraces it.  He doesn't pretend to be Larry or Dave.  He's Reece.  I've worked with him in basketball, and I'm looking forward to working with him in football.

At the same time I shall miss my long-time friend and partner.  He was special in the world of sports broadcasting. He was special to me.  One of a kind, and I won't ever forget him. I know you won't either.