VINCE CURRY - BRISBANE RACE CALLING LEGEND

Vince Curry is regarded as the best race caller that Queensland has produced. In fact, his broadcasting was respected nationwide.
Vince, who died in February 1983 at age 54 , started his calling career with 4GR in Toowoomba.

Born at Oakey, near Toowoomba, in 1929, Vince was captivated by racing at an early age. He used to do phantom calls of races, and was noticed doing this as a teenager. He became course commentator at the Toowoomba gallops when aged 16. Upon leaving school at age 17, he joined local radio station 4GR, and made his mark as an announcer and commentator before transferring to Brisbane in 1960 to replace the retiring gallops caller, Ron Anwin.

At radio 4BC, and through radio stations Australia wide, Vince became a household name and instantly recognised voice.

As well as his horse racing descriptions, Vince also excelled at describing a variety of sports, including Davis Cup tennis, test cricket. Olympic Games track and field and swimming, and one of his main loves - boxing.

Vince had a dry sense of humour, and it was during one of his boxing broadcasts at Brisbane's Festival Hall that a funny incident occurred.

Vince was seated ringside at a table with fellow commentator, John McCoy. At the conclusion of the bout, Vince stepped up onto the table to hoist himself into the ring to interview the winner. But the table collapsed, and Vince crashed to the floor and broke a collarbone. As McCoy escorted him to an awaiting ambulance, Vince declared - `'they should ban boxing, it's too dangerous.''

Vince called athletics at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He called an Australian gold medal winning performance, only to find out that the radio broadcast line to Australia had gone dead. Bear in mind this was back in an era when there was no live television coverage of the Olympics. People back home were glued to their radios in the wee hours of the morning, awaiting the various sporting descriptions. Vince didn't even have a recording of that gold medal race. He had, as fate would turn out, called what he considered the greatest call of his career to one person - himself