Why Ian Eagle ‘waved the white flag’ on late nights with Bill Raftery
Ian Eagle was 29 years old when he realized he couldn’t hang with Bill Raftery until the buzzer.
Eagle, who has replaced Jim Nantz on CBS’ top college basketball team for March Madness this year and is working alongside Raftery and Grant Hill, has been on announcer teams with Raftery for 30 years.
In addition to ostensibly being the jolly presence in private that he is on-air, Raftery, 80, is known to hold court eating and perhaps enjoying a couple of adult beverages until the wee morning hours, sometimes even after the establishments would ordinarily close.
“I learned about my fourth year working with Bill, when I was 29, that I was not going to try to hang with him until the bitter end,” Eagle told The Post on a call this week in which he was promoting his partnership with Sheba cat food.
“I started leaving early, whether it was an Irish exit, or whatever you want to call it, I recognized — for me — I was not going to bounce back the way that he does. He is superhuman. I wasn’t going to test it anymore. I accepted defeat. I waved the white flag.”
Eagle, 55, spoke about the reciprocal joy that Raftery brings on college basketball trips.
“The reality is, he loves being around people. He loves the fact that he does college basketball because it does keep him youthful,” Eagle continued.
“The schools and uniforms remain the same, but the people and names change, and he still loves the whole process of getting into town, going to practice, talking to the coach, meeting players, jotting down his notes — which are very thorough — and then sharing his joy for the game on television. This is wash, rinse, repeat for many years. We’ve known each other for 30 years, which is hard for me to wrap my brain around, but probably the best thing that has happened to me is I was paired with Bill Raftery.”
Eagle said that, as the years have gone on and he’s ascended, the biggest change in his preparation is knowing when to “step away from the computer” and the film.
“Now I’ve gotten to a place where I know when it’s enough,” he said.
In a three-man booth with Raftery and Hill, Eagle said he is “cognizant” about making sure that he spreads the ball around, so to speak, between the two analysts and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.
“I want everyone to get a touch,” Eagle said.
“I view it as almost a dinner in many ways. If you sit down for a dinner with others, you want everybody to be involved. You don’t want one person dominating the conversation.”
In addition to college basketball, Eagle calls the NBA — locally for the Nets on YES Network — and NFL, which means there are literally thousands of moving parts to keep track of across the three sports.
“It’s a behemoth,” Eagle admitted.
“It’s a lot of compartmentalizing — knowing what’s on your schedule and what you need, that day, to get done, to be ahead. In the crossover of the three seasons, if I’m not ahead of the game, I’m gonna be in over my head.”
In the NCAA Tournament, he said that he is “locked in” to the team he’s been assigned, surviving and advancing until it’s time to “immerse” himself in the new ones.
“It’s been clockwork for me, and I’ve done it for so long now I’ve certainly found a muscle memory in my approach, but you can’t cut corners,” Eagle said.
His son, Noah Eagle, has, at 26, already risen to become the top Big Ten football and basketball play-by-play man for NBC, in addition to calling the NFL alternate broadcasts on Nickelodeon.
He has already become excellent at the craft.
“I am more proud of that than anything I’ve done in my career,” the father said.
“The fact that he’s doing something that he loves, the fact that he’s done it at a high level and proven himself in a short period of time. I know how hard this job is. It requires a lot of work and study and, beyond that, some natural ability. To have someone talking in your ear, to perform in the moment.
“I can relate to everything that he’s going through. There are words of wisdom. I don’t spend hours upon hours critiquing him or giving him feedback. I pick and choose my spots. I figure the best way is if it’s efficient, and in the course of conversation. If he has a question for me, I’m there to answer.”
Out of college, Eagle produced for the fabled “Mike and the Mad Dog” afternoon drive program on WFAN and later read the 20-20 updates.
The duo would go through some rocky times in their later years, but Eagle said that when he worked with them from 1992-94 they never came to blows.
“I had the good years,” he laughed.
“They were both at my wedding on June 12, 1993. They sat at the same table. They were there with smiles on.”
Eagle’s partnership with Sheba cat food centers around a “gravy race” in which cats with combined social media followings of over 55 million are competing in a single-elimination tournament to see who can eat the food the fastest.
In a trailer for the campaign, Eagle brings levity to the races, calling them as if he would live sports.
“These cats have worldwide followings. It’s incredible to see that culture and how it translates to the competitive spirit, and I think people are going to be very tickled by what they see,” Eagle said.
