Old Town’s Thorne, 7 others set for induction

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Longtime Bangor broadcaster George Hale still fondly recalls the way an Old Town kid named Gary Thorne got his broadcasting start at WABI back in the mid-1960s.

“He came on board as a high school part-timer and did weekends and various shifts,” Hale said. “But it was obvious, from the very beginning, that he was an unusual kind of kid.”

That’s “unusual” in a good sense, Hale points out.

“He was just one of those kids who stuck out,” Hale said. “There are some people in this business who are naturals, and he was.”

Thorne will be honored Sunday night as he is inducted, along with seven others, into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. The other inductees in the class of 2001: Track stars Ann Turbyne Andrews of Winslow and Richard Leavitt of Lewiston; Olympic skiers Julie Parisien of Auburn and Karl Anderson of Greene; snowshoe champ the Rev. Edward Hache of Rumford; and coaches Robert A. Pickett of Augusta and Michael Berticelli of Lewiston.

The induction ceremony is at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland.

Thorne’s deep voice has become one of the most familiar in the nation due to his work with CBS, NBC, and ESPN on telecasts ranging from the Olympics to Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.

Thorne is a former business law professor at the University of Maine and was an original radio voice for UMaine hockey.

Hale said that later on, after Thorne had gone to college and done an Army stint, Thorne approached him about broadcasting games of the fledgling UMaine hockey program.

“I asked him what he knew about hockey,” Hale said. “He said he’d been practicing. I said, ‘If you can come in with a tape that sounds like a hockey game, you’re the hockey announcer.’ ”

Thorne did just that, and he parlayed that success into a career as one of the nation’s top announcers.

“It was the best decision – for our station, and for Gary Thorne – that was ever made,” Hale said.

Hale said he has always been a Gary Thorne fan.

“He was the best,” Hale said proudly. “And he still is.”

Parisien emerged as one of the nation’s top Alpine skiers during the late 1980s.

Parisien won four U.S. titles and posted three World Cup wins. She was a member of the 1992, 1994 and 1998 U.S. Olympic teams.

Turbyne-Andrews was at the peak of her track and field career and qualified for the Olympics in 1980, but the U.S. boycott of the Moscow games cost her an Olympic experience.

Turbyne-Andrews set the national shot put record of 52 feet, 61/2 inches before graduating from Winslow High in 1985. She was a standout at the University of Maine, where she threw 56-81/2. She was also a world-record holder in power lifting.

Berticelli died on Jan. 25, 2000, at the age of 47 after an illustrious soccer coaching career that began at Thomas College in Waterville.

He also coached at Old Dominion and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro before leading Notre Dame to the 1996 NCAA women’s soccer championship. He received coach-of-the-year honors 10 times in his career.

Leavitt graduated from Bowdoin in 1976 after a stellar track and field career.

He won the NCAA Division II shot put championship in 1975 and was the runner-up in 1974. He later served as the track coach at Brunswick High.

Anderson graduated from Edward Little High School in 1971 and was a member of the U.S. Olympic ski teams in 1976 and 1980.

He won the U.S. national downhill championship in 1978 and was a member of the national ski team from 1972 to 1981.

Pickett, who was born in Bangor, went on to become a successful college football coach.

Pickett was the head coach at the University of Massachusetts from 1977-83 and coached the Minutemen to the NCAA Division I-AA championship in 1978.

Hache, who died on July 10, 1973, was the nation’s pre-eminent snowshoe sprinter during the 1930s and ’40s.

Hache set records at 100, 200 and 400 yards that remained unbroken until 1987, when rules were changed and plastic and metal snowshoes were allowed for the first time.