Broadcaster says, “I drifted outside the boundary line”
KCJJ Staff
02/27/19
Iowa broadcaster Gary Dolphin says he wanted his suspension over “insensitive comments” to be shorter but he understands the reasoning for the suspension.
“I understand as a play-by-play broadcaster – and my fellow broadcasters would say the same thing – that you’re responsible for what you say,” Dolphin said. “Words do matter regardless of intention.
“So I’ve learned much about unconscious bias and insensitivity in the past week and there will be much more to learn going forward.”
Dolphin, who has been suspended through the end of this basketball season, said he asked to come back at least by the men’s basketball team’s postseason games. He said he wanted to explain the situation to the fans so they would better understand what he meant and that he will grow as a broadcaster and person.
Despite that, he says he knows his comments were inappropriate and “drifted outside the boundary line.”
Athletic director Gary Barta, who addressed the media alongside Dolphin, said the suspension – and the upholding of it – came after discussions with local student-athletes, Learfield officials, and national leaders.
“As I was having these conversations around the country, I wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing by our student-athletes, that we were being sensitive to our campus, and we were doing the right thing with our relationship with Learfield and with Dolph,” Barta said.
Barta backed Dolphin as a person, saying he knows he would never intentionally hurt anyone, but that the conversations with those from around the country indicated what he said was absolutely inappropriate and insensitive.
Dolphin was suspended last week after trying to compliment a Maryland player by saying he was “like King Kong” in the Terrapins win over Iowa.
Previously Wednesday, it was announced Dolphin will return for the football team’s spring scrimmage and will be back in the booth for the 2019 football season and the 2019-20 men’s basketball season. Dolphin says he’s delighted to come back and stressed there has never been an effort by the university, Learfield – which manages the Iowa athletics broadcast and who actually employs Dolphin – nor head basketball coach Fran McCaffery to have him fired.
This is the second suspension this season for Dolphin, who was also suspended for making an off-air comment about a player which was caught on-air.
Dolphin has called Iowa football and men’s basketball games since 1996. Jim Albrecht has been filling in as the lead play-by-play announcer since Dolphin was suspended.