I Love Memphis

Excuse me while I go a little bit fangirl for a minute. In order to interview Chuck Roberts, the PA announcer for the University of Memphis men’s basketball home games, I got to go down to the floor level at the FedEx Forum.

Courtside at the FedEx Forum

To get there, you go down a really steep driveway into the basement of the building. There are some choice parking spaces down there (including Josh Pastner’s). The Tigers’ bus was pulling in as I was walking down the ramp, and I got to walk into the building right behind the team (I even got a little “hey, what’s up” nod – Squeee!).

Before I went to the Forum yesterday, I had no idea where the PA announcer sat during Tigers games. I just took the booming disembodied voice yelling “FOR THREEEEEEEE!” to be something akin to the voice of a basketball-obsessed omnipresent god. It’s nothing like that, really. Chuck is a regular guy in a blue vest who gets to sit in the best seat in the house for all of the Tigers’ home games.

He was kind enough to answer my questions about why people love the Tigers so much, what it’s like to live his dream, and exactly how many e’s go into every “for threeeeeeeeeee!”

Once the pep band took a break from warming up, Chuck tested the mic:

You can catch Chuck Roberts in action at any Tigers home game.

Chuck Roberts loves Memphis