Even the weather couldn't keep Steve Klauke from hitting his mark.
Klauke, the only radio announcer in the Salt Lake Bees franchise history, called his 2,500th game as play-by-play broadcaster on Tuesday at Spring Mobile Ballpark. Now in his 18th season with the Bees, he can be heard at KFNZ-AM 1320.
According to the team, Klauke called Salt Lake's first game on April 9, 1994, in Vancouver, B.C. Through the years, he's also called Weber State and Utah sports contests, Utah Grizzlies games as well as a handful of Major League Baseball contests in relief duty. He's even called a few Utah Jazz games.
Klauke joins legendary Jazz broadcaster Hot Rod Hundley (2,645) as the only two play-by-play broadcasters to call 2,500 games with one Utah team.
By the numbers
The Jimmer Legacy lives on.
The Mountain West Conference announced this week it had reached an all-time high in men's basketball home attendance in 2010-11. A league-record 1,322,705 fans came through the turnstiles this season to break the previous high (1,279,000) in 2002-03.
BYU finished the season ranked No. 6 nationally in attendance at 18,714 fans per contest during a 14-game slate at the Marriott Center. New Mexico (16th, 14,570), UNLV (23rd, 13,253) and San Diego State (30th, 11,668) averaged in the top 30.
And lest anyone think Jimmer Fredette didn't help the entire league, nine MWC schools increased home attendance; their biggest jumps coming when BYU came to town.
BYU ranked 10th nationally (530,835) in road games.
Tidbits
Legacy Raceway will open its BMX track on May 6 at 5:30 p.m. The new track is located at 151 S. 1100 West in Farmington. For information, visit www.utahbmx.com. ...
Trout Unlimited, the nation's oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, recently awarded a $3,900 Embrace-A-Stream grant to its Weber Basin Chapter. The grant will help fund the chapters restoration work on the Ogden River. ...
Weber High School honored longtime educator Earl Heninger by naming the school's softball field after him. The naming ceremony was held on Thursday in Pleasant View.
Utah Valley University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the Hal Wing Track & Field Thursday at its Orem campus. ...
Utah men's basketball hired Norm Parrish as its new director of basketball operations. Parrish, the head coach at Salt Lake Community College for the past 20 years, played at Viewmont High School and Ricks College. ... Rob Rusnack has joined the Utah State Athletics Department as an associate athletic director for business affairs. ...
Utah State senior Stacey Howard has signed with the semi-pro women's basketball team, the Bundaberg Bears, which is located in Bundaberg, Queensland, just four hours north of her hometown of Brisbane. ...
Utah-based company Overstock.com acquired naming rights to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, er Overstock.com Stadium. ...
Earlier this year, Nature Valley signed a four-year agreement to remain the title sponsor of the publication's signature racing series, NASTAR. Nature Valley has been a sponsor of NASTAR -- the largest recreational ski and snowboard race program in the world -- for the past six years, and returns as its title sponsor through 2014-2015.
Chris J. Miller is sports editor for the Standard-Examiner. He can be reached at 801-625-4261 or cmiller@standard.net.
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