Boy, there were some kind of days back in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even the 90’S when you could tune in 1510 WEAL radio and catch Spencer Gwynn and Mel Swann calling/announcing an N.C. A&T football game…
They may have bee the best broadcast team in town, in fact for most of the those years they were the only college football broadcast team in town, with the exception of Art Wall and his sidekicks calling Guilford College Quakers’ football games over on the old 1320 WCOG…
Gwynn and Swann were some kind of team….Spencer was laying it all out there with “This IS Aggie Football” and Mel was just so smooth and he made Spencer sound good and Mel would never talk down to Spence…Swann was with the A&T Football broadcasts for 37 years and he also spent 37 years with the Guilford County Schools system…You could tell Mel had that education background because he was smooth, real smooth and he never left an unfinished sentence….(Spencer on play-by-play and Mel on commentary over the years.)
Swann was the man, he earned your respect because he knew what he was talking about when it came to N.C. A&T Football and Greensboro sports in general…Never met the man, but I felt like I had known him for about 30 years by listening to him on the radio on Saturday afternoons…
He made the broadcast sound good and you could tell Mel Swann was a good man and that he was community-minded…
I just liked the way this guy did business and the way he handled his on-air radio business….
Not sure if Mel Swann will make the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame some day, but they ought to consider inducting Mel and Spencer Gwynn as a team, a football broadcast team….
Much of his major work was completed/accomplished years ago, but this man is still remembered by many in the Aggie Football and GCS communities, even today….
RIP Mel Swann and thank-you for your smooth and educated manner of delivering the N.C. A&T Aggies football games to us on Saturday afternoons….
Mel Swann and Spencer Gwynn, “This IS and always will be, AGGIE Football”….
from John Newsom at the News and Record:
GREENSBORO — Mel Swann, a former deputy superintendent with Guilford County Schools, has died at age 80.
Swann worked for 37 years for the former Greensboro City and current Guilford County school systems as a teacher, coach, principal and district administrator. He retired in 1997.
He also was a long-time radio broadcaster of N.C. A&T football games. For 37 years Swann did color commentary alongside play-by-play man Spencer Gwynn.
CLICK HERE to read more about Mel Swann, from John Newsom at the News and Record….