THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: 'He’s the G.O.A.T., as far as I’m concerned’: Longtime North Idaho play-by-play man Jeff McLean remembered

There was a time when radio was king in local sports. 

That was back before the internet, and games being streamed online, and before the proliferation of games on TV. 

Back then, in North Idaho anyway, Coeur d’Alene High football and basketball games were often on the radio, via KVNI, AM 1080 on your dial. 

Same with North Idaho College basketball. 

And, back in the Idaho football glory days of the late 1980s, Vandal home games were re-aired late Saturday night on KUID, the local PBS station. 

These days, with a few swipes on your phone, you can get caught up on games everywhere. 

But back then, if you couldn’t make it to the game and wanted to know what was going on, you had to listen to the radio.  

And that voice you heard over the airwaves was likely that of Jeff McLean. 

“Jeff just prepared, he was enthusiastic, and he kept your attention — and he’s the G.O.A.T., as far as I’m concerned,” recalled his longtime broadcast partner, Dick Haugen.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people, worked a lot of games over the years, and working with Jeff was the most fun I’ve ever had as a broadcaster,” said Steve Myklebust, who did games with McLean in the 1980s. 

Haugen and Myklebust recalled their time working with McLean, the longtime radioman in North Idaho who passed away on June 15 in Sandpoint. He was 67. 

“It’s sometimes hard for people to see, and describe what they’re seeing,” said Haugen, who worked with McLean for nearly two decades. “Jeff was just really good at it. To me, he’s the best high school play-by-play guy I’ve ever heard, or worked with, in my 40 years.” 

“I still think to this day he could have made big-time if he wanted to, but it didn’t really interest him to go big,” Myklebust said. 

McLEAN AND Myklebust worked together for a decade or so in the 1980s and beyond, doing the aforementioned Coeur d’Alene High, NIC and Vandal games. 

They were on the air for the Vikings’ state title victories in 1982 and ‘85, doing NIC games during the Greg Wiltjer years, and on TV when John Friesz, and then Doug Nussmeier, were quarterbacking the Vandals. 

“I think Jeff could have made a good living doing play-by-play; he was very good," said Myklebust, now in his 22nd season as the radio voice of Gonzaga women’s basketball. “He just had a great delivery, and he was very knowledgeable. He knew football and basketball really well, and he studied it, and knew the players. He just was really good at it.” 

One time, McLean and Myklebust were driving to Boise to cover a Coeur d’Alene football game. Myklebust was driving. 

Around the McCall-Donnelly area, they were crossing a narrow bridge when an oncoming car forced Myklebust to jerk the wheel on his car to the right to avoid the other car, but crashing into the right wall of the bridge. 

The station manager had to drive down and transport them the rest of the way to Boise. 

Another time, Scott Wellman was the Coeur d’Alene quarterback. His dad, Roy Wellman, was Duane Hagadone’s brother-in-law. The Vikings were preparing for a playoff game down south when Duane approached Jeff and Steve and said, “Do you guys want to fly in the lear jet with me and Roy?” 

“Yes!” 

“So we got to fly down with Duane Hagadone and Roy Wellman to the Coeur d’Alene game on his lear jet,” Myklebust recalled. 

Still another time, McLean and Myklebust were doing a local high school basketball game. Mr. Steak, which had a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene at the time, was one of the sponsors of the broadcast. 

“During a timeout KVNI ran a commercial for Mr. Steak advertising a special for a steak and lobster dinner,” Myklebust recalled. “When we came back on air we started talking about how good a steak and lobster dinner sounded.  In the second half a guy came up to the scorer’s desk where we were sitting and plopped a couple of bags down.  We opened them and there were two steak and lobster dinners. Mr Steak’s owner, Charlie Nipp, was a big booster and heard us, and had his guys deliver the dinners. So we announced the second half while eating steak and lobster.” 

Eventually, Myklebust moved over to Spokane, starting doing Greater Spokane League and State B tournament games, and that eventually led to his current gig with the Zag women. 

McLEAN AND Haugen called Lake City’s state championship football victories on the radio in 2002 and ‘06.  

They also did NIC games, sometimes flying to Boise and driving to Twin Falls to cover the Cardinal games at the College of Southern Idaho. 

McLean, who began his radio career in Othello, Wash., was Idaho state broadcaster of the year once, maybe twice, in the 1980s.  

Haugen recalls calling up McLean to talk about anything sports — the Huskies, the Seahawks, former Coeur d’Alene boys basketball coach Larry Bieber’s two-foul rule ... 

McLean and Haugen would sometimes travel down to Lewiston to do Coeur d’Alene High football games. Sometimes they were on top of the press box, with no cover, in the rain. 

“One time they put us on one of those scissor lifts,” Haugen recalled. “We were doing a game from up there, and we were swaying back and forth and it was raining, and we were waiting for the lightning to strike. We were like 30 feet in the air and we were just swaying, 3 or 4 feet back and forth, trying to do a ballgame.” 

Haugen recalled he and McLean broadcasting games from the old press box at Barlow Stadium in Sandpoint, navigating the dark pathway from the door to the press box, “not knowing if we were going to get through to the press box,” Haugen said. “You didn’t know if you were going to get electrocuted, or what.” 

When both worked at KVNI, they used to go over to the basketball hoops on 15th Street by the fire station at lunchtime and play HORSE. 

“One time he said, 'Let’s play a little one-on-one' and I said 'Man, I don’t want to do that,’ and he says 'Aw, come on, let’s just play to 10 ...  

‘All right,’” Haugen recalled. 

“I went to drive around him and my Achilles went ‘POW!’ And I fell to the ground. And he says, 'Maybe it’s just a high ankle sprain.’ I said, 'Look at my calf; why is my Achilles rolled up in my leg?’ So we hopped into my truck to go to Kootenai Medical Center.” 

After doing play-by-play in the Coeur d’Alene area for decades, McLean spent the last 10 years or so in Sandpoint, doing the morning show on K-102 for several years. 

“He was just excellent at being able to describe what he saw; he was able to paint a picture on what’s going on,” Haugen said. “Jeff was just really good at it. To me, he’s the best high school play-by-play guy I’ve ever heard, or worked with, in my 40 years.” 

ONE LAST Jeff McLean story ... 

"One other thing I remember is, Jeff’s biggest fan was his father,” Myklebust said. “He lived in Spokane and KVNI’s signal wouldn’t make it that far, so his dad would drive to Coeur d’Alene and sit in the parking lot to listen to the game. 

“He was a good guy.” 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports. 

    Courtesy photo Steve Myklebust, left, and Jeff McLean, working a University of Idaho football game many years ago at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.