Sept. 15, 2009
ST. MARY’S, Ga. – Legendary Georgia Tech football and basketball radio announcer Al Ciraldo will be inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. Ciraldo, who called Yellow Jacket games from 1954-1993, will be one of eight inductees in a ceremony scheduled for Oct. 17 at the Atlanta/Marietta Hilton Conference Center & Resort.
Ciraldo joined the staff of WGST radio in 1954 and broadcasted his first Georgia Tech football and basketball games that season. All told, he called 416 Tech football games and coined the phrase, “toe meets leather”.
Ciraldo also called 1,030 basketball games for the Yellow Jackets, including a span in the 1980s where he worked with Brad Nessler, now of ABC/ESPN. Ciraldo popularized a term that Nessler coined “Thriller Dome” after all of Tech’s close contests in ACC play at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
After the 1992-93 season, Ciraldo stopped doing play-by-play but served as host for pre-game, halftime and post-game shows. He was inducted into the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986 and passed away in 1997. He is honored with a banner that hangs from the roof of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum with the retired jerseys.
