By TEDDY ALLEN
Written for the LSWA

An innocent action by my colleague Dave Nitz convinced me he was so delighted with living in the past that at any moment he might morph into a man wearing a leisure suit, drinking a Tab, and thumbing through the latest TV Guide.

I know things.

For the past eight autumns, I’ve done what passes for “color commentary” on Louisiana Tech football games for the Tech Sports Network and Learfield IMG College.

The star of the show is that same sepia-toned Dave Nitz, play-by-play broadcaster, LA Tech Athletics Hall of Famer Class of 2010, and now a Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Class of 2019.

June 8 in Natchitoches, he steps alongside many of Tech’s greats who have gone on to Hall of Fame enshrinement. The sold-out Saturday evening induction ceremony, live on Cox Sports Television, wraps up induction festivities beginning June 6 (visit LaSportsHall.com for details).

August 31 in Austin, Texas, he’ll begin his 45th season broadcasting Tech Football, which puts him in the Top 5 of guys broadcasting one college program’s football games for the most seasons. In February, he began his 44th season of broadcasting Tech baseball, the longest streak with one team of any other broadcaster in America.

Dave’s bonafide.

Of course he had no idea about any of this until I asked him.

“Dave, how many seasons have y…?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “You’ll have to ask somebody.”

Dave’s not big into counting.

He also does Bulldog Basketball. He used to do that and Lady Techsters Basketball, but he gave the Lady Techsters up and has done only men’s games for the past couple of decades. And we should mention, although it has nothing to do with Tech, that Nitz called 35-plus summers of professional baseball at various levels until he hung it up last summer and became a slave to cutting grass at his Haughton home and watching the MLB Network.

Guy gets around more than the flu.

“Dave’s been awfully good at what he does for a long, long time,” said fellow Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Leon Barmore. “Paints a picture where I feel like I’m there; I can shut my eyes and feel like I’m at the game just by listening.”