Chris Erskine of the Los Angeles Times caught up with Keith Jackson. Seven years after calling his last game, the legendary announcer still is spry and full of stories.

Erskine’s story provides a taste of what we’ve been missing all these years. He writes:

But I miss The Voice. As with Vin Scully, it became the signature soundtrack for a particular sport. And there are no apparent successors.

A few more observations from Jackson’s six decades in the booth:

—”The ’72 Trojans were the best football team I ever saw.”

—”Bo Schembechler was the best after-dinner speaker I ever heard. He’d even have the old boys in the back of the room snorting and jumping up and down.”

—Legendary innovator Amos Alonzo Stagg “studied the ministry but couldn’t deliver a sermon … he had heart palpitations. So he became a football coach.”

—”Knute Rockne’s wife wouldn’t come out West [with the Notre Dame team] till they arranged a lunch with Valentino.”

—”The very best place to take a nap is in the back of a cotton wagon.”

And there’s this:

Any other tips for today’s broadcasters?

“They talk too damn much,” he says. “You wear the audience out.”

And, even more importantly:

“You must tell the truth,” he says of both broadcasters and coaches. “You must be truthful to yourself and the values of the game that got you there.