'I'm coming back': A healthy Eli Gold looking forward to season
Alabama radio play-by-play voice Eli Gold shared some more great news Friday. In early June, Gold announced he was cancer-free, and over a month later, in an interview with Tide 100.9 FM’s Ryan Fowler, he plans to be back in the booth for the Crimson Tide’s upcoming season.
“I’m now healthy, ready to go, looking forward to the season,” Gold said during the Friday radio interview. “And every day for me is now a great day now that I’m healthy and ready to get at it.”
Gold, the longtime voice of Alabama football, missed the Tide’s 2022 campaign due to health issues that he later found out were cancerous. After more than 180 days in the hospital, which included multiple trips at UAB, and even time in a nursing home, Gold beat the disease.
Now, his focus has shifted to building back his strength following significant weight loss, and he plans to dust off his voice – which was unaffected by his treatment – during the preseason.
“I’m coming back,” Gold said. “As a matter of fact, I’m gonna be doing the two scrimmages – not on the air – but the two scrimmages that the team always has on the two Saturdays before the start of the regular season. So that will be Aug. 19 and Aug. 26 this year. We’re gonna go into the booth and just do a make-believe broadcast.
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“I know I’m ready. I’m in good shape. Here’s a sentence you’ve rarely ever heard: I’ve been going to the gym three times a week. That’s something you’ve never heard Eli Gold say. I’ve been working, I’m in great shape, but I want to get back into the groove. So we’re gonna do those two fall scrimmages on the 19th and the 26th, and then we’ll be ready to go in time for the start of the regular season on the 2nd. So yes, I’m ready to get at it.”
Gold will be back in the press box a year after vice president and general manager of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing Jim Carabin announced that Gold would be sidelined by health issues to start the 2022 season with Chris Stewart filling in for him on the airwaves. Gold, who has called UA games since 1988, said returning to work was motivation while he was hospitalized.
“As I sat in the bed and at times felt sorry for myself, I also realized that I was coming back into the broadcast booth I said, ‘I am going to do that,’” Gold said. “Alabama football is that important to me – not to mention the NFL and the hockey and all the other stuff I’ve been blessed to be able to do. But I said, ‘I am going to be back in that Alabama broadcast booth. Nothing is going to keep me out.’”
To listen to Gold’s full conversation with Fowler and Tide 100.9 FM, CLICK HERE.
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