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Touchdown, Glenwoooood!

Jeff Caspersen
jcaspersen@postindependent.com
Post Independent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Kelley Cox Post Independent
ALL |

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado ” It’s a catch phrase Glenwood football diehards know well.

“Touchdowwwwwn, Glenwoooood!” Ron Milhorn is known to roar, drawing out each syllable for effect.

It’s a catch phrase Milhorn’s belted out quite often this season and last, far more than he did in his first eight seasons as the Demon football play-by-play man for KMTS 99.1 FM.



And, in both his eyes and in the eyes of his color commentator cohort, Jack Jabbour, it’s about time.

They’ve been along for the ride through the Demon football program’s bad days, its good days and everything in between. In fact, they haven’t missed a single game in 10 seasons.



Not at the same time, anyway.

Milhorn’s missed one and Jabbour’s missed a game here and there, but never in the last decade has KMTS not had some sort of representation in whatever press box graces the field Glenwood’s playing at on a fall Friday night.

They’ve invested much into Demon football, so it’s no wonder neither Milhorn nor Jabbour can escape being moved by Glenwood’s accomplishments.

“It’s absolutely incredible and well deserved,” Milhorn, the news director at KMTS, said. “It’s great for the community. You go to a game and see a couple thousand fans in school colors ” not just at home, but even at Berthoud. You see what a program like that can do for the community. It brings everyone together. It goes beyond competition and sports.”

Jabbour, who coached football at Riverside Middle School not that long ago, recalls many of the 2008 Demons frustrating his young gridders.

“I remember those kids when they were eighth-graders,” he said. “I remember they ran up and down the field and seemed to score in the 50s all the time, just like nowadays. To see them last year was just amazing.”

Last season, Milhorn and Jabbour chronicled the rise of the Demon program from the booth, after years of frustration. Prior to 2007’s 10-1 showing by Glenwood, the Demons had been to the playoffs just once in 16 years.

“It was pretty slim pickings for a while,” Jabbour said, “and then it was the rising of the phoenix.”

It may have taken years of calling games before Milhorn and Jabbour bore witness to the resurrection of Demon football, but it wasn’t long before the broadcasting duo meshed.

They hit it off instantly, despite meeting maybe 10 minutes before going on air as a pair for the first time.

Milhorn had just started working at KMTS and station manager Gabe Chenoweth had recruited Jabbour, who had been Chenoweth’s middle school teacher back in the day, as color commentator.

“Gabe said, ‘I got a guy to do games with you. He’s my old middle school teacher at Riverside. He’s really good,'” Milhorn recalled.

“We clicked right away,” said Jabbour, who retired from Riverside Middle School in 2001 and now teaches part time at The Garden School in New Castle.

And, despite Jabbour having attended grad school at UCLA and Milhorn having played football at the University of Southern California (the schools are regional rivals), the two have continued to click, broadcasting not only Glenwood football games but basketball and baseball games as well. They even sprinkle in sporting events at other area schools when the schedule warrants.

“It’s been a great ride,” Milhorn said, “a lot of fun.”

Saturday’s stop for the broadcasting tandem may prove to be the most enjoyable of the entire ride.

Although getting there will be a little more difficult for Jabbour than for Milhorn.

Long ago, Jabbour made plans to visit family in San Diego around Thanksgiving time, not paying any mind to the potential of Glenwood making the title game.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t think Glenwood couldn’t make it,” he explained. “It’s just that I never projected what the date was.”

Chenoweth came to the rescue and bought Jabbour a plane ticket that’ll get the color commentator back on Colorado soil Friday night, just in time for the big game.

Jabbour will then fly back to San Diego Saturday night and help his wife drive back to Colorado.

“Gabe said the championship game wouldn’t be right if you weren’t there,” Jabbour relayed. “So I’ll be flying, just like Al Michaels. I’m really appreciative to Gabe and the station.”

And so the broadcasting team will be on hand, in full force, as Glenwood looks to make history at Aurora’s Legacy Stadium on Saturday.

Time will only tell just how often Milhorn gets to bust out that familiar catch phrase.

“Touchdowwwwwn, Glenwoooood!”


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