Jerry Ratcliffe Show Gets You Ready for the Belk Bowl

Posted on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018, 6:00 pm

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By Jerry Ratcliffe

If you’re not going to be in Charlotte on Saturday morning for the Belk Bowl, then make sure you get warmed up for the noon game by listening to “The Jerry Ratcliffe Show” on ESPN Charlottesville from 9 to 10 a.m. on WVAX radio, 1450 AM and 102.9 FM.

We’re going to have all kinds of greatness on the show: leading off with former Virginia associate head basketball coach Ritchie McKay, who was Tony Bennett’s right-hand man as they rebuilt the Cavaliers’ program into back-to-back, 30-win seasons and an ACC Tournament championship.

McKay, now the head coach at Liberty, will talk to us from Los Angeles where his 10-4 Flames take on UCLA at storied Pauley Pavilion later in the day.

Our conversation with McKay will be about how Bennett rebuilt UVa’s program and is now on the verge of his 300th career win.

From McKay and L.A., we’ll get you in the bowl game mood as we introduce the 2002 MVP of the Continental Tire Bowl, now the Belk Bowl, in former UVa running back Wali Lundy.

Lundy was a key ingredient to one of the most prolific offenses in Wahoo history with Matt Schaub, Marques Hagans, Lundy, Alvin Pearman, Heath Miller, Billy McMullen and “Big E” Elton Brown leading the way. Lundy and the Cavaliers destroyed a favored West Virginia team in that first ever Tire Bowl.

Last but not least is another fabled player in UVa history, star basketball player Junior Burrough.

Not many realize it but Burrough, 1992-95, is to this day the sixth-leading scorer and fourth-leading rebounder in Wahoo basketball history. He was part of a special class of recruits that came oh so close to reaching the Final Four after knocking off fifth-ranked Kansas and Roy Williams in their own backyard in the NCAA’s, only to lose to Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson’s “Forty Minutes of Hell,” in the Elite Eight.

This will be a packed hour of fun for anyone Wahoo.

If you like reliving great moments in Cavalier history, tune in to the show. And, if you miss it, you can find it podcasted right here on JerryRatcliffe.com under “archives,” and podcasts. In fact, you can find our first two shows there, featuring Ralph Sampson talking about his showdown with Patrick Ewing and turning down the Boston Celtics and a million dollar suitcase sitting on his mom’s kitchen table.

Then there’s UVa running back Tiki Barber talking about his glory days at Virginia, especially his breakout game against Florida State. Tiki also gives us insight into why he wanted to grab a role in the Broadway play “Kinky Boots” starting next month.

We also talked to Shawn Moore about the Belk Bowl, Bronco Mendenhall and Bryce Perkins. It’s always interesting getting No. 12’s opinion on Wahoo football.

There are also interviews from the second show with South Carolina sports talk show legend Phil Kornblut talking about the Belk Bowl matchup between the Gamecocks and Cavaliers; current UVa associate head coach Jason Williford talking about the toughness of Kihei Clark and the firepower of Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy.

For the true Wahoo hoops aficionado, there’s a fun interview with star point guard John Crotty, as gritty a competitor as ever wore the orange and blue.

If you’re a Wahoo, you don’t want to miss a single episode, and while we’re getting rave reviews for the Saturday morning show, we know that everyone can’t always catch it, so that’s why we podcasted it to this site where you can listen to it for free.

It has been a blessing to me to have the opportunity to do this show for ESPN Charlottesville. The famed Jay James, the hardest working man in Charlottesville, came to me with this idea and sold me on taking on the challenge of hosting a local sports show.

While I have been a guest on three to seven radio shows a week on average during football and basketball season from Richmond to Norfolk to Lynchburg/Southern and Southwest Virginia, to Baltimore and beyond (Even the NFL XM network and MadDog Radio), I figured why not give it a go.

It has been fun and our audience is growing fast. We’d love for you to be part of it every Saturday morning.

Hoo knows what might happen.