Tim Keffaber, left, and Rita Price have been the Voice of the Vikings for nearly two decades. Keffaber is just happy to be along for the ride. (Photo by Mike Deak)

AKRON – It really doesn’t matter where they go, Rita Price is going to draw a crowd. Whether its in a hospitality room, on the concourse at a basketball game, standing by the concession stand at a football game, or somewhere in town just doing what Rita does. Rita is always in demand.

When Harry Caray was the lovable face of an emerging Chicago Cubs enterprise, it wasn’t Harry’s knowledge of the game that got the WGN broadcast to where it became a household staple. Not to say Rita is aloof and rambling in a football or basketball broadcast. Far from it. She’s as sharp as a tack and hopefully always will be. But everyone knew Harry. Everyone loved Harry. He could do no wrong. But, really, Steve Stone got a lot of credit after Harry Caray passed away for driving those broadcasts, his knowledge and ability to offset the silliness in the pressbox should have Stone pressed into sainthood.

Tim Keffaber is often lost among the fanfare that comes with working with Rita, but the longtime radio announcing partner has been just as important in bringing some of the seminal moments in local sports to your memories.

“I always like when you can paint a picture for a listener,” stated Keffaber. “They can’t see a TV screen. They can’t see a monitor. You have to describe everything. You have to let them know what you are seeing, every step. That’s important. You have to draw the picture that is happening in front of you, but do it in a way that makes sense for the listener to feel like they are there. Like they are right in the middle of it.”

Rita Price herself knows the importance of good chemistry in broadcasting. Having worked every girls basketball state championship since its inception in 1976, there’s a reason why WRSW has been grandfathered onto radio row by the IHSAA without needing to re-up each year. And for the past two decades, Keffaber and Price have been together, for the most part faithfully working Tippecanoe Valley football and basketball. On Board With The Vikings has become mandatory bragging rights for Valley athletes to get their shot on Saturday mornings to talk with Keffaber outside of the game setting, which has grown the community aspect of their approach.

“I understand that Rita has been doing this so long that not only has she broadcasted kids, but she’s broadcasted grandkids at some of these games,” Keffaber said. “She knows everyone. I just have come to accept that.”

In recent years, Keffaber has taken on more of the roles as the broadcast has evolved. Their overall roles have changed, notably with Price, as she’s endured some surgeries that have slowed her down a tad. But Keffaber wouldn’t have it any other way. As he notes, there is a reason Price is a Hall of Famer, and it isn’t because she made people just call her that.

“Rita’s never done football play by play, she’s never been comfortable with that role, so I do that and she does the color,” noted Keffaber, who also did football with WRSW in the early 1990s. “In basketball, it’s the opposite. But we’ve traded roles every once in a while when needed. In football, we’ve brought on Micah (Lukens) since he was a former player at Valley and can help with some of the technical aspects. It’s a nice rhythm we have.”

Keffaber acknowledges he doesn’t sit at home and practice any of his calls, or anticipate something happening to which he can stamp his voice to it. The two’s call of the 2005 IHSAA Boys Basketball State Championship where Luke Zeller hit the last-second prayer to beat Plymouth is replayed every year by the IHSAA during its tournament promos. They have brought you into the moments that have made Tippecanoe Valley sports legends, and some where Valley lost sports legends. He remembers very clearly the Bell Game when the plane crashed in South Carolina.

Keffaber, one of the most humble gentlemen in the business, isn’t about making memories. He’s about sharing them.

“It was after 9-11,” started Keffaber, choking up, going into the very human side of the business. “Valley was playing Northfield in football. The sense of community. You could feel it. When you see a kid overcome something you really can’t talk about. Gosh. See them achieve things when you know they aren’t the star. They are trying to contribute in whatever manner they can. That’s what matters.

“Those intense mid-week community rivalries. Now kids are staring at their phones all the time. That game reminds me all the time that it’s bigger than a game. When it builds up a community, we’re not just isolated to ourselves. Those are the cool parts of this job.”

Keffaber does literally drive around Price, just not everywhere. As recently as Saturday at the LaPorte Girls Basketball Semi-state, Price sat with a half dozen or so, maybe closer to a dozen, in the hospitality room and remarked Keffaber really does the “Driving Miss Rita” operation. And he’s happy to do it. There are some times when the two meet in the middle, or just meet at a venue. But the time in the car for the two has only made their on-air chemistry stronger, and sometimes just allows time to share stories about life away from the game.

This weekend, Tim and Rita will drive to the IHSAA Girls Basketball State Finals. It will be 19 for Keffaber and 45 for Price, the two will be seated center court as NorthWood will vie for its second state title. Price and Panther head coach Adam Yoder go way back as Rita served as a babysitter for the Yoder family many moons ago, and the two still share a bond today. Asked if he ever considered himself Hall of Fame material, Keffaber scoffed and danced around the subject. Rita has her own street and basketball court named after her, plus her ‘Lunch With Rita’ radio spot each weekday.

Asked if he ever thought about being the “Voice” of a community, his humility grew even more.

“Nobody ever asked me about that before, I’ve never thought about it,” awe-shucks-ed Keffaber. “When someone calls you “The Voice of the Vikings”, we never really set out to be that. We wanted to be the voice of local high school sports and be a place people could come to share their community pride. I don’t feel like I am in this to be that position, it just kinda happened that way.”