Longtime Voice of Fairmount Park to Retire

The year was 1970. Secretariat was a weanling, Richard Nixon was president, and gas was 36 cents a gallon.

Twenty-four-year-old John Scully had just completed a tour with the U.S. Army. The young racing fan had been in touch with Dave Johnson, the announcer at Fairmount Park in southern Illinois. When Johnson got a new gig he was forced to leave Fairmount before the end of the meet, and he asked Scully if he would be interested in filling in for the two months until track management found a permanent replacement.

Forty-six years later Scully is still on the job, and on Sept. 5 the voice of Fairmount will call the final race of his career. For more than four decades fans at the track just east of St. Louis, Mo., have counted on the precise, professional Scully to let them know where their choices are running during the course of a race. 

"I try to be as accurate as possible," Scully told the Bellevue News Democrat. "People have money bet on those races and it's my job to help the fans follow their picks."

When people hear Scully's voice they identify with Fairmount. Scully estimates he has called between 70,000 and 75,000 races during the course of his career.

"We had both harness and Thoroughbred racing at Fairmount for a number of years so I called races year-round," he said. "I got to thinking about it the other day and realized that added up to a lot of races."

The announcer has watched hundreds of jockeys ride at Fairmount during his time behind the mike and had little trouble singling out the best of that large group.

"Dave Gall did some things on horses that would amaze you; he's in a league all his own," Scully said of the rider who won 7,396 races during the course of his career. "Another rider who really impressed me during his time at Fairmount was Rafael Hernandez. He rode here for about eight years and I wasn't surprised to see him go on and do well at the better tracks."

Fairmount honored Scully Aug. 27 with a "John Scully at the Races Day" and Aug. 30 held a retirement party for the announcer following the races with both front and backside employees invited to attend.

So what does a man who has spent more than four decades at a racetrack plan on doing in the days after he hangs up the binoculars?

"(My wife) Lois and I are going to Wyoming to visit a track named Energy Downs," said Scully, 70. "We love visiting other tracks and have been to more than 100 but now, with summers free, we'll have a chance to go to some race meetings we couldn't get to in the past."