Kevin IRELAND, Sr.^{[1, 2, 3]}

• Name	Kevin IRELAND  [4, 5]
  Suffix	Sr.
  Gender	Male
  HIST	Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration Posted Saturday, October 12, 2019 6:00 am BY DENNIS BRUNSON In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item is going to select the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order starting on Wednesday with Nos. 125-111. The remaining lists will be contain 10 figures beginning on Friday. Those lists will appear every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. Coinciding with the list reveal, we'll be asking readers to reveal their Top 10 sports figures in Item history, and we'll be hosing Autograph Giveaway contests featuring our famous local sports figures. The Sumter Item's Top 125 Sports Figures 81-90 Posted Friday, October 25, 2019 3:45 pm In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item has selected the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order, appearing every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. 90) Julie Larson - Julie Larson was a 6-foot-3-inch standout basketball player for Thomas Sumter Academy in the early 1980s. She finished her career with 3,096 points and averaged 29.3 points her senior year. She went on to Clemson and averaged 9.9 points for her career, including 13.8 in her final season. 89) Kevin Ireland - Kevin Ireland was a speedy back for Sumter High School in the early 1970s and played some college football at Tennessee-Martin. However, he has made his mark in Sumter over the airwaves, serving as the play-by-play voice for both Sumter High football and the Sumter P-15’s for close to three decades. 88) Bob Sharp - Bob Sharp, along with the next two selections, was one of the top dirt track racers in the area when the sport was at its peak. Sharp won over 200 main events and seven track championships at Sumter Speedway. He also became the track promoter at Sumter Speedway. 87) H.C. Pritchard - Pritchard drove the dirt tracks, but he also made a mark in the NASCAR Lat Model Sportsman Division, competing against the likes of Ralph Earnhardt, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett and Cale Yarborough. In 1960, Pritchard won track titles at Sumter Speedway, Edmunds Speedway, Ashwood Speedway and Columbia Speedway. 86) Slick Gibbons - Edward “Slick” Gibbons won over 250 dirt track races in his career. Gibbons won multiple division titles at multiple tracks throughout the state. He also competed throughout the Southeast, winning the Bucks Stove 100 at Myrtle Beach Speedway in 1971. 85) Donald Hardy - Donald Hardy was a 4-sport standout athlete for East Clarendon High School, from where he graduated in 1966. He quarterbacked the Wolverines to a football state title in 1965 and was an all-state performer. He was a 3-time most valuable player on the baseball team, starting at shortstop for four years. He went on to sign a professional contract with the New York Yankees. 84) Bucko Edens - Thomas “Bucko” Edens was a standout football player at Edmunds High School who went on to an outstanding career at Newberry College. He was an all-state, all Little Four and second team Little All-American with the Indians. He would later become the longtime athletic officer for the Sumter P-15’s. 83) Joey Taylor - Joey Taylor graduated from Manning High School where he was a 5-year starter in baseball and a 4-year starter in football. He went on to Clemson where he was a first team All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer. He holds the Clemson record for most extra-base hits in a game with five – two home runs and three doubles – against South Carolina in 1962. 82) Brian Mance - Brian Mance graduated from Manning High School in 1999 and was a standout football player, ran track and played baseball. He won the 3A state championship in the 100-meter dash as a junior. He went on to Clemson and a was a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer and fourth team All-America as a senior. He had short stints in the NFL with Washington and Chicago. 81) Richard Jones - Richard Jones came from a baseball family, and he has easily helped carry on the legacy with Wilson Hall, the Sumter P-15’s, The Citadel and finally as a professional player. Jones was a catcher who swung a big bat. He had 17 home runs in his final year with the P-15’s, then went to The Citadel where he was the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year and a Freshman All-American. As a junior, he was first team All-Southern Conference, batting .378 with 17 homers. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 2009 MLB draft. He played four years in the organization, hitting 24 home runs one season. Signing off: Ireland and Glaze retire from radio broadcasts with P-15's, Sumter football Lee Glaze, left, and Kevin Ireland shared the airwaves in Sumter for 25 years, first teaming up for Sumter High football in 2007. When the Gamecocks saw the 2021 season come to and end, Ireland and Glaze hung up their headphones for the last time in local radio. CAL CARY / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, August 6, 2022 6:00 am By EDDIE LITAKER Sports Contributor Sumter Post 15 American Legion baseball fans have heard their last scoreboard Yahtzee call, and Kevin Ireland's No. 1 fan gets her special greetings on a more personal level now. Ireland, a 37-year fixture on local sports radio, left the booth for the last time as Sumter High School's football season came to an end on Nov. 19 with a 49-21 home loss to Dutch Fork in the third round of the 5A state playoffs. Thirty-one of those 37 years saw Ireland in the booth for P-15's games. Lee Glaze, who has partnered with Ireland on football coverage since 2007 and baseball since 2008, has also stepped down from his local sports calling duties. Glaze, a member of The Citadel Athletic and Charleston Baseball halls of fame - which earned him the "Hall of Famer" tag from Ireland - will continue his duties as part of The Citadel's football radio broadcast team. Glaze said he and Ireland have had conversations after each season in recent years, with Glaze deciding to ride off into the sunset when Ireland made his final call. "You've been 'not coming back' for five years," Glaze said of Ireland. "I think we both knew that it was getting close to the time and I'm the one that actually said if we're going to do it, let's just both do it at the same time. It wouldn't be the same being up there without him and I just thought it would give somebody else an opportunity to come in and make a new mark." After confirming that he would not be covering P-15's baseball this summer, Glaze began making summer travel plans with his wife Fran. With Fran celebrating a milestone birthday, the couple took a 10-day cruise through Italy, Spain and France. "This summer is the first summer that we've been able to take a vacation not centered around when the P-15's would be playing, so it's been a nice summer," Fran said with a laugh. Aside from the birthday cruise, the Glazes are also preparing for an expanding family, with their first two grandchildren on the way. Fran stepped away from her teaching duties at Miss Libby's School of Dance in anticipation of spending time with the grands. A FAMILY AFFAIR The scoreboard Yahtzee and saying "hey" to his number-one fan, sister-in-law Sheri Green, became trademarks of an Ireland broadcast. "Scoreboard Yahtzee was my little quark," Ireland said. "It could be a small Yahtzee, like number 1 at bat, 1 ball, 1 strike, 1 out or a big Yahtzee with number 11 at bat. You can do the same thing with twos. Of course, our number one fan was my sister-in-law, Sheri Green, who was listening to the broadcast at home. If we hadn't said hey to her she would wait until we took a break and call to remind me she was listening so I could say 'hi.'" While Sheri was Ireland's most dedicated listener and fan, it was Ireland's wife and Sheri's sister April who was by Ireland's side many nights in the booth. April worked with local restaurants to provide food for the press box at both Sumter Memorial Stadium and Riley Park, also providing for a hospitality room whenever Riley would host state and Southeastern Regional tournaments or other special baseball events. "I'm like Kevin, I jumped in there when we got together and I wanted to do something to help," April said. "I mean, I couldn't help them (with the broadcasts) but I could help with the food." Fran's time in the booth with April and the guys was limited, but she still played a key role on game nights. "For me it was mainly having them on the radio listening when I was at home," Fran said. "Sometimes they would cut away, and they really wouldn't cut away. They'd be talking and I was afraid they would say, 'Well, that was a dumb play!' and I would start texting and say, "You're still on the air! You're still on the air!" They never said anything bad, so that was good. I've always been proud of them for what they did." Kevin and April married in 2008, on a football weekend that, as Glaze shared, saw Ireland in the booth calling a game on Friday night before his wedding that Saturday. "It should be noted that they got married on a Saturday, down in Charleston," Glaze said, "and on that Friday night he was in Conway doing a ball game with me, which I thought he was nuts for being there with me." "I left her with all of her family and all of my family," Ireland said. "That's dedication," April said of Kevin's choice to not leave the booth on his wedding weekend. THE ODDITIES OF LOCAL RADIO Ireland could be called an ironman for his dedication to the booth. Among his rare misses, Ireland took some time off with the passings of his parents and was out of the booth for four P-15's games in 2020 after having a total hip replacement. Ireland said his father's passing was particularly jarring because they would always talk on the phone after Ireland's broadcasts were done. Some of the most interesting stories from Ireland and Glaze involved life on the road. Ireland recalled calling a Wilson Hall game from a deer stand in the early days before he moved over to Sumter High games. Set-ups at venues with no press box or a smaller press box space could sometimes be monumental challenges. The duo have called games from tables in the stands, sitting on top of dugouts and would fight the elements at times to deliver coverage to their loyal listeners. "When we started this, there were no cellular telephones," Ireland said. "We literally had to carry a Marti (transmitter) unit, which is what you use at home remotes, to get back to the antenna up at the station. We would have to do it to a scanner in front of a telephone somewhere around by the ball field. Football wise you could get it done, but with baseball it is hard because the coaches are gone (and their offices are not available for setup)." Ireland recalled a night when he was working with the late John Quackenbush broadcasting a game in Bishopville where, in the days before the advent of cell phones, he had to "stand guard" with the Marti at a popular telephone booth near the field to send out the broadcast and had to inform people wishing to make calls that the booth would be in use for "probably about another hour-and-a-half or two hours." "Even with the technology that we've got now, the Skype would go out fairly regularly and we'd be sharing a phone, doing the game on the phone, calling back to the radio station," Glaze said. "You have to improvise." One of those improvisations involved Glaze jumping in to take over play-by-play duties unexpectedly when Ireland's voice failed him in the middle of a game. IRELAND'S ORIGIN AND THE P-15'S RETURN TO THE AIRWAVES For Ireland, it all began in 1984, serving as a color analyst to the late Bob Powell on Wilson Hall football games, which were being broadcast on WSSC 1340 AM. Ireland said Powell called games when Ireland was playing football at Sumter High and that connection resulted in Powell reaching out to the then 29-year-old Ireland for what could be termed a life-changing opportunity. "I thought, let me try it and see how it goes," Ireland said, recalling that his first Wilson Hall game saw senior Clay Lowder return the opening kickoff for a touchdown against St. Stephens. In the years since, Ireland has been on the mic for over 1,100 baseball games and over 1,000 football and basketball games. His hardwood calls came for both Wilson Hall and Sumter High games. Among those were nine P-15 baseball state championships and two Southeastern Regional titles that ended with World Series trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2006 and Shelby, North Carolina in 2008, all under the leadership of former head coach Wallie Jones. "When I put them back on the air in 1991, they were playing the state championship against Lancaster," Ireland said. "Of course, we were hosting the regionals that year, and that's kind of the reason I jumped on the bandwagon (for postseason coverage), thinking that this would be their one good chance with Wally Maynard and Vic Boykin and all of those guys on the '91 team. They had a good run in that, didn't win that regional, and I remember telling my wife at the time that I was thinking the next year of doing the entire season of kind of the new team since everybody had pretty much graduated off that state championship team." Already coaching football at Wilson Hall, as well as doing Wilson Hall basketball and football for radio, Ireland expected a quick 16-game season with the P-15's depleted roster. "Well, 38 games later, we're in Deland, Florida, for the first of those away Southeastern Regionals, and the night that the Jamboree is starting, football wise," Ireland said. "That started the whole entire seasons of covering P-15's baseball and, yes, it was the golden years. The disappointment was we'd never made it to a Southeastern Regional. Of course the biggest thing is nobody had ever won a Southeastern Regional over the history of P-15 baseball from 1940 on, even the '64 team that John Quackenbush covered." Quackenbush had moved to Florida in 1991, so it was Mike Hatfield working with Ireland in those early years of the radio comeback. "They had been off the air for a number of years, in the mid '70's and into the '80's, before we put them back on in '91," Ireland said. "That started the golden years, and if we weren't making it to a Southeastern Regional, something was wrong. It was very beneficial to the community. They supported it on the radio, we went to almost every away game that we could and we never missed a game. Even when we had technical difficulties, we would somehow, someway get them on the air." Quackenbush had returned to the booth with Ireland and finished his P-15's broadcasting run with the World Series appearance in Cedar Rapids. In 2008, the regional and World Series were both held in Shelby, with Ireland and Glaze spending 13 of 14 days there as the P-15's fell just short of winning it all. "That team was loaded and won its first two, was up (with a big lead) in a game against Las Vegas and then lost that one in a tight ball game," Ireland said. "They came back and won another and then lost a chance to get into the final playoff for the World Series (title). That was just kind of a shocker, but that team with Matt Price, Matt Talley and Tyler Christmon on the mound was just kind of something else. It was the team to beat." Ireland moved to Sumter from New Mexico as a member of a military family, attending Sumter High for his senior year and starring on the football field. From there, Ireland moved on to the University of Tennessee-Martin, where he played football for one season on an athletic scholarship. He also coached at Wilson Hall before his work in radio for the school. In recent years, Ireland had fun teasing the radio audience about whether or not he would return to the booth the next season. "The joke was, sort of a joke, we'd say after the end of the ball game when I signed off at the end of the season there's a possibility we'll be back, or something like that," Ireland said. "(Former P-15's head coach) Wallie and Marcia (Jones) were always listening for what I would say, or how much of a percentage. I would go with the radio station and say probably a 93.3 percent (for baseball's Old School 93.3) that we're not coming back or a 95.5 percent for football (representing Z-95 WIBZ)." THE HALL OF FAMER Before joining Ireland, Glaze, a James Island native and football and baseball star at The Citadel, worked on Citadel baseball broadcasts. Glaze, who came to Sumter in 2004, has pulled double duty during football season. On weekends that The Citadel traveled, he would have to give up Sumter broadcasts, with Ireland calling on a group of capable replacements to substitute. "It's not easy," said Glaze, who has covered road games at Army and Wisconsin in recent years, along with trips to Lexington, Va., every other year for the big rivalry game with Virginia Military Institute. "I did it for a six-year stint and then I gave it up because of the travel. It was just ridiculous. They came back to me two years later and kind of re-negotiated, so I'm doing it again now, but the first commitment is to there, obviously, because it's my alma mater." Glaze said his partnership with Ireland has blossomed into a wonderful friendship that will continue well beyond the radio booth. "Kevin is one of the most generous and loyal people I have ever met," Glaze said. "We started as good acquaintances many years ago and quickly became great friends. We have spent countless hours riding the backroads of South Carolina and the southeast covering the P-15's and Sumter High School and I can't ever remember a cross word between us. There is a lot to be said about that considering both of our strong personalities. The amount of time, effort, love and energy that he has given to everything that he's done and everyone he's touched in Sumter is really impressive and always will be to me."  [2, 3, 6]
  HIST	Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration Posted Saturday, October 12, 2019 6:00 am BY DENNIS BRUNSON In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item is going to select the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order starting on Wednesday with Nos. 125-111. The remaining lists will be contain 10 figures beginning on Friday. Those lists will appear every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. Coinciding with the list reveal, we'll be asking readers to reveal their Top 10 sports figures in Item history, and we'll be hosing Autograph Giveaway contests featuring our famous local sports figures. The Sumter Item's Top 125 Sports Figures 81-90 Posted Friday, October 25, 2019 3:45 pm In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item has selected the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order, appearing every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. 90) Julie Larson - Julie Larson was a 6-foot-3-inch standout basketball player for Thomas Sumter Academy in the early 1980s. She finished her career with 3,096 points and averaged 29.3 points her senior year. She went on to Clemson and averaged 9.9 points for her career, including 13.8 in her final season. 89) Kevin Ireland - Kevin Ireland was a speedy back for Sumter High School in the early 1970s and played some college football at Tennessee-Martin. However, he has made his mark in Sumter over the airwaves, serving as the play-by-play voice for both Sumter High football and the Sumter P-15’s for close to three decades. 88) Bob Sharp - Bob Sharp, along with the next two selections, was one of the top dirt track racers in the area when the sport was at its peak. Sharp won over 200 main events and seven track championships at Sumter Speedway. He also became the track promoter at Sumter Speedway. 87) H.C. Pritchard - Pritchard drove the dirt tracks, but he also made a mark in the NASCAR Lat Model Sportsman Division, competing against the likes of Ralph Earnhardt, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett and Cale Yarborough. In 1960, Pritchard won track titles at Sumter Speedway, Edmunds Speedway, Ashwood Speedway and Columbia Speedway. 86) Slick Gibbons - Edward “Slick” Gibbons won over 250 dirt track races in his career. Gibbons won multiple division titles at multiple tracks throughout the state. He also competed throughout the Southeast, winning the Bucks Stove 100 at Myrtle Beach Speedway in 1971. 85) Donald Hardy - Donald Hardy was a 4-sport standout athlete for East Clarendon High School, from where he graduated in 1966. He quarterbacked the Wolverines to a football state title in 1965 and was an all-state performer. He was a 3-time most valuable player on the baseball team, starting at shortstop for four years. He went on to sign a professional contract with the New York Yankees. 84) Bucko Edens - Thomas “Bucko” Edens was a standout football player at Edmunds High School who went on to an outstanding career at Newberry College. He was an all-state, all Little Four and second team Little All-American with the Indians. He would later become the longtime athletic officer for the Sumter P-15’s. 83) Joey Taylor - Joey Taylor graduated from Manning High School where he was a 5-year starter in baseball and a 4-year starter in football. He went on to Clemson where he was a first team All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer. He holds the Clemson record for most extra-base hits in a game with five – two home runs and three doubles – against South Carolina in 1962. 82) Brian Mance - Brian Mance graduated from Manning High School in 1999 and was a standout football player, ran track and played baseball. He won the 3A state championship in the 100-meter dash as a junior. He went on to Clemson and a was a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer and fourth team All-America as a senior. He had short stints in the NFL with Washington and Chicago. 81) Richard Jones - Richard Jones came from a baseball family, and he has easily helped carry on the legacy with Wilson Hall, the Sumter P-15’s, The Citadel and finally as a professional player. Jones was a catcher who swung a big bat. He had 17 home runs in his final year with the P-15’s, then went to The Citadel where he was the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year and a Freshman All-American. As a junior, he was first team All-Southern Conference, batting .378 with 17 homers. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 2009 MLB draft. He played four years in the organization, hitting 24 home runs one season. Signing off: Ireland and Glaze retire from radio broadcasts with P-15's, Sumter football Lee Glaze, left, and Kevin Ireland shared the airwaves in Sumter for 25 years, first teaming up for Sumter High football in 2007. When the Gamecocks saw the 2021 season come to and end, Ireland and Glaze hung up their headphones for the last time in local radio. CAL CARY / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, August 6, 2022 6:00 am By EDDIE LITAKER Sports Contributor Sumter Post 15 American Legion baseball fans have heard their last scoreboard Yahtzee call, and Kevin Ireland's No. 1 fan gets her special greetings on a more personal level now. Ireland, a 37-year fixture on local sports radio, left the booth for the last time as Sumter High School's football season came to an end on Nov. 19 with a 49-21 home loss to Dutch Fork in the third round of the 5A state playoffs. Thirty-one of those 37 years saw Ireland in the booth for P-15's games. Lee Glaze, who has partnered with Ireland on football coverage since 2007 and baseball since 2008, has also stepped down from his local sports calling duties. Glaze, a member of The Citadel Athletic and Charleston Baseball halls of fame - which earned him the "Hall of Famer" tag from Ireland - will continue his duties as part of The Citadel's football radio broadcast team. Glaze said he and Ireland have had conversations after each season in recent years, with Glaze deciding to ride off into the sunset when Ireland made his final call. "You've been 'not coming back' for five years," Glaze said of Ireland. "I think we both knew that it was getting close to the time and I'm the one that actually said if we're going to do it, let's just both do it at the same time. It wouldn't be the same being up there without him and I just thought it would give somebody else an opportunity to come in and make a new mark." After confirming that he would not be covering P-15's baseball this summer, Glaze began making summer travel plans with his wife Fran. With Fran celebrating a milestone birthday, the couple took a 10-day cruise through Italy, Spain and France. "This summer is the first summer that we've been able to take a vacation not centered around when the P-15's would be playing, so it's been a nice summer," Fran said with a laugh. Aside from the birthday cruise, the Glazes are also preparing for an expanding family, with their first two grandchildren on the way. Fran stepped away from her teaching duties at Miss Libby's School of Dance in anticipation of spending time with the grands. A FAMILY AFFAIR The scoreboard Yahtzee and saying "hey" to his number-one fan, sister-in-law Sheri Green, became trademarks of an Ireland broadcast. "Scoreboard Yahtzee was my little quark," Ireland said. "It could be a small Yahtzee, like number 1 at bat, 1 ball, 1 strike, 1 out or a big Yahtzee with number 11 at bat. You can do the same thing with twos. Of course, our number one fan was my sister-in-law, Sheri Green, who was listening to the broadcast at home. If we hadn't said hey to her she would wait until we took a break and call to remind me she was listening so I could say 'hi.'" While Sheri was Ireland's most dedicated listener and fan, it was Ireland's wife and Sheri's sister April who was by Ireland's side many nights in the booth. April worked with local restaurants to provide food for the press box at both Sumter Memorial Stadium and Riley Park, also providing for a hospitality room whenever Riley would host state and Southeastern Regional tournaments or other special baseball events. "I'm like Kevin, I jumped in there when we got together and I wanted to do something to help," April said. "I mean, I couldn't help them (with the broadcasts) but I could help with the food." Fran's time in the booth with April and the guys was limited, but she still played a key role on game nights. "For me it was mainly having them on the radio listening when I was at home," Fran said. "Sometimes they would cut away, and they really wouldn't cut away. They'd be talking and I was afraid they would say, 'Well, that was a dumb play!' and I would start texting and say, "You're still on the air! You're still on the air!" They never said anything bad, so that was good. I've always been proud of them for what they did." Kevin and April married in 2008, on a football weekend that, as Glaze shared, saw Ireland in the booth calling a game on Friday night before his wedding that Saturday. "It should be noted that they got married on a Saturday, down in Charleston," Glaze said, "and on that Friday night he was in Conway doing a ball game with me, which I thought he was nuts for being there with me." "I left her with all of her family and all of my family," Ireland said. "That's dedication," April said of Kevin's choice to not leave the booth on his wedding weekend. THE ODDITIES OF LOCAL RADIO Ireland could be called an ironman for his dedication to the booth. Among his rare misses, Ireland took some time off with the passings of his parents and was out of the booth for four P-15's games in 2020 after having a total hip replacement. Ireland said his father's passing was particularly jarring because they would always talk on the phone after Ireland's broadcasts were done. Some of the most interesting stories from Ireland and Glaze involved life on the road. Ireland recalled calling a Wilson Hall game from a deer stand in the early days before he moved over to Sumter High games. Set-ups at venues with no press box or a smaller press box space could sometimes be monumental challenges. The duo have called games from tables in the stands, sitting on top of dugouts and would fight the elements at times to deliver coverage to their loyal listeners. "When we started this, there were no cellular telephones," Ireland said. "We literally had to carry a Marti (transmitter) unit, which is what you use at home remotes, to get back to the antenna up at the station. We would have to do it to a scanner in front of a telephone somewhere around by the ball field. Football wise you could get it done, but with baseball it is hard because the coaches are gone (and their offices are not available for setup)." Ireland recalled a night when he was working with the late John Quackenbush broadcasting a game in Bishopville where, in the days before the advent of cell phones, he had to "stand guard" with the Marti at a popular telephone booth near the field to send out the broadcast and had to inform people wishing to make calls that the booth would be in use for "probably about another hour-and-a-half or two hours." "Even with the technology that we've got now, the Skype would go out fairly regularly and we'd be sharing a phone, doing the game on the phone, calling back to the radio station," Glaze said. "You have to improvise." One of those improvisations involved Glaze jumping in to take over play-by-play duties unexpectedly when Ireland's voice failed him in the middle of a game. IRELAND'S ORIGIN AND THE P-15'S RETURN TO THE AIRWAVES For Ireland, it all began in 1984, serving as a color analyst to the late Bob Powell on Wilson Hall football games, which were being broadcast on WSSC 1340 AM. Ireland said Powell called games when Ireland was playing football at Sumter High and that connection resulted in Powell reaching out to the then 29-year-old Ireland for what could be termed a life-changing opportunity. "I thought, let me try it and see how it goes," Ireland said, recalling that his first Wilson Hall game saw senior Clay Lowder return the opening kickoff for a touchdown against St. Stephens. In the years since, Ireland has been on the mic for over 1,100 baseball games and over 1,000 football and basketball games. His hardwood calls came for both Wilson Hall and Sumter High games. Among those were nine P-15 baseball state championships and two Southeastern Regional titles that ended with World Series trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2006 and Shelby, North Carolina in 2008, all under the leadership of former head coach Wallie Jones. "When I put them back on the air in 1991, they were playing the state championship against Lancaster," Ireland said. "Of course, we were hosting the regionals that year, and that's kind of the reason I jumped on the bandwagon (for postseason coverage), thinking that this would be their one good chance with Wally Maynard and Vic Boykin and all of those guys on the '91 team. They had a good run in that, didn't win that regional, and I remember telling my wife at the time that I was thinking the next year of doing the entire season of kind of the new team since everybody had pretty much graduated off that state championship team." Already coaching football at Wilson Hall, as well as doing Wilson Hall basketball and football for radio, Ireland expected a quick 16-game season with the P-15's depleted roster. "Well, 38 games later, we're in Deland, Florida, for the first of those away Southeastern Regionals, and the night that the Jamboree is starting, football wise," Ireland said. "That started the whole entire seasons of covering P-15's baseball and, yes, it was the golden years. The disappointment was we'd never made it to a Southeastern Regional. Of course the biggest thing is nobody had ever won a Southeastern Regional over the history of P-15 baseball from 1940 on, even the '64 team that John Quackenbush covered." Quackenbush had moved to Florida in 1991, so it was Mike Hatfield working with Ireland in those early years of the radio comeback. "They had been off the air for a number of years, in the mid '70's and into the '80's, before we put them back on in '91," Ireland said. "That started the golden years, and if we weren't making it to a Southeastern Regional, something was wrong. It was very beneficial to the community. They supported it on the radio, we went to almost every away game that we could and we never missed a game. Even when we had technical difficulties, we would somehow, someway get them on the air." Quackenbush had returned to the booth with Ireland and finished his P-15's broadcasting run with the World Series appearance in Cedar Rapids. In 2008, the regional and World Series were both held in Shelby, with Ireland and Glaze spending 13 of 14 days there as the P-15's fell just short of winning it all. "That team was loaded and won its first two, was up (with a big lead) in a game against Las Vegas and then lost that one in a tight ball game," Ireland said. "They came back and won another and then lost a chance to get into the final playoff for the World Series (title). That was just kind of a shocker, but that team with Matt Price, Matt Talley and Tyler Christmon on the mound was just kind of something else. It was the team to beat." Ireland moved to Sumter from New Mexico as a member of a military family, attending Sumter High for his senior year and starring on the football field. From there, Ireland moved on to the University of Tennessee-Martin, where he played football for one season on an athletic scholarship. He also coached at Wilson Hall before his work in radio for the school. In recent years, Ireland had fun teasing the radio audience about whether or not he would return to the booth the next season. "The joke was, sort of a joke, we'd say after the end of the ball game when I signed off at the end of the season there's a possibility we'll be back, or something like that," Ireland said. "(Former P-15's head coach) Wallie and Marcia (Jones) were always listening for what I would say, or how much of a percentage. I would go with the radio station and say probably a 93.3 percent (for baseball's Old School 93.3) that we're not coming back or a 95.5 percent for football (representing Z-95 WIBZ)." THE HALL OF FAMER Before joining Ireland, Glaze, a James Island native and football and baseball star at The Citadel, worked on Citadel baseball broadcasts. Glaze, who came to Sumter in 2004, has pulled double duty during football season. On weekends that The Citadel traveled, he would have to give up Sumter broadcasts, with Ireland calling on a group of capable replacements to substitute. "It's not easy," said Glaze, who has covered road games at Army and Wisconsin in recent years, along with trips to Lexington, Va., every other year for the big rivalry game with Virginia Military Institute. "I did it for a six-year stint and then I gave it up because of the travel. It was just ridiculous. They came back to me two years later and kind of re-negotiated, so I'm doing it again now, but the first commitment is to there, obviously, because it's my alma mater." Glaze said his partnership with Ireland has blossomed into a wonderful friendship that will continue well beyond the radio booth. "Kevin is one of the most generous and loyal people I have ever met," Glaze said. "We started as good acquaintances many years ago and quickly became great friends. We have spent countless hours riding the backroads of South Carolina and the southeast covering the P-15's and Sumter High School and I can't ever remember a cross word between us. There is a lot to be said about that considering both of our strong personalities. The amount of time, effort, love and energy that he has given to everything that he's done and everyone he's touched in Sumter is really impressive and always will be to me."
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  _UID	E12F3E6364554C189A2C37CA5D7BB2789764
  Person ID	I233775	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	21 Aug 2022

  
  

  Family	April GREEN
  _UID	8BBFAF4BA21D4AC0B9A5808B031B0F22C55C
  _UID	8BBFAF4BA21D4AC0B9A5808B031B0F22C55C
  Family ID	F188630	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 Mar 2026

  
  

• Sources

  [S27025] Mary Alice Price. [S27155] TOP 125 Sports Figures, (#90-#81). [S27152] Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration. [S11709] Angela D. Rupprecht. [S18311] Evans-Beaty. [S30152] Ireland and Glaze retire from radio broadcasts with P-15’s, Sumter football.