Knoxville native-son Bert Bertelkamp is well-known in the community as not only a successful and civic-minded businessman, but also for his role on some of the most prolific basketball teams in Tennessee history. Oddly enough though, it's the work he does in his 'part-time job', as the color commentator on the Vol Network radio broadcasts of Tennessee basketball, that may end up being what he is best remembered for by the most people.

Bertelkamp has been play-by-play man Bob Kesling's sidekick on the radio since John Ward took his legendary voice and perspective and retired in 1999. Stepping into the void left by the departure of such a legend would be difficult for anyone, but in this case, given the cult-like status that Ward was accorded from the Tennessee faithful, it would have been a daunting task to almost anyone.

With his own personal style though, that unashamedly draws on his strong allegiance to his alma mater, Bertelkamp has made Tennessee basketball on the radio into a product that is unique and entertaining.

There's rarely any doubt which team he's pulling for on the court, but his rooting interest doesn't get in the way of his offering insightful commentary into a game that he knows well. College athletics aren't exactly devoid of 'homer' announcers, but Bertelkamp shouldn't be lumped into that group simply because he happens to like the team he's charged with announcing for. His experience as a player in the SEC, and his ability to articulate the action he sees on the court in a succinct and understandable manner make him the kind of radio personality that comes along occasionally, that rare guy who becomes synonymous with his team.

When he was first approached about teaming up with Kesling, Bertelkamp said that the Vol Network had some parameters that they wanted him to work within, parameters, as it turns out, he wasn't exactly comfortable with.

"They gave me some rules right from the beginning. I'll never forget that they told me there were three rules they didn't want me to break," Bertelkamp recalled. "They told me they didn't want me to referee, they didn't want me to coach, and they didn't want me to favor Tennessee during the broadcasts.

"I told them that I can probably cut back and not coach a lot, in other words second-guess the coach. There's no way that I can't referee during a game and there's absolutely no way that I can't be for UT, so I told them that we were going to have a problem there."

Bertelkamp was firm on the issue, at least insomuch as he told all parties that there was little chance he could hide his feelings, nor did he see much of a need to.

"We had a discussion, and I said, 'It's called the Vol Network. People that are listening, most of those people, are Tennessee people. I don't see anything wrong with favoritism.'

It really turned out to be a good discussion, and the bottom line is that as long as your fair, and I try my best to be fair, I think that it's ok.

"I try to treat the listener the way I would want to be treated. If I'm driving down the road listening to the game, and a guy's not hustling, I want to know about that. If a guy's not hustling, I want to know about that, whether he's Orange or whatever team he's with.

"The bottom line is that I try to be fair, but I am for Tennessee. I'm from Tennessee, I went to school at Tennessee and I played for Tennessee, and you can probably tell that from my voice. That's my team."

The rest as they say, is history. Bertelkamp's emotional style is the kind of thing that fans identify with, probably thinking to themselves, 'that's how I'd do it if I had that job.'

The difference with Bertelkamp though, and why it works is this. He's not just some fan, he's got the benefit of having 'been there and done that' as a player in the SEC. He may break a couple of the old-school announcing rules, but he's got credibility in spades thanks to his background. That sort of experience, and his rule of not crossing the line to the point of downgrading the other team, makes his approach work.

He got his start by doing television work with Kesling on non-conference games during the Kevin O'Neil and Wade Houston years in Knoxville. When Ward stepped aside and Kesling took over the microphone duties, Bertelkamp was a natural choice to step in and take a role when the Vol Network decided that it was going to move to a two-man broadcast team for basketball.

The duo were moving into a broadcast booth that had housed one of the most beloved figures in Tennessee athletics, but Bertelkamp says that he never viewed his job in terms of replacing Ward.

"It wasn't a concern for me, but with Bob, I'm sure it probably was. There's a lot more pressure on him with the shoes that he was filling. The 'main-guy', the play-by-play guy, that's a much tougher role than the color guy. There hadn't been a color-guy that I was coming in after, so I just sort of stepped in there, and with me, it was one of those things where if it works, fine, if not you can fire me and there's no hard feelings," he joked of his initial approach.

"I've worked hard though, and I try to do the best job that I can in being descriptive. There was never any anxiety or pressure on my end. It's all been very upbeat and fun. My relationship with Bob is really the key to it for me. We get along great. He treats me right and it's a lot of fun."

As the head of a large company, Bertelkamp Automation Inc., one would think that his duties in the booth would force a lot of professional juggling acts. While he may have to cut a few corners here and there though, Bertelkamp noted that the ease of modern communications smooth over potential rough patches on the business side of things, but they do little to smooth them over on the personal side.

He and his wife Sheila are the parents of three young children, daughters Brownie (12 years old), Lillie (8) and son Hank (6). And though he clearly loves the chance to remain close the program in his role with the Vol Network, those winter road trips are a tangible downside to an otherwise rollicking good time.

"They are my life," Bertelkamp says succinctly of his family. "It's not that hard business-wise. With the basketball scheduling, it affects my family life a lot more than it does my business. Business-wise, I can pretty much still get everything done. I might miss a few days, but with computers and cell phones these days, I can still do things. Plus, with some of the towns that we go to in the SEC, I can actually get out and visit customers.

"The only drawback is missing that time with my wife and children. Like I said, they're my life and being away from them for even a little bit is tough on me and my wife. We don't like it, but that is the only downside to this."

Having played for the Vols from 1976-79, Bertelkamp had the honor of winning a ton of basketball games during his time in uniform. His time on campus came during the tail end of the halcyon days of Tennessee basketball. He was a wide-eyed freshman when the 'Ernie and Bernie' show was in full swing, and was on hand as the program transitioned from the freewheeling style of Ray Myers to the more button-downed approach of Don Devoe.

He was much more than merely an observer though. He played significantly as a freshman and was three-year starter for a program that won a regular season SEC title, an SEC tournament and went to three NCAA tournaments (at a time when bids weren't given out in the open manner they are today).

That resume, coupled with his status as a native Knoxvillian (Bearden High School, Class of '76), and a long-time supporter of the University of Tennessee, allow him a unique perspective from which to both view the program, and offer criticism. And while he surely saw plenty to be critical of in the two decades between his playing days and when he put on the headset for the Vol Network, he's far more interested in talking about the future of the program than it's rather mixed history.

After having enjoyed so much success as a player himself, it had to be something of a bitter pill to swallow when you're school not only takes a downturn, but essentially becomes a league doormat for the better part of 20 years.

"It was frustrating, and it was really unfortunate that we just didn't have the right leadership with basketball. There were lots of different factors but all of that is kind of behind us now. We do have the right leadership now and it's really exciting," he says of the program.

"Being an ex-player, when I was playing in the late-70's, it was a different atmosphere. You're never going to say that Knoxville's a basketball-town, it's a football town, but this town loves sports. If you put a good baseball team out there, a good women's softball team out there, a good women's basketball team, any good sport you put out there, I think people are going to follow it and support it.

"Men's basketball, people really like it, they just weren't excited about the product they were being given. Bruce Pearl's smart enough to know that. He really wanted this job and he let it be known that he wanted this job. He knew that the excitement was in this town for basketball, but it had to be the right caliber.

"He came in and made it happen and it's been amazing to have the number of sell-outs that they had this past year."

Having spent a good deal of his life in and around the game of basketball, Bertelkamp knows a thing or two about the sport, and what it takes to have success in it. He's not the type to point out the shortcomings of any of the men that preceded Pearl on the Tennessee bench. What he's not shy about though is offering platitudes for Pearl, and for a guy anxious to see some pride restored in a once-proud program, Bertelkamp now has plenty to smile about.

"I never dreamed that he would come in and do what he did. I figured that his first year he would probably be around .500, maybe a few games better than that," Bertelkamp said.

"I knew about Bruce because of Ernie Grunfeld. I knew that Bruce was a winner, and I knew that Ernie had gone out on a limb to talk about how strong Bruce was and what a great fit he thought he would be. They knew each other obviously from their time in Milwaukee when Bruce was coaching there and Ernie was with the Bucks. Ernie just felt like he was a great fit, and through the coaching changes that we've had hear, I'd never seen Ernie step up and promote anyone like he did Bruce.

"Mike (Hamilton) went out and got people he had confidence in to help him, and Ernie was one of those people. He just did a tremendous job finding Bruce and finding him early, because after the success he had in the NCAA he was a hot commodity. Mike did a nice job of moving fast and being business-like in getting it done. He deserves a lot of credit for that."

Pearl's turnaround of the Vols' fortunes was as unexpected as it was welcome. Last season was viewed by fans as an unprecedented gift. People had forgotten what it was like to truly be excited about basketball in Knoxville. Making it even more special was that '05-06 was supposed to be one of those typical years for a new coach when he simply comes in and tries to install his system while waiting to get his own players into the program.

Pearl was obviously on a different timetable, and after watching him in action for one year, Bertelkamp thinks Vol fans should get ready for an enjoyable ride.

"There's a difference in having a good team and a good program, and Bruce is all about having a good program. He is going to bring players in here. You can't have a good program without great players, and that is all about recruiting," Bertelkamp offers.

"The most phenomenal thing he's done, to me, among a number of phenomenal things, is he went out and signed four players before he ever coached a game here. He was able to sell them on Tennessee before any of this happened.

"He got guys that other people wanted. He didn't get players that OVC schools, or Sunbelt schools wanted. He got guys that the Big 10 and the ACC wanted. Big-time players, and that is what amazed me, before he'd ever coached his first game."

A successful manager himself, in the business world, Bertelkamp knows the value of surrounding yourself with competent associates. It's a trait that he sees in Pearl as well as it relates to assembling his staff and letting them do the job they were hired to do.

"One of the things that really impressed me as far as a program, when you talk about recruiting or coaching, is his staff. I think his staff is just tremendous. I know each of these guys, Jason Shay, Tony Jones and Ken Johnson, you don't get any better than that," he notes of Pearl's assistants. "Those guys will be head coaches some day. Scott Edgar was only here for a year, but he was obviously very strong.

"I don't know coach (Steve) Forbes yet, but I do know that Bruce took his time making a move and finding the right guy. You're not going to be with Bruce if you're not strong, if you're not a contributor.

"Everything I've seen from that staff, from the knowledge of the game, the way they conduct practices and their relationships with players, it's impressive. The players respond to that and you can see a lot of respect in those relationships. They're going to be friends, but you're going to work and you're going to do things the right way. That gets me excited as a former player here."

There are plenty of stories circulating around campus and beyond of when it became apparent that things were going to be different in the Tennessee basketball program with Pearl at the helm. One of the better ones involves Chris Lofton, who was rumored to be thinking hard about transferring in the wake of the coaching change.

Rather than coddle his best returning player, Pearl made sure that everyone knew where he stood by running Lofton at 5 a.m. for being late to a study hall. That's not something that every coach in America would have done, but it got Lofton's attention, and got him to thinking that this was someone who would work to make him better.

Bertelkamp, who had several opportunities to interact with the new coach before the season began, doesn't have a 'Eureka' moment where he realized Pearl had the goods, but says that an accumulation of data started to paint a picture of a man who knew what he was doing.

"You could just tell he was different. Like I said, a big part of it for me was knowing how Ernie felt about him, so I somewhat expected him to be successful. Ernie and I are still friends, we used to work out together during the summer when he was in the pros and I was still here. I have a lot of respect for him. He really knows people and he knows the game. Once he endorsed Bruce, I really didn't have any questions," he offered.

"I really liked the way he handled the situation with Tyler Smith and I liked the way he handled the situation with Matthew Dotson. I just liked the way he handled himself with the Smith deal. He was not backing down. I felt like he did the right thing and he was confident in what he was doing.

"I had a meeting with him and really got to know him last summer while I was the chair of the United Way campaign. Bruce volunteered to help me, I didn't have to ask him. I got to know him more as a person then and saw that there was way more to him than just basketball. He had character, he cared about this community and is a family person.

"He never quits promoting his program. That's really what we needed. We needed a great coach for sure, but we needed someone who could promote the program, to get people feeling good about it again."

Having played for the master showman himself in Ray Mears, Bertelkamp knows of what he speaks when he talks of a coaches ability to market his program. Pearl made a name for himself before he ever coached a game in Knoxville by showing a willingness to speak anywhere at anytime to any group.

That gift for putting your program in a positive light and getting the message out is something that not every coach has. In fact, it's a skill that probably keeps some very competent 'X's and O's' types from becoming successful in the job.

"I see a lot of parallels there. Coach Mears was a great promoter, always talking up the program, and was a showman. I see coach Pearl, off-the-court, doing a lot of the same things. Coach Mears took that onto the court more, the pre-game warm-ups, the unicycles, 'Sweet Georgia Brown', that stuff," Bertelkamp said of the similarities between the two coaches.

"Our pre-game warm-ups under coach Mears were a production to the point that I can remember being nervous about it. I had to bounce the ball off-the-floor, off-the-backboard, and Bernard would catch it and dunk it. If I didn't do that right, Bernard looked bad and I would just think about that all day. It's not easy.

"The promoter part of it, is definitely there with coach Pearl, and the thing is that he's doing it every day. It never stops with him."

Look for part 2 of our visit with Bert Bertelkamp on Wednesday.