It’s been a while.
Too long, in fact, for Eli Gold. On Saturday, though, the Voice of the Crimson Tide was back in his element. Gold, who missed all of last season due to cancer, returned to the booth for the Crimson Tide Sports Network ahead for Saturday’s season-opening game between Alabama and Middle Tennessee.
His colleague, Roger Hoover, caught a smiling Gold in the booth hours before kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Gold is splitting play-by-play duties with Chris Stewart this year and will handle the home games.
“I’m thrilled to be back in the booth, needless to say,” Gold said last week. “I’m absolutely thrilled. After a good bit of consideration, I feel like I did a good job. We had good practice games and scrimmages, but I need to work on getting my strength back. The travel, I don’t know how much that will take out of me and so on, so I’m going to do the home games and the talk shows. Chris will do the road games.”
Welcome back, Eli.
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.