Les Keiter’s Youth, Briefly

Keiter started in the Montlake District of Seattle, with parents Jake and Dolly Keiter, where they lived until he was 4 years old.  From there, the family moved to the Capitol Hill District, and in 1923, Les’ younger brother, George “Buddy” Keiter, was born.

Les and Buddy Keiter at Camp Orkila

From age 9, Les and Buddy spent summers at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island of the San Juan Islands.   Les’ prime interest at Orkila was Softball – he played until he got blisters, and then played some more.  At 9 years old, it was at Camp Orkila that Les informed his camp buddies that he intended to announce from Yankee Stadium when he was grown.  About 30 years later, that dream came true.  And in 1997, the baseball field at Camp Orkila was renamed “Keiter Park”.

 

Les attended Seward Elementary School and then Broadway High School in Seattle.

He got his college education at University of Washington, where he was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.  Les Keiter graduated in 1941.  While attending U of W, Les played on the Baseball team in left field.   He could be heard announcing the entire game, except when he was up at bat.  Spectators came and crowds increased just to hear Les Keiter announce.

A side note: Les’s father, Jake Keiter, was quite an athlete in his youth.  He was asked to try out for the Chicago White Sox.

Introduction

Aloha!  If you found this web site, you probably have an interest in learning more about Les Keiter, the legendary sportscaster.  Les’ youngest daughter, Cindy Keiter, and I (her spouse, Lory Henning) are putting together this informational tribute to Les’ life and work of 50 Years Behind the Microphone (also the title behind Les’ book).

Please note- the 30 JOBS we will be listing do not include every freelance job Les covered while doing all of these, i.e. every basketball, golf match, boxing match, etc. that he got asked to do along the way. He called for instance, many fights for the Monday Night Fights at Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, the many bouts he called while in the Navy for the Armed Forces Radio Network, and the many fights he called in Hawaii during his first tenure there in 1949-50 in the old Honolulu Stadium (affectionately known as, “Termite Palace”).

At this time we don’t have a record of each individual bout.

Les Keiter was born in Seattle, Washington-April 27th, 1919, and he died in Kailua, Hawaii- April 14th, 2009. Les was 89 years old.

–  Cindy Keiter and Lory Henning