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Xavier's Friend Mark Wagner will be missed!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
9/7/2010
I hadn't planned on writing an article until October then I received the news of Mark Wagner's death over the weekend. It's taken a village to get XU basketball from where it was in 1979 (an independent, low on the Division I food chain, playing in antiquated Schmidt Field House) to where it is today (Big Dog in the Atlantic 10-perennial NCAA Tournament participant with designs on a Final 4-playing in the state of the art Cintas Center). "Wags" certainly was a prominent inhabitant of that village.
His long friendship with Joe Sunderman caused Mark to follow Joe's basketball career at Xavier closely. Mark was always loyal to a fault. He attended all of Joe's home games and made road trips when he could encouraging his buddy all the way.
 | Mark cheers on the Muskies after they bring home the A-10 regular season title in 2008-09.
Photo by Bob Stevens |
When an opportunity arose to do some high school games on the radio, "Wags" urged a shy and uncertain Joe to take the plunge and he helped Joe prepare for the broadcasts. Joe Sunderman and I first teamed up to do Xavier TV games in 1983 on Channel 19. Joe brought Mark Wagner along as part of the package.
"Wags" worked statistics with us at courtside but he also supplied me with a pre-game information packet and he started to learn the inner workings of TV production from director-producer Dave Ashbrouck. Dave and Mark made beautiful music together in the truck and the telecasts were better because of their collaboration.
XU had never been on TV regularly until '83-'84. The exposure was vital to the growth of the program and "Wags'" inputs helped make the product special. Mark, Joe and I partnered on many broadcasts from 1983 until 1998. We made a ton of road trips, quaffed more than a few beers, enjoyed a zillion laughs and witnessed the evolution of a great basketball program. I can't remember one argument.
Somewhere along the way we began referring to Mark on-the-air as "Stats are us". He will always be "Wags" to me. Mark was a stats and information pioneer. He did amazing things before computers were common place and the Internet ruled information flow. Mark's main tools early on were the fax machine and the telephone.
He supplied the XU coaches with all sorts of scouting materials for free -- box scores, team stats, newspaper articles --in a time when that stuff was hard to come by. He loved Xavier Basketball and contributed to its growth.
Later on Mark worked extensively for Reds TV. George Grande nicknamed him "Daddy Wags" which was clever but there was another "Daddy Wags" Leon Wagner a slugging LA Angels outfielder from the 1960's. He'll always be just plain "Wags" to us.
Mark had a great relationship with Tommie Brennaman and worked with him on baseball and college and pro football. "Wags" was blessed that he could immerse himself in sports and actually earn a living doing what he loved.
Mark had a lifelong weight issue. Joe did his best to help him as did others. We all knew that problem would lead to an early death, and 54 is way too early. But in the end, that's genetics and that's life.
Wags should be remembered in the Xavier community and in our Cincinnati community. He touched a lot of people both directly and indirectly. His efforts and loyalty are part of the reason XU basketball has prospered and advanced through the years. We'll miss him mightily!!!
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