Larry Ward's initial trip to Chattanooga lasted less than a year.
 
That trip, however, would be the start of 33 years in the Scenic City and lead to his upcoming induction into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2022.
 
After a four-year stint with The Citadel, Ward returned to Chattanooga in 1989 to become the "Voice of the Lookouts" and is still going strong as he begins his 33^rd season with the Southern League team.
 
"He's old school," Lookouts General Manager Rich Mozingo said of his style on the air. "He's not over the top with antics."
 
Ward began his time with the Lookouts at historic Engel Stadium and now calls games at the 6,382-seat AT&T Field.
 
"It speaks volumes to his character," Mozingo said of Ward's tenure with the team.
 
That character, along with his longevity in the business, was what led local television and radio broadcaster and author David Carroll to nominate him.
 
"He began doing games for the Lookouts back in the '80s," Carroll said. "I really admire how he's in that booth for four hours a day doing radio alone. That's hard.
 
"I started listening to his Lady Mocs' games. He's outspoken, funny and opinionated. He's outstanding on basketball play-by-play as well."
 
1989 would also be the year he began his 24-year association with the Chattanooga Mocs and the women's basketball team.
 
"Neil Magnussen, the former sports information director at UTC, brought Craig Parrott up to the booth because he was a big baseball fan," Ward recalled.
 
Parrott, the UTC women's head coach for 11 seasons, and Ward hit it off and the two struck up a years-long friendship.
 
Ward attended a practice and was blown away by the advancement of the sport.
 
"Women's basketball changed big time," he said.
 
That led him to asking Parrott about putting all the games, home and away, on the radio. The two agreed that it would be a huge benefit for the game and the team and Ward went to work selling advertising.
 
"Lo and behold," he said. "Every word was on the air for the next three years."
 
That included UTC's second-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1992. The Mocs took on No. 20 Clemson on the Tigers' home court and fell in a nail-biter 72-76.
 
"It was exciting," Ward recalled of the trip. "It wasn't a throw-away cross-country game. It was close and a lot of UTC fans came. It was a really close and exciting game."
 
However, money became a factor and the two decided to not put them on the air anymore. Ward used his voice as the public address announcer at Maclellan Gym for the remainder of Parrott's tenure.
 
It would be a few years after the arrival of Wes Moore and another trip to the NCAA Tournament before the games returned to the radio.
 
"I was at home one summer and I got a call from Wes," Ward recalled. "He says, 'Man, we just need you to do our games.'"
 
Ward had many hoops to jump through, the first of which was to talk with his wife Nelle. He then approached Lookouts owner Frank Burke who had also talked with UTC Director of Athletics Oval Jaynes.
 
"We won the SoCon Championship and went to the NCAA Tournament," former Mocs head coach Wes Moore said. "Our fans, including Frank Burke's daughter, had to listen to the Clemson broadcast of the game and it was a bit slanted. Frank wanted to make sure that didn't happen again."
 
With the backing of the Lookouts, Ward returned to the mic for Mocs in the 2001-02 season and has lent his voice to history.
 
During his time with the UTC, the women's team won 17 regular season Southern Conference titles, 13 SoCon Tournament titles, 13 trips to the NCAA Tournament and four ventures into the Women's NIT.
 
Ward was behind the mic last year when UTC became the 39^th team in NCAA Division I history to reach the 900-win plateau. He shared with fans Wes Moore 500^th career victory as well as Nos. 800 and 900 of Hall of Famer Jim Foster.
 
The Mocs mounted victories over No. 20 Tennessee in 2012 and in a span of three weeks in 2014, beat the fourth-ranked Lady Vols and No. 7 Stanford, propelling UTC into the AP Top 25. Ward was a witness to them all and so many more stunning victories by a little-known mid-major team.
 
"We were lucky to have a Hall of Famer like Larry Ward in Chattanooga willing to do the games," Moore said.
 
In 2004, Ward was on the call for UTC's historic victory over Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Roundhouse. His voice rose to be heard above the crowd and across the airwaves as Katie Burrows banked in "the shot" that brought the crowd to its feet.
 
He spent the last four seasons calling games for that same former women's basketball player-turned-head coach Katie Burrows.
 
With the arrival of new head coach Shawn Poppie, Ward will have called games for all but two of UTC's head coaches and will begin his 25^th season with Mocs in November.
 
The Tennessee Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2012 and includes such names as Luther Masingill, Wink Martindale, John Ward, Pat Sajak, Bill "Dex" Poindexter and Jim Reynolds.
 
This will be the third Hall of Fame induction for Ward. He is a member of The Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2005 and the Southern League Hall of Fame, Class of 2016.
 
When asked what makes this one different and special, his answer was simple.
 
"These are people that I don't even know for the most part," he said. "They take a look at what you've accomplished, how long it's taken. They're acknowledging that you deserve it."
 
TENNESSEE RADIO HALL OF FAME
Documenting, preserving and honoring the people and stations shaping the art and science of radio broadcasting throughout the state of Tennessee.

The induction banquet will take place August 6 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.