"The Voice of the Blackhawks" since 1978, Jim Cheek has announced Blackhawk athletes and plays for more than 40 years. Cheek declines any special recognition, deferring to the men who work with him in the press box -- Adam Yager, Matt Ingram and Jeff Neil.
Two years ago, school officials put a sign with his name on it in the window of the press box at Blackhawk Stadium.
When it comes to finding a Pea Ridge Blackhawks fan, none come any truer than Cheek, a former Pea Ridge High School teacher and coach.
Cheek started his career as the official "Voice of the Blackhawks" when he volunteered to help out by announcing the football Blackhawks' first home game of the 1978 season. Some 43 years later, he is still at it and has no plans to stop anytime in the near future.
Jim Cheek taught at Pea Ridge from 1973 until his retirement in 2011.
For the past 43 years Cheek has been announcing all of the Blackhawks football and basketball home games. During that time, he has seen more than his share of good and bad times for PRHS sports, including the school's first-ever state football playoff win and numerous senior boys' and girls' basketball conference titles.
"Growing up, I always wanted to be a broadcaster," Cheek explained. "So, when the (Pea Ridge) school administrators were looking for someone to do the public address announcing at football and basketball games back then, I volunteered to do it. And have been doing it ever since.
"I really enjoy announcing the games. One of the biggest things that I like about it is the people that are involved with me like in the press box at football games and at the scorer's table at basketball games. They are some great people to be around."
Cheek first developed his fondness for broadcasting as a young boy growing up in the small north Arkansas town of Pyatt. His favorite childhood game consisted of a few rocks, a good stick and a great imagination, as he pretended to be both play-by-play announcer and star athlete during his many fantasized major league baseball games that always featured his favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers.
"I would be announcing the game out loud as I pretended that the (New York) Giants had taken the lead during the top of the ninth inning," Cheek said. "But then Duke Snyder or Gil Hodges would hit a game-winning home run during in the bottom half of the ninth. The Dodgers never lost a single game in my front yard."
Cheek coached basketball for five years before moving to Pea Ridge. He coached baseball at Cotter High School and at Pyatt.
Through the years, Cheek has remained the consummate supporter of both high school athletics and academics. A 35-year teaching veteran, Cheek taught high school social studies at Pea Ridge for 24 years before retiring from the classroom in 1995.
Cheek credits his unique ability to develop long-lasting friendships with so many of the Pea Ridge students to simply treating the kids as his equals.
"In the classroom I always had discipline, but I have tried to treat every kid the same; every kid was equal to me," explained Cheek. "Every day I tried to speak to every kid that came into my classroom. If they didn't speak to me, I would go find them and speak to them again, because I wanted every class to start off on a positive note."
In 1996, Cheek was grand marshal of the Pea Ridge Blackhawk Homecoming parade.
Jim and his wife, Margaret Jines Cheek, were married Dec. 23, 1968, in Springdale.
Jim says that both he and his wife are very happy living in Pea Ridge and that it is the town's residents who make it such a great place to live.
Ingram
Neil
Yager