SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Ted Leitner, who has spent more than 40 years broadcasting San Diego sports, is preparing for his final season.
“I feel good. I feel at peace with the decision and I can complain to no one," Leitner said in an interview with ABC 10News reporter Jeff Lasky, who spent two years as the sideline reporter and host for Leitner's broadcasts of San Diego State games.
Though he still feels the same passion for his job, Leitner has been scaling back his broadcast commitments in recent years due to a deteriorating struggle with glaucoma, which has limited his eyesight.
He previously retired after four decades in the Padres broadcast booth, but continued with San Diego State.
"I would have fired me several years ago because the football was driving me crazy. I would lose the ball," Leitner said.
In discussions with SDSU Athletic Director John David Wicker, they began talking about potential retirement plans.
They settled on Leitner ending his time on football broadcasts, because the distance from the press box to the field was getting challenging for his eyesight.
However, given the closer proximity of his broadcast location for basketball games, he will do one more season of Aztecs hoops games, marking 30 years calling games on the Mesa.
Besides his long tenures with the Padres and Aztecs, Leitner was also a voice of the San Diego Chargers and San Diego Clippers.
He said he still marvels that he was able to do what he loves for so long and develop such a strong connection with San Diego sports fans, who came to know him as "Uncle Teddy".
“If you can have that connection to the audience through the generations ... I feel now I accomplished that and it means so much to me. You can't buy that," Leitner said.
While he will no longer be broadcasting games, Leitner said he will continue to meet with fans and help both the Padres and Aztecs by serving as an ambassador.
