Anyone who is a fan of high school sports in Winslow and the surrounding area in northern Arizona knows the name Loy Engelhardt.

They know his voice even better.

Engelhardt has been the voice of Winslow High football and the school’s other sports for 37 years on KINO radio.

On Oct. 26, he suffered a heart attack and was unable to work the Bulldogs’ final game of the regular season on Nov. 1, at Page.

On Halloween night, he received a knock on his door, but it wasn’t trick-or-treaters.

It was the Winslow football team, dressed in their jerseys, who presented him with a football signed by each of them.

It was quite an emotional time. Tears streamed from Engelhardt’s eyes. Everyone posed for a group picture.

Long-time Winslow baseball coach Art Griffith, who has been a football game analyst for several years, took over for Engelhardt at the Page game, but will have to move back over one seat on Saturday night (Nov. 9) when the seventh-seeded Bulldogs open the Division IV playoffs at home against No. 10 Sahuarita.

The 73-year-old Engelhardt will be back behind the microphone. His doctors in Flagstaff (he had a checkup on Wednesday) gave their approval, just so long as he doesn’t overdo it.  Not an easy thing, however. In football, excitement is the name of the game.

“He’s a tough old bird,’’ said Justin Hartman, Winslow’s athletic director.

Said Engelhardt’s wife, Patricia: “I just wanted the people to know what a nice thing those boys did and how much it meant to Loy. These kids are good kids.’’

In smaller communities like Winslow, things like that mean more. Everybody knows everybody, many for an entire lifetime.

Thankfully, Loy Engelhardt’s life continues. He will be back in the press box, doing what he loves. And listeners will be back in their comfort zone.

“He is a big part of who we are,’’ Hartman said.