ESPN PBP guy Mike Patrick retiring after 35 years

[poindexter]

ESPN announcer Mike Patrick retires

I can remember him from way back.... ESPN Sunday Night Football in it's infancy. ACC basketball when it was good.

I hear him once in a while, doing a random game. His voice is almost shot.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Nobody set the stage for overtime better.

 

[poindexter]

Nobody set the stage for overtime better.

Eh, its too bad he's going to be remembered for that. My guess is that he was trying to make a joke - the game was exciting and he was making a joke that it was so boring that there was nothing to talk about (he used Britney instead of "how's the weather?"). It fell flat.

 

[Buck]

Didn't he do NHL too?

 

[lantaur]

Is he retiring, or just retiring from ESPN (as the network said in the headline of their release)? He's 73, so maybe he's done, but just seems a weird way to announce it.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Nobody set the stage for overtime better.

That's mostly what I remember Patrick for, which is a shame I guess.

Did good work as play-by-play man for the original ESPN Sunday Night Football broadcast team, most notably with Joe Theismann and (later) Paul Maguire.

However, in the inaugural season (1987) it was Patrick on play-by-play and ... are you ready for this? ... Roy Firestone on color.

 

[Buck]

Mike Emrick - that's the NHL guy

I got my Mikes mixed up.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

WV guy and a nice one to boot.
To me he's the voice of Sunday Night Football.

 

[DanOregon]

I've always admired those PxP people who can do anything, work two or three games a week. Patrick was always smooth, which was an adjustment from Ron Franklin's folksiness on college football.
I hope his health is okay. Retiring six weeks after your most recent assignment is odd. Patrick was one of those people who was key to ESPNs growth.

 

[poindexter]

Is someone leaving work from ESPN really considered odd?

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I liked hearing him on college basketball. Did a number of UConn games during the Big East days. I'll certainly remember him for Jalen Adams' heave a few years ago.

 

[poindexter]

Here's the Dan Patrick I remember

 

[DanOregon]

I've always admired those PxP people who can do anything, work two or three games a week. Patrick was always smooth, which was an adjustment from Ron Franklin's folksiness on college football.
I hope his health is okay. Retiring six weeks after your most recent assignment is odd. Patrick was one of those people who was key to ESPNs growth.

Just figure if you were retiring, you'd get one last "send-off" and they wouldn't wait six weeks to say you're retiring. Musberger got a mid-week Big12? game for his last go-round.

Add note - unlike "brothers" Bill and Dan - Mike's actual last name is Patrick.

 

[NNDman]

He used to be the sports anchor for wjla-7 in Washington, D.C. He was awesome in that job and I believe he did a lot of U of Maryland stuff as well as the old ACC Nework (CD Chesley?) games. I think he was the PBP guy when Maryland came from way behind vs. U of Miami in football. Just a true versatile broadcaster.

 

[Buck]

He used to be the sports anchor for wjla-7 in Washington, D.C. He was awesome in that job and I believe he did a lot of U of Maryland stuff as well as the old ACC Nework (CD Chesley?) games. I think he was the PBP guy when Maryland came from way behind vs. U of Miami in football. Just a true versatile broadcaster.

the Frank Reich game?

 

[TyWebb]

I really hated when it was him and Tuberville in the booth calling a Georgia game this past season. They were unbearable.

Patrick was also the play-by-play guy when Georgia choked against Fresno State in the 2008 College World Series finals. So yeah my distaste for him may be a little biased.

 

[TyWebb]

Nobody set the stage for overtime better.

Awful sidenote to that game: the guy who made that game-winning catch, Mikey Henderson, became a teacher at a nearby high school and just went to jail for sexually abusing a student.

 

[swingline]

Here's the Dan Patrick I remember

Damn. I forgot just how freaking good Len Bias was. To think of the battles he would have had with Jordan in the pros — man, that would have been something.

 

[lantaur]

Is he retiring, or just retiring from ESPN (as the network said in the headline of their release)? He's 73, so maybe he's done, but just seems a weird way to announce it.

Called it.

Mike Patrick implies ESPN made decision on future for him, says he hasn't ruled out a return to broadcasting