Mike Patrick, a longtime ESPN play-by-play-announcer, has died. He was 80.
Patrick died of natural causes on Sunday in Fairfax, Va., his doctor confirmed to the network on Tuesday.
The announcer joined ESPN in 1982 and became a go-to game caller for professional and college sports. His last event was the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 30, 2017, a game in which Iowa State defeated Memphis 21-20.
Patrick was the lead announcer for “Sunday Night Football” from 1987 until 2005 — initially with former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann — and also appeared on countless college football and basketball games.
“I called him Mr. ACC as he had a great love for doing the big [Atlantic Coast Conference] games,” ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said Tuesday. “Mike had great energy and a keen knowledge of ACC basketball, and I truly enjoyed sitting next to him calling so many special games over the years.”
In 2018, Patrick remarked that “It’s wonderful to reflect on how I’ve done exactly what I wanted to do with my life, adding: “At the same time, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some of the very best people I’ve ever known, both on the air and behind the scenes.”
Patrick attended George Washington University and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force before starting his broadcasting career at a Pennsylvania radio station. In the early 1970s, he joined a TV station in Jacksonville, Fla.. Prior to his jump to ESPN, he was a sports reporter and weekend editor at a Washington, D.C. TV station.
“Mike Patrick called countless significant events over decades at ESPN and is one of the most influential on-air voices in our history,” Burke Magnus, president of content for ESPN, said. “In addition to calling ESPN’s first-ever regular season NFL game and voicing the ‘Sunday Night Football’ franchise for 18 seasons, Mike’s work on college sports was exceptional.
“For 36 years, he called football and men’s and women’s basketball, including the Women’s Final Four and so many historic matchups between ACC rivals Duke and UNC. Our deepest condolences to Mike’s family and his many friends throughout the industry.”
