Longtime ESPN play-by-play commentator Mike Patrick passed away Sunday at the age of 80.
Per ESPN, Patrick’s doctor confirmed that the West Virginia native — who was the voice of ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ for 18 seasons — died of natural causes in Fairfax, Va.
Patrick rose to national prominence at ESPN starting in 1982, and was a consistent presence on the network’s football and basketball broadcasts for over 30 years. His final ESPN call came in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
That career included being the play-by-play announcer for the first NFL regular-season game ever broadcast on ESPN, back in 1987, with Joe Thiesmann and Paul Maguire frequently joining him as color commentators over the years. Patrick would go on to be the voice of ‘Sunday Night Football’ from 1987 through 2005, as well as over three decades of ACC men’s basketball championship games and the network’s Women’s Final Four games from 1996-2009.
Patrick’s voice was a familiar one to ESPN viewers, as he was the lead announcer for many years of college football and the College World Series, including ‘Thursday Night Football’ and ‘Saturday Night Football’ broadcasts.
Mike Patrick career
Patrick first took to the airwaves in 1966, working at Somerset, Penn. radio station WVSC. Four years later, he moved on to Jacksonville, Fla. TV station WJXT, where he became the sports director and began calling World Football League games for the Jacksonville Sharks, along with Jacksonville University basketball.
Patrick headed back north in 1975, taking up a post as a reporter and weekend anchor for Washington, D.C.’s WJLA. There, he called University of Maryland football and basketball games, as well as Washington NFL preseason games for the next seven years.
Patrick then joined ESPN in 1982, not long after the network launched, and would remain there until retiring in 2018. Over the years, he became best known as the voice of ‘Sunday Night Football,’ calling NFL games for 19 seasons from 1987-2005. Patrick’s first call of a college football game for ESPN came in 1985, and he would go on to be the lead play-by-play announcer for ‘Thursday Night Football’ from 1991-97, and in 2006 moved over to ‘College Football Primetime.’
From 2009-17, Patrick was on the mic for ESPN and ABC broadcasts of college games on Saturday afternoons while continuing to work the College World Series, the women’s Final Four, and numerous NFL playoff games on ABC. Patrick’s work extended into the world of video games as well, with EA Sports hiring him as the voice of the MVP: NCAA Baseball series in 2006 and 2007.
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