Mike Kelly: The sound of game days

“To the house, to the house, to the house!” 

Whenever Mike Kelly’s iconic touchdown catchphrase booms over Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium and echoes out into the streets of downtown Columbia and beyond, it’s going to be a good day for the University of Missouri Tigers.

Born in 1961, the southern Illinois native got his start in radio while at Southern Illinois University to play basketball, when an injury forced him to consider the game as a viewer. Kelly’s stint on the sideline inspired his involvement in Carbondale’s local radio station, eventually leading him to a morning and afternoon sports radio job at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

When the opportunity to dive head-first into calling women’s volleyball matches for Illinois was presented to him, he didn’t think twice.   

“That’s when I fell in love with play-by-play,” Kelly said. “It was during that period between 1985 and 1988 of doing women’s volleyball. It never yearns for excitement. There are so many different creative ways to describe what’s taking place on the court.”

But long before Kelly’s infectious tone and skilled delivery would develop his legacy as “the Voice of the Tigers,” he fell in love with talk radio in the backseat of his father’s car.

“When I got into radio, I always thought that all I wanted to do in life was to work at KMOX because I had grown up in the St. Louis area [listening] to that legendary station,” Kelly said. “My dad would pick me up from practices and he would always have the radio station on.”

After eight years of commuting between St. Louis and Columbia to balance his job at KMOX and as the new host of “Tiger Talk,” Kelly, his wife Laurie and their three daughters moved to Columbia in 1997. It was then that a relationship of 30 years and counting with Mizzou athletics was cemented.

On the air, Kelly thrives on non-stop movement. 

His favorite plays to call are ones that have action – when he has to elicit as tangible a visual as possible for the listener before the moment passes. He hasn’t missed a single Mizzou football game since 1994.

Although it hasn’t always been easy balancing his professional and personal responsibilities, the support of his family has grounded him. Kelly credits his daughters with encouraging him to pursue professional counseling about three years ago, which he said has better prepared him for the day-to-day anxieties of life. 

“My formative years were in the 70s, you know, when we didn’t talk about mental health,” Kelly said. “‘Get on to the next task’ was pretty much the mantra that people followed.”

Kelly does get on to the next task, and does it well, but he’s not immune to the pressures of perfectionism. 

During the Mizzou-Kansas football game on Sept. 6, Kelly miscalled a pass completion  – in the heat of the moment, the radio veteran mistook Mizzou wide receiver Marquis Johnson for fellow wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. While on-air the next Tuesday hosting “Tiger Talk” with Coleman as a guest, Kelly apologized to him for miscrediting the play.

“And so, you know, it’s little things like that that still to this day, you know, there’s pressure internally to get it right,” Kelly said. “Through big moments, people have asked me, well, ‘How did the call go?’ And my response has always been, ‘I think that’s up for others to judge.’”

One expectation listeners set for the broadcaster is to possess an unending well of relevant, accurate facts to be recalled at any given moment while simultaenously putting on an exaggerated performance of self.

For Kelly, this manifests in the memorization of Mizzou’s rosters and statistics that began last summer, dedicated preparation for at least a week before any game he is calling and a steady amount of pressure on himself. With the data cemented, Kelly can stretch sports language to its most hyperbolic limit.  

“The art of radio is the ability to paint a picture on a palette for the listener,” Kelly said. “Among the greatest compliments that I’ve ever received are from people who are blind that listen to our games and have told me that they can see the action in front of them.”

Audience accessibility to the game is one of the values that continues to fuel Kelly’s passion for his career after all these years, especially in basketball. Some college basketball programs are shifting toward NBA-style courtside seating because, in Kelly’s words, they “drive big dollars.” However, basketball play-by-play thrives in the kind of action and accessibility found only on the sideline.

“I hope the medium of radio continues to play a role in college athletics. I hope it has a space,” Kelly said.

But above all else, Kelly is humbled by his iconic role in shaping the Mizzou Athletics scene. As the “Voice of the Tigers,” Kelly’s roar has become synonymous with Mizzou for many Tigers, both past and present. Inspired by the radio greats who have come before him and by his gracious audience, Kelly only hopes to be fortunate enough to shape the Mizzou experience for future Tigers.

“If there’s anything that I hope people can appreciate is that I wanted to be here,” Kelly said. “I want to continue to be the voice of the Tigers as long as I’ll have that opportunity.”

 

Edited by Sabrina Pan | [email protected] 

Copy edited by Emma Harper | [email protected]

Edited by Alex Gribb | [email protected]