Gators find their “Voice” with former ESPN broadcaster Sean Kelley, who this month became just the fourth UF football play-by-play announcer in 82 years.

by Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76)

When longtime UF sports communicator Steve McClain was put in charge of the search for the new “Voice of the Gators,” he started with a tried-and-true system that might as well be part of the University Athletic Association’s handbook.

McClain, a UAA senior associate athletic director, started calling people. Some were national or SEC announcers. Some were famous UF alumni who’ve made it in the broadcasting business. Others were people with impressive resumes in radio and TV. All to find legitimate possibilities to fill the job held for 33 years by retired play-by-play announcer Mick Hubert.

Then, McClain called ESPN Radio’s Sean Kelley. He thought the veteran announcer with a long list of achievements in radio — from the NBA to college football to Major League Baseball — would be a great sounding board.

Except Kelley had a different reaction. “What about me?” he asked.

That started into motion discussions, a road trip and a whirlwind few days that ended with Kelley becoming the new “Voice” of Gator athletics.

“You know, when I saw that Mick had retired, I knew that was going to be a big change at Florida, but I didn’t give it much thought,” said Kelley, who studied sports broadcasting at Southern Illinois University. “Then I got that phone call. I was very happy at ESPN, but Florida is the kind of place that makes you pause.”

So Kelley threw his hat in the ring.

“I kind of went from throwing my hat in there to deciding, ‘Hey, I think this is really something I want to do,’” he said. “I could see it as the kind of place to spend the rest of my career.”

So did his wife, Kim.

She’s more than a soulmate and mother of his children. Like Kelley’s own late mother, Marianne, Kim has been “one of my best coaches,” he said. When they started talking seriously about the Florida job, Kim had some words of wisdom.

“She pointed out that some of the best moments for our family have been when we were affiliated with a team or a school,” Kelley, 50, said. “We wanted to be a part of something again.”

That’s the thing. As much as Kelley appreciated his job flying all over the country to do national games for ESPN, he wanted to get back to being part of a community. You only have to look at his history to understand how important that is to him — he worked for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans for 14 years, been a volunteer and later paid firefighter at St. Tammany Parish Fire District 13 in Madisonville, La., and was also a high school basketball official.

“Those things are just as important as calling a game,” he said.

Once the Kelleys went all in, the four-person search committee was down to three choices. Because of a potential strike at Delta Air Lines, Kelley decided to drive the eight hours from his home in Madisonville to Gainesville. The interview went so well UF was ready to make the hire.

“You just knew after his interview that he was the guy,” McClain said.

One problem: Athletic Director Scott Stricklin was on vacation in the Florida Panhandle.

Which, it turned out, wasn’t a problem at all. The Kelleys stopped in Rosemary Beach on their way back to Louisiana.

“We met at a coffee shop, Sean and Kim and I and my wife, Anne,” Stricklin said. “We just talked. I had done enough research and talking to our selection committee that I knew he was the right person. I just wanted to meet him face to face.”

Kelley begins his new job this month. But he really starts Sept. 3 when the Gators open the football season against Utah.

He’s only the fourth person to be the “Voice of the Gators,” and Florida fans have been Googling his calls from other games and sports to get a feel for his timbre. Some have complained he’s not happy enough for one team or the other.

“Those are national broadcasts; they are certainly different,” he said. “I know how passionate the Gator Nation is. I know there are parents and grandparents out there who have raised themselves in the cloak of orange and blue. It’s a long and storied history with iconic moments.”

One of them came when the man he’s replacing, Mick Hubert, was truly welcomed into the Gator family: “Doering’s got a touchdown!” I told Kelley he needs a moment like that.

“I don’t know when that will come, but it will soon enough,” Kelley replied. “I’ve got some homework to do. But so many people have told me how happy they are that I am getting this opportunity. Friends in the business aren’t just congratulating me, they’re excited for me. If I try to get my head around all of this, I can’t — but in a euphoric way.”

Sportswriter Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76) covered the Gators for The Gainesville Sun for 33 years until his retirement in 2020. He still shares his love for Gator sports through his podcast, “Another Dooley Noted,” and WRUF radio program, “Dooley’s Back 9.”