10.3.24

Sportscaster Mike Kennedy ’71 writes about being a Shocker

Voice of the Shockers

BY MIKE KENNEDY ’71
HALL OF FAME PLAY-BY-PLAY SPORTSCASTER

My love affair with Wichita State began at the age of nine, after I received my first basketball and radio for Christmas. I began listening intently to Shocker football and basketball games, and occasionally had an opportunity to attend games with my father. I followed all of the state universities, but WSU soon became my favorite. When Dave Stallworth arrived a few years later, my loyalty to the Shockers was forever secured.

By the time I was in high school, I had decided to attend Wichita State. Unfortunately, my passion for sports was not matched by my athletic ability, so I was not destined to be a Shocker student-athlete. My college years were some of the most fun times in my life, hanging out with friends at the Cedar and the Y-Not, attending Shocker athletic events, and seeing acts like Peter, Paul, and Mary, Sly and the Family Stone, and Simon and Garfunkel at Koch Arena.

In addition to the typical college life, however, my years at WSU coincided with one of the most turbulent and challenging eras in our nation’s history. I was at WSU from 1966-71, and the issues swirling around us included the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the proliferation of “pot” and other drugs. We witnessed events like the assassination of Martin Luther King, the National Guard shooting of students at Kent State, and Woodstock. It was a time which pretty much forced you to take stock of what you believed. For that reason, I wouldn’t trade the years I was a student at Wichita State for any other period in our history because, hopefully, I am a better person for it.

In my last year-and-a-half at WSU, I decided to pursue the possibility of becoming a sports broadcaster at campus station KMUW-FM. It only took doing a few sportscasts of Shocker home football and basketball games to verify what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was during this time that I handled the most difficult assignment of my career, covering an event which none of us who were at WSU will ever forget, the football tragedy in Colorado.

Following my graduation in 1971, I worked in Chanute and Pittsburg, Kansas, with the Wichita Aeros baseball team, and KAKE Radio and TV, before becoming the full-time “Voice of the Shockers” in 1980. In the 45 years that I have been honored to be in that role, I have had the opportunity to describe some of the most significant athletic achievements in Wichita State history, including the baseball team winning the College World Series in 1989, and the men’s basketball team making its run to the Final Four in 2013.

Far more significant than the events, however, are the relationships which have developed over the years. Last year, when I made it public that I was battling cancer, the response from fans and former student-athletes was overwhelming and heartwarming. I felt like George Bailey at the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I have learned that people who haven’t experienced Wichita State have no idea what a special place it is. I have been blessed to experience it my entire life, and I am proud to be, and will always be, a Shocker.