Joseph Fredrick McConnell (March 10, 1939 – April 8, 2018) was an American

sports announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

Early life and career

McConnell was born in

Rochester, Indiana Rochester is a city in, and the county seat of, Fulton County, Indiana, United States. The population was 6,218 at the 2010 census. History Rochester was laid out in 1835. The founder Alexander Chamberlain named it for his former hometown of R ...

and grew up in

Goodland, Indiana Goodland is a town in Grant Township in Newton County, Indiana. The population was 1,043 at the 2010 census. History Goodland was laid out in 1861. The town was named from the quality of its soil. A post office has been in operation at Goodlan ...

. He was a 1962 graduate of Franklin College, and his broadcasting career began in 1962 at Purdue's campus radio station,

WBAA WBAA (920 AM) and WBAA-FM (101.3 FM) are two non-commercial educational radio stations licensed to West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, both serving the Lafayette metro area with public radio formats. WBAA's format is exclusively news- ...

. McConnell served as assistant sports information director at Purdue from 1965 to 1967.

Broadcasting experience

McConnell's experience includes 23 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

as the voice of the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

(1969),

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

(1971–76 and 1985–87),

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

(1977–84),

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

(1992-94) and

Tennessee Oilers Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to the ...

(1997–98); seven seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

as the voice of the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

(1970–72) and

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

(1972–77); and seven seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

as the voice of the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

(1978–79) and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

(1980-84). McConnell also spent five seasons (1991–95) as lead voice for the

NBA Radio Network The NBA Radio Network was the official national radio broadcaster, distributed by Public Interest Affiliates (PIA), a Chicago radio syndication company, of National Basketball Association games (more specifically, a regular season game of the week, ...

. He has broadcast three Super Bowls, the

and

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

championships, the

NBA All-Star Game The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a ...

and the

American League Championship Series The American League Championship Series (ALCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) postseason. It is contested by the two winners of the American ...

. Additionally, McConnell has broadcast Northwestern football (1988) and

Indiana State Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

(1978–79), DePaul (1984–88),

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

(1987–88), Notre Dame (1987–88) and Northwestern men's basketball (1989–94). Joe McConnell had most recently served for 15 seasons as play-by-play announcer for

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

football, from 1995-2009.

Awards and honors

He was honored with the AP/UPI Play-by-Play Sportscaster of the Year Award five times and was the Indiana Sportscaster of the Year in 2000 and the Illinois Sportscaster of the Year in 1981. In 2006, he received a nomination for the National Football Foundation's Chris Schenkel Award, presented to a college football broadcaster. Upon his retirement, at halftime of his final broadcast of the game between Purdue and Indiana University on November 21, 2009, he was awarded the

Sagamore of the Wabash The Sagamore of the Wabash is an honorary award created by the U.S. state of Indiana during the term of Governor Ralph F. Gates, who served from 1945 to 1949. A tri-state meeting was to be held in Louisville with officials from Indiana, Ohio and ...

, the highest award that the Indiana governor can bestow, award by Governor

Mitch Daniels Mitchell Elias Daniels Jr. (born April 7, 1949) is an American academic administrator, businessman, author, and retired politician. A Republican, Daniels served as the 49th governor of Indiana from 2005 to 2013. Since 2013, Daniels has been pr ...

. In 2017, McConnell's was elected to the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame.

Death and legacy

McConnell died on April 8, 2018 in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

at age 79. Upon his retirement as the voice of the Boilermakers, Purdue Athletics named the visiting team radio booth at Ross-Ade Stadium for McConnell.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McConnell, Joe 1939 births 2018 deaths American Basketball Association announcers American Football League announcers American radio sports announcers Chicago Bears announcers Chicago White Sox announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Denver Broncos announcers Franklin College (Indiana) alumni Indiana Pacers announcers Indianapolis Colts announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Minnesota Twins announcers Minnesota Vikings announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers People from Goodland, Indiana People from Richmond, Indiana Phoenix Suns announcers Radio personalities from Indiana Tennessee Titans announcers