Mitchell G. Holthus (; born June 28, 1957), is the

play-by-play 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 ...

for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

and a

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

announcer for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Additionally, he hosts Chiefs Insider, Defending the Kingdom, Chiefs Rewind and Chiefs Field Pass.

Early life

Holthus is a native of

Smith Center, Kansas Smith Center is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,571. History Smith Center was founded in 1871. The first post office in Smith Center was established ...

, where he was a

multi-sport athlete A multi-sport athlete is an athlete who competes or trains two or more different sports. Most of these athletes played two or more sports from a young age – especially in high school – before deciding to usually concentrate on just one sport p ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

. During those years he began his first tentative steps toward a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

career by announcing at his school games."Chiefs Insider" program, 11/14/10 After graduation, Holthus graduated with a

Bachelors A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

from

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

(1979) and a

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

degree (1980).

Broadcast career

In 1983, Mitch Holthus replaced

Steve Physioc Steve Physioc () is a retired American sportscaster who has called play-by-play for various baseball, basketball, and football teams. He retired while working with the Kansas City Royals, who he had worked with since February of 2012. Early life ...

as the radio voice of the Kansas State Wildcats, broadcasting the schools' football and basketball games until 1996. Holthus was a finalist for broadcasting jobs with several NFL teams in the early 1990s, including the

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 ...

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 ...

, and

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

. Holthus has been with the Chiefs Radio Network since 1994, when he took over for

Kevin Harlan Kevin Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT. 2022 will be his 38th con ...

, making him the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in Chiefs history. He is best known perhaps for his drawn-out, exuberant "Touchdown, KAN-SAS CITY!" whenever the Chiefs reach the end zone, and his call when the Chiefs won

Super Bowl LIV Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...

: "The game is over, and the Chiefs Kingdom has firmly planted its flag on top of football's highest summit!" In addition to his radio work, Holthus hosts "Minute With Mitch" and "Chiefs Insider" on select stations in the Chiefs television network. In addition to his work with the Kansas City Chiefs, Holthus is an announcer for

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

and

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

games on regional television, as well as calling some college basketball games for

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...

. Holthus is a past President of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and serves on its board of directors.

Personal life

He is married to the former Tami Johnson of

McPherson, Kansas McPherson () is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 14,082. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general. It i ...

, a former Kansas State women's basketball player. They have two children. Holthus often sends a radio "shout out" to the Roxbury Fan Club, a greeting to members of his family that live near

Roxbury, Kansas Roxbury is an unincorporated community in McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the community and nearby areas was 70. It is located about 10.5 miles east of Interstate 135. History In 1854, the ...

. Holthus is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Awards

* 8-time Kansas Sportscaster of the Year * 9-time winner Kansas Broadcasters Association best play-by-play sportscast. * 1996 "Hod Humiston Award of Excellence" in Kansas Sportscasting. * 2007 awarded the "John Sanders Spirit of the Valley" by the Missouri Valley Conference.

References

External links

The Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network on 101 The FOX KCFXMitch Holthus Otellus ProfileMitch Holthus Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holthus, Mitch Living people College football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Kansas State University alumni Kansas City Chiefs announcers National Football League announcers People from Smith Center, Kansas 1957 births