Dan "The Duke" Davis (born September 20, 1942) is an American radio personality. Davis was an original broadcaster of ESPN Radio based in

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, th ...

. He anchored the midday portion of ''

ESPN Radio SportsCenter ''ESPN Radio SportsCenter'' is a news recap segment on ESPN Radio that airs during talk programming and sometimes live games coverage, usually by separate anchors. There are two updates an hour, at the top of the hour and 30 minutes past. Back ...

''. His voice was often heard introducing various

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%). Th ...

programs. He is also known as "The Duke", originated by Curt Chaplin, who is best known as the announcer for ''

The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality sty ...

''.

Before ESPN

Davis worked as a radio commentator for almost 30 years. He started his career in 1963 at

WEMJ WEMJ (1490 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a news/talk format. Licensed to Laconia, New Hampshire, United States, the station is owned by Binnie Media and licensed to WBIN Media Co., Inc. WEMJ features programming from ABC News Radio. WEMJ i ...

Laconia, New Hampshire Laconia is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. Laconia, situated between Lake Winnipesaukee and Lak ...

. Apart from working for WEMJ, Davis also worked in Boston for ten seasons as the radio voice of Boston College football on a New England-wide network. Davis called the Boston College vs. Miami game in 1984, and his commentary of the famous

Doug Flutie Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former football quarterback whose professional career spanned 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CF ...

Gerard Phelan Gerard P. Phelan (born January 20, 1963) is a former college football player who played wide receiver for Boston College. Career Early years Phelan played high school football for Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania a ...

touchdown pass In gridiron football, a touchdown pass is a pass thrown from the passer (usually the quarterback) to a receiver that results in a touchdown being scored. The pass can either be caught in the end zone itself, resulting in an immediate touchdown, or ...

remains among the favorites of Boston area sports fans.

ESPN Radio

Davis joined ESPN Radio in January 1992. Davis was on ''

The Tony Kornheiser Show ''The Tony Kornheiser Show'' is a sports podcast talk show out of Washington, D.C., hosted by Tony Kornheiser, which was originally a sports radio talk show appeared on WTEM from 1992 to 1997; on ESPN Radio between 1998 and 2004; back on WTEM ...

'' between January 5, 1998, and March 26, 2004. When Davis reported the sports updates, the host,

Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Washington Post'' fro ...

, often interrupted Davis' reports with his own comments. Initially, Davis was shocked and not amused. However, later on Davis developed a very good chemistry with Kornheiser, and he even started to add humorous comments within his report to amuse (or annoy) Kornheiser. Davis and Kornheiser talking back and forth in this way prompted Kornheiser to say that The Duke was the glue of the show. Throughout his tenure, Davis provided Sportcenter updates on ESPN Radio. Davis has also appeared on other programs. Sometimes, he made comments on ''

Extra Point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

''. He supplied his voice during the Week 10 edition of ''

Mike and Mike ''Mike & Mike'' (formerly ''Mike and Mike in the Morning'') was an American sports-talk radio show that was hosted by Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic on ESPN networks from 2000–2017. The show aired on ESPN Radio, and was simulcast on televi ...

's'' "Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks" on November 7, 2008. On December 21, 2011, on ''Mike and Mike'', it was announced that Davis was retiring from ESPN Radio, effective December 23.

Personal life

Davis' hometown is

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

. He currently lives in

, with his wife Annette. They have four children, Dan, Greg, Steve and Cameron, and two grandchildren, Mike and Olivia.

References

External links

Hartford Courant Story
on Dan Davis on June 6, 2003.

on Dan Davis on December 11, 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Dan 1942 births Living people American sports radio personalities Radio personalities from Maine ESPN Radio College football announcers Boston College Eagles football announcers People from Portland, Maine

Before ESPN

ESPN Radio

Personal life

See also

References

External links