Joe D'Ambrosio (born July 19, 1953 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

) is an American sports broadcaster and play-by-play announcer.

Career

Known as “the Voice of the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that ma ...

,” D'Ambrosio was the play-by-play announcer for the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

’s football and men's basketball games on

WTIC (AM) WTIC (1080 kHz "WTIC NewsTalk 1080") is a commercial AM radio station in Hartford, Connecticut. It airs a news/talk radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios and offices are on Executive Drive in Farmington. The transmitt ...

NewsTalk 1080
www.wtic.com
since 1992. He also broadcasts select UConn baseball, soccer, and women's basketball games. In April 2014, D'Ambrosio called his fourth

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball In Unite ...

with the University of Connecticut. He has been the play-by-play voice for a total of eight NCAA basketball national championships, including his years as the voice of the UConn women's basketball team D'Ambrosio was replaced as the UConn play by play voice after the 2017-2018 season's when the broadcast rights were awarded to ESPN Radio in Hartford. Currently, D'Ambrosio does morning sports on WTIC Radio and co hosts the WTIC Morning Show with Ray Dunaway. In October 2018, he joined WTIC-TV as a part time sports anchor, hosting the Friday Edition of the "Fox 61 Sports Ticket". He also calls UConn men's ice hockey and baseball on Fox 61. D’Ambrosio was heard nationally on

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN ...

as a ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of American cable and satellite television network ESPN. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and o ...

'' update anchor. He has been affiliated with ESPN radio since 1996, and during his tenure there has hosted shows including '' MLB on ESPN Radio'' and ''Countdown to Kickoff'', and he has covered major sporting events including several

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, includin ...

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

, and

Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and Nationa ...

s. For more than ten years, he has held the unusual distinction of being employed by the corporations owning ABC (ESPN),

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

(WVIT-TV), and CBS (WTIC AM) simultaneously. "Joe D" began his career on WLIS radio in

Old Saybrook, Connecticut Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...

, where he worked as a DJ and hosted the popular oldies show "Twilight Time." He was also their sports announcer and started broadcasting for the Huskies for the Connecticut Radio Network while with WLIS. For three seasons (2009 - 2011), D'Ambrosio was a member of the broadcast team of the

New Britain Rock Cats The New Britain Rock Cats were a minor league baseball team that competed in the Eastern League. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for 12 years, the Minnesota Twins for 20 years and the Colorado Rockies for one. They played ...

, doing both color commentary and play-by-play alongside long-time Rock Cats Director of Broadcasting,

Jeff Dooley Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

Honors

He has been named Connecticut Sportscaster of the Year nine times by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

, now known as the National Sports Media Association. In 2003,

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster f ...

named D’Ambrosio to his "All-

Cawood Ledford Cawood Ledford (April 24, 1926 – September 5, 2001) was a radio play-by-play announcer for the University of Kentucky basketball and football teams. Ledford's style and professionalism endeared himself to many sports fans in the Commonwealth of ...

Team," Vitale's own "Sweet Sixteen" list of the best college play-by-play announcers.

References

External links

Joe D'Ambrosio on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Ambrosio, Joe 1953 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television reporters and correspondents College basketball announcers in the United States Major League Baseball broadcasters UConn Huskies football announcers People from Bloomfield, Connecticut Women's college basketball announcers in the United States People from Hartford, Connecticut University of Connecticut people College hockey announcers in the United States American sports radio personalities