Bob Kennedy, public address announcer of Ohio State athletics died in his home over the weekend.
Credit: Shelby Lum | Former photo editor
It’s been a long week and you’re walking into the Bill Davis Stadium’s press box for the fifth game in five days.
Suddenly you heard that voice, Bob’s voice, and you’re happy.
“Every time I walk into the press box, it’s, ‘Hey kiddo, what’s going on, how are you doing,’” Ericka Hoon, Ohio State’s associate athletic director for event management, said.
Bob Kennedy, the former public address announcer of Ohio State athletics for more than two decades, died in his home over the weekend. He was 59.
Though a 1987 Otterbein University graduate, Kennedy was an “honorary Buckeye,” and began in-home announcing for various Ohio State sports in 2000.
Matt Andrews, an Ohio State alumnus and current sports announcer with 97.1 The Fan, met Kennedy 20 years ago covering baseball as a student working with the university’s sports radio. He said Kennedy was always willing to help him and was very considerate, and they became friends when Andrews returned to Ohio State sports in 2016.
“I could still see [Kennedy] interacting and being the same person he was to the students and that was always very professional of him, very helpful, and it was something that has really stuck with me,” Andrews said. “He’s always been there to be a friend, a smile in here. Maybe share a story, help you out.”
Kennedy became the main announcer at the ’Shoe in 2003, never missing a football game. Fans came to associate his voice with Ohio State football, ingraining him in the game day experience.
Ohio State’s Director of Live Production, Dave Bakalik, met Kennedy 10 years ago but knew of his work upon putting a face to the name. Bakalik said Kennedy made such a big place feel like home.
“You hear the PA announcer at an Ohio State football game that just feels like home,” Bakalik said. “And that was [Kennedy]. He’s just such a familiar voice.”
Bakalik said Kennedy’s voice was loud “in a good way,” and that he always seemed to be in a good mood.
But the way Kennedy used that loud voice was unique and special, Hoon said. He could make the smallest moment feel like the most important one.
“The folks that just hear his voice, just his incredible ability to really make a moment special, whether it was a big play, or a recognition, or a senior ceremony,” Hoon said. “He just had a really great way to use his voice, and really, he made a craft out of it.”
Jerod Smalley, NBC4’s sports director and friend of Kennedy’s since 2004, said he was like family. The two shared an uncommon bond, which showed Kennedy’s good-hearted reputation reached further than the field or court.
Smalley’s kids were both diagnosed with autism, and he said he would occasionally put on softball or bowling tournament fundraisers in which Kennedy was one of his first calls when looking for help.
“[Kennedy] participated in all of them. He was always the PA guy for a softball tournament,” Smalley said. “He probably gave up gigs where he was actually being paid to be there. He always asked me how my kids were.”
Another personal connection of Kennedy’s was former Ohio State head baseball coach, Greg Beals, who gave him the nickname – “BK.”
Beals said for Kennedy, family came first, baseball second.
“He’d come down to the dugout early and he always asked about Kathy, my wife, and the girls. Just every day he’d ask a personal question first,” Beals said. “Then he’d say, ‘Let’s get one today, coach, let’s win a ballgame.’”
Smalley said he believes being a Buckeye was a “great source of joy” in Kennedy’s life. Kennedy was one of three Ohio Stadium announcers in the last 50 years.
“The fact that he had a front-row seat to so many extraordinary moments, and he was the voice of many of those moments. I can only imagine the pride that he had in achieving that goal at a place like Ohio State,” Smalley said. “I think he had extraordinary pride in that logo, in that name and in what it represented to him and his life.”
Kennedy was on the schedule to announce Ohio State’s baseball game versus Illinois Sunday, but never arrived. According to a press release from the athletic department, Ohio State officials called authorities for an in-home wellness check, which led to the discovery of his death.
Hoon said her team never had to worry about Kennedy showing up to work, so when he was not at baseball Sunday, she was very concerned, and her “heart sank.”
Kennedy gave his all to his profession and Ohio State, but what he wanted most was to be part of the Ohio State family.
“He didn’t need to be the quarterback of the team,” Bakalik said. “He just wanted to be a part of the team.”
Kennedy’s legacy will live on at Ohio State through all the lives he’s touched, and his voice will always boom through the walls of every venue he entered.
“I missed out on the chance to tell him to his face how special he is and how talented he is,” Smalley said. “Because he is certainly both.”
