JOHN ULETT

MEDIA

Position: Public Address Announcer
Born: January 15; St. Louis, Missouri
Organization: St. Louis Cardinals (1983-Present)

By Tom Calhoun and Tim Moore

John “the Uman” Ulett was born and raised on the near Southside of St. Louis. He graduated from Bishop DuBourg High School in 1975 and then from the Broadcast Center.

He was  hired at KSHE 95 in St. Louis on May 25, 1976. John has broadcast with and interviewed the biggest names in Rock & Roll and in St. Louis sports over his 47 years at KSHE as both a disc jockey and as the radio stations sports director. As a small sample, he has met in person, The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, The Police and Billy Joel.

While KSHE is America’s longest running FM album oriented rock radio station, it is believed that John is the longest full-time tenured FM rock disc jockey in the United States.

While working as the station’s sports director, he covered the Cardinals in 1982 as they made their way to a World Series title. He was with the team in Milwaukee when Willie McGee made his incredible catch against the wall. Later in the 80’s, he was in Los Angeles when Jack Clark hit the home run in Game 5 that led to the Cardinals winning the National League pennant. He was also in Kansas City the night of the unfortunate umpire call at first base in the ninth inning that led to the loss of the I-70 series.

John was hired as the Cardinals public address announcer for the 1983 season and has been the team’s stadium announcer for 39 seasons, which has included 13 National League Championship Series, 6 World Series and the Major League Baseball All-Star game in 2009. John was the stadium announcer throughout the careers of Cardinals greats Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina and many more. Being the team’s announcer for Game 6 of the 2011 World Series is his biggest thrill out of the more than 3,200 games he has done PA for the Cardinals.

For the past 20 years, John has been the host for the Cardinals opening day ceremonies, taking over those duties after the passing of baseball and Cardinals Hall of Famer Jack Buck, who was John’s inspiration to get into broadcasting. For the last 10 seasons, John has been the announcer for over 300 high school games played at Busch Stadium and for 17 seasons he has been Professor Uman on the Cardinals Kids TV Show, which is seen in eight states throughout the Midwest.

John was also the public address announcer at what is now Enterprise Center for 10 seasons for the St. Louis Ambush Indoor Soccer Club, including the Championship season of 1994-95.

John has lived in Chesterfield for the past 25 years. He has been married to his wife Ruth for 33 years and is the proud father of 3 daughters … Olivia, a physician assistant at Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis; Abigail, a business owner and content creator on social media; and Sophia, a construction sales executive. John also recently become a grandfather for the first time to Caleb John Howard, son of Abigail.

John is in the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame, the St. Louis Classic Rock Hall of Fame and on the Bishop DuBourg High School Wall of Fame … and now a member of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.