MIKE KELLY

MEDIA

Born: December 30, 1961; East St. Louis, IL
Position: Radio Play-By-Play Broadcaster, University of Missouri Basketball (1991-Present); Radio Play-By-Play Broadcaster, University of Missouri Football (1994-Present)

by Dave Matter

In 1989, Mike Kelly was working at St. Louis radio station KMOX when general manager Robert Hyland came up with a side job for the Dupo, Illinois native and 1984 graduate of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Mizzou football broadcaster Bill Wilkerson had been hosting the head coach’s radio show in Columbia but was tired of making the weekly drive from St. Louis. Hyland suggested the 27-year-old Kelly take over as the new host of “Tiger Talk.”

Thus began a partnership with Mizzou that would span five decades — and counting — and define Kelly as “The Voice of the Tigers.”

Two years later, Kelly would parlay his “Tiger Talk” role into becoming the radio play-by-play voice for Mizzou men’s basketball and in 1994 settled behind the microphone for Mizzou football. His voice would become synonymous with the state’s flagship Division I college athletics program and provide the soundtrack to some of the most memorable and magical plays in Mizzou sports history. When the 2023-24 college basketball season tipped off, it marked Kelly’s 33rd as Mizzou’s play-by-play radio voice. In March 2023, he celebrated his 1,000th game calling Tigers basketball. The 2023 football season was his 30th as the radio voice of Mizzou’s program, having never missed a game since he took over in 1994. As of 2024, Kelly had called Mizzou games in three conferences under seven basketball head coaches, four football head coaches, five athletics directors and worked alongside eight color analysts in basketball and football.

Throughout his prolific career, Kelly, 62, has been named Missouri Sportscaster of the Year seven times by the National Sports Media Association and in 2017 was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Born December 30, 1961, Kelly got his start in broadcasting as a student in Carbondale as the Sports Director at WSIU FM then later called local high school football and basketball games at WCIL AM/FM in Southern Illinois. While working at WDWS AM/FM in Champaign, Illinois, as the University of Illinois’ play-by play voice for women’s basketball and volleyball, a chance meeting with KMOX broadcaster Jim Holder led to an unpaid internship at the St. Louis radio station — a position that later earned Kelly the “Tiger Talk” role in Columbia. It wasn’t long before Kelly found himself on the air as Mizzou’s fill-in basketball analyst alongside former player-turned-broadcaster Tom Dore. Dore would soon leave for a job with the Chicago Bulls, opening the play-by-play chair for Kelly. He called his first game as the team’s primary broadcaster on Nov. 25, 1991, working with a young Joe Buck for Mizzou’s season-opening win over Canisius. Three years later, Kelly replaced Wilkerson as the radio voice of Mizzou football, first pairing with Hall of Fame player Kellen Winslow, then later with John Kadlec and, most recently, Howard Richards.

In 1997, Kelly left his position at KMOX to join Mizzou’s athletics department in a full-time position as the school’s Director of Broadcast Operations, a role he held until 2008 before leaving to pursue a position in the private sector while still calling basketball and football games for the Tigers. In 2014, Kelly returned to KMOX Radio part-time to host one of the station’s signature sports programs, “Sports on a Sunday Morning.” Kelly has also served as a play-by-play announcer for the NCAA Radio Network’s coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament and play-by-play for CBS Radio’s coverage of the 2000 NFC Championship Game in St. Louis. He’s served as both the public address announcer and fill-in radio play-by-play voice for the St. Louis Cardinals and hosted nationally syndicated radio programs covering golf, MLB, NFL and the NCAA.

Kelly resides in Columbia with his wife, Laurie. They have three grown daughters..