CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — The City of Clarksburg, West Virgina, has confirmed that longtime play-by-play announcer and Clarksburg native Mike Patrick passed away over the weekend. He was 80.
Patrick was born in Clarksburg in 1944 and grew up in the Chestnut Hills neighborhood before attending Washington Irving High School. He later attended George Washington University, where he joined his college radio station, WGRW, after seeing a bulletin board poster on campus.
After college, Patrick bounced around various jobs in the broadcast field, including working as a sports reporter in Washington, D.C., and being the play-by-play announcer for the University of Maryland.
In 1982, Patrick began play-by-play work with ESPN, calling college football, basketball and baseball. He joined the network's Sunday Night Football crew in 1987, where he called games until 2005. His final broadcast for the network was for the 2017 Liberty Bowl. He retired in 2018.
After he retired, Patrick was honored by his hometown with a commemorative sign on the Second Street Parking Garage ramp.
"Mike Patrick's voice may have fallen silent, but his legacy as one of America's greatest sportscasters and a proud son of Clarksburg will endure," the City of Clarksburg said. "He will be deeply missed by colleagues, friends, fans, and especially by the Clarksburg community that he so deeply loved."