A CONVERSATION WITH: Track & field stadium announcers Mike Jay & Dennis McNulty...

The latest edition of A CONVERSATION WITH features two of the country's premier in-stadium voices of track and field, Mike Jay (above, with Bernard Lagat/photo by Paul Merca) and Dennis McNulty.

To most track and field fans around the country, Mike Jay is known as the voice of the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, while Dennis McNulty is best known as the voice of the NCAA cross country championships in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Both have parlayed their roles as the voice of the Drake Relays and the NCAA cross country championships into regional and national announcing gigs.

For several years, I've worked with Mike announcing the home meets at the University of Washington. He's also announced meets for Stanford University, the Ivy League, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Texas, and numerous NCAA championship meets. He was behind the microphone when Dalilah Muhammad set the first of her two world records at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines last year.

Dennis McNulty at the University of Kentucky
(photo courtesy Dennis McNulty)

In addition to being the voice of the NCAA cross country championships in Terre Haute, Dennis has called numerous NCAA track & field championships, and has served as the public address announcer for the American Athletic Conference championships, and for the University of Notre Dame, the University of Kentucky, Indiana University, the University of Cincinnati, and other schools and conferences.

During our conversation, we talked about how all three of us got into announcing, how we stayed sharp during the last few months with no meets on the horizon, and the process of preparing for a meet.

If there's three things I took away from the conversation, it's preparation, preparation & preparation. Both agree that there's no substitute for preparation, and that even though you probably only use a small percentage of your pre-meet homework, it beats not being prepared.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the video content, please don't hesitate to post a comment at the bottom of this page or in the comments section of the YouTube channel.

Here's the video:



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