Wichita State basketball to honor Mike Kennedy, past MVC champions on Saturday
For nearly half a century, Wichita State has measured winters with the same steady voice.
For a certain generation of Shocker fans, they can’t picture a big moment with WSU basketball or baseball without hearing it first. That familiar voice who made a car radio feel like a courtside seat and convinced so many to turn the television down and the radio up for Shocker basketball games.
On Saturday at Koch Arena, the game against Temple will matter plenty.
But the bigger pull is the man who has narrated so much of what this fan base remembers: Mike Kennedy, the voice of the Shockers for 46 years, being celebrated one last time.
Wichita State is branding Saturday’s game as “Mike Kennedy Night,” as the athletic department is trying to turn the 5 p.m. tip into a true event — part reunion, part tribute, part fill up Koch Arena to give Kennedy the kind of crowd he’s spent decades bringing to life over the air waves.
Fans will see it everywhere: 2-for-$21 general admission tickets, a Kennedy pennant giveaway for the first 1,000 through the doors and even a concession special: a $5 “Mike Kennedy combo” featuring a hot dog and a small Michelob Ultra at select stands.
And it won’t just be a celebration for Kennedy. WSU will also honor three Missouri Valley Conference championship teams from the 1975-76, 2005-06 and 2015-16 seasons. The 2005-06 team, in particular, is marking the 20th anniversary of its Sweet 16 run.
A number of former Shockers are expected to be back for the celebration: Ron Baker, Paul Miller, Cheese Johnson, Kyle Wilson, Evan Wessel, Zach Brown, Ryan Martin and Doug Yoder, plus former head coach Mark Turgeon, who was recently hired at Kansas City.
It all fits because Kennedy has always been more than a play-by-play voice. He’s been a bridge — between eras, between coaches, between fans who watched the Shockers, win or lose, over the years.
In his three years as head coach, Paul Mills has already developed a deep appreciation for Kennedy.
“I can’t say enough good things about Mike Kennedy,” Mills said. “Nobody has been more gracious and more kind to me during my time here. He is just a genuine guy. He’s a professional who is also a gentleman.”
Mills has particularly enjoyed Kennedy’s unique role as the program’s living history book, the guy who can place a current moment into a wider timeline with ease. One of Mills’ favorite qualities about Kennedy is that encyclopedia recall of Shocker basketball: the old rosters, the coaches, the little stories that don’t always make it into media guides but shape how he remembers a player, a team or a coach.
It’s helped Mills gain a wider knowledge and appreciation for what Shocker basketball has been.
“There’s a lot of Shocker fans who have gotten used to a familiar voice,” Mills said. “My daughter is a freshman in college and when she travels or doesn’t have access to ESPN, she listens to Mike. She often tells me, ‘I enjoy listening to Mr. Kennedy more than the ESPN announcers.’ I think for a lot of people who were born in the previous century, you listen to sporting events on the radio and you become really used to those voices. He’s a voice that a lot of people are used to hearing.”
There will be plenty to celebrate on Saturday and Mills wants to make sure the Shockers help make it a festive atmosphere with a good performance.
There’s plenty of urgency with WSU (17-10, 9-5) sitting in second place in the American Conference standings, fresh off its miraculous double-overtime win at East Carolina and last weekend’s 81-77 win over Tulsa in front of a season-best crowd of 7,569. WSU hopes Saturday’s crowd can top that once again.
Temple (15-11, 7-6) arrives with its own motivation. The Owls are in the hunt for a top-four seed and Mills knows all too well that they’ve been a problem since he took over. Temple is 3-0 against WSU in the Mills era, a trend that will need to end for the Shockers to continue to control their destiny for a top-two seed and a triple-bye to the semifinals at the conference tournament.
“There will be a good basketball game as well,” Mills said. “With us and Temple being amongst the top-five in the conference. Really excited for the opportunity to play a really good team and to do it with what is going to be a great crowd.”
.jpg)