The Voice of the Roadrunners – A UTSA Q&A with Andy Everett
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If you have listened to any UTSA basketball or football game in the last decade, then you know the soothing tones of Andy Everett. He has been part of the fabric of Roadrunners athletics since he stepped in as the play-by-play man for the basketball team in time for the 2007-08 season. He has also been there on the radio for the football team since day one.
Having called some of the biggest moments in the school’s history, Everett has fulfilled professional and personal goals. While a student broadcaster at the University of Oklahoma, Everett knew he wanted to be the voice of a team one day. He came to San Antonio in 1988 to work for the then Clear Channel’s flagship station WOAI. In 1995, he helped launch the city’s first sports talk radio channel, KTKR and he has been appearing in one way or another on the channel ever since.
Before he gears up for the start of the next football season, Everett took some time out to talk about breaking into broadcasting, his relationship with the UTSA athletics department, and his memories of the Roadrunners first game.
EM: Andy, was broadcasting always the career choice for you? If so, when did you know it’s what you wanted to do?
AE: Yeah, when I was 9-years-old, I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster. I’ve always liked sports and I liked being around sports. I knew I wasn’t going to be a pro at anything because I wasn’t as good as the guys I was playing with and they weren’t going pro either.
When I was 9 or 10 years old, that’s what I told my Grandmother that I wanted to do. She said ‘Why would you want to do that?’ and I said because they pay you to go to games. I’ve always enjoyed doing it. I will say that doing this professionally as opposed to going as a fan is completely different. When I’m not working an event, I don’t go.
EM: How did the opportunity with UTSA come about?
AE: In 2006, the football feasibility study was done by UTSA and I was at a moment in time where I’d been doing some high school stuff. I went to [former UTSA Assistant Athletics Director] Brad Parrott and [former UTSA Athletics Director] Lynn Hickey and I said I would like to do football for you when the time comes.
UTSA had gone through a transition period for a while where they were on radio, they were online, they had somebody who did home games and they had somebody who did road games. Rick Nixon, who was their sports information director for a number of years had been doing games, but he left in the 2004 season to join the NCAA. They really didn’t have anybody to do the games.
I had been a professional broadcaster for a number of years at that point. I laid out a plan for them and they bought into it. In the summer of 2007, I started doing games for them that year and started doing it full-time for the 2008-09 season and then, of course, transitioned to the football program for the 2011 season. It started with that football feasibility study and me seeing an opportunity there. Lynn Hickey also knew about my time from doing games for Boerne High School when her daughter played basketball there. She knew about me and knew about what I had in mind and could bring to UTSA’s broadcasts. It’s been a great partnership and I hope they let me do this for a long time.
EM: At this point, you’ve been through changes with the Athletics Department and with the football team and basketball team. What is your relationship like with the ‘new’ coaches and ‘new’ AD and how have you gotten them to buy into you?
AE: From an Athletics Director standpoint, it’s only been Lynn Hickey and now Lisa Campos. I was able to have time to meet with Lisa early on and I told her about who I was and how I did things. I told her if there was something she heard that she didn’t like to let me know it and if she heard things she liked and would like to hear more of it, let me know that.
I told her that we are not middle-of-the-road generic broadcasters. We are here to promote UTSA’s brand. The idea behind me doing a broadcast is to create enough fun and excitement that people want to buy tickets to a game. I never take for granted the passion that true fans of the program have for it. I broadcast every game the way they would want to hear it if they were there. I’m here to enhance the brand of UTSA, sell tickets, and market the university. That’s how I approach every broadcast that I’ve ever done.
EM: Before I let you go, you just wrapped up what by all measures was a successful basketball season and Coach Wilson and his staff are just starting up with spring practice. What is your take on how the team will do this coming year?
AE: Well, I said this last summer and I think it’s the same thing with this year, if UTSA is going to have success they have to have good quarterback play. If the quarterback plays well, then everybody else plays well. I’m interested to see how Jeff Kastl is going to run the offense and how it will be different from Al Borges and what Frank Scelfo did. They have five quarterbacks and if one of them can prove out to be a B+ quarterback, then I think we will 6 or 7 games and go to a bowl game and challenge for the conference title in the West.
I think the offensive line is going to be great. They addressed their needs with some juco players coming in. They have three or four good running backs. They always have good wide receivers. Most of the defense comes back. Obviously they lose Kevin Strong and Josiah Tauaefa. The secondary is good, they have a good kicker in Jared Sackett. So, if the quarterback is doing well, I think it’s 7 or 8 wins for us.
Editor's Note: Jared Sackett has left the program.
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