The Wolfpacker

September 2017

The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports

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34 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY MATT CARTER T ony Haynes was once a golfer good enough to play competitively at Millbrook High in Raleigh and then a junior college before going to NC State, but when he was inducted into the Millbrook High Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2016, golf was probably not the primary justification. It likely had more to do with his nearly quarter-century tenure broadcasting ACC games in the Triangle — first for Duke and since the start of the 1998-99 basketball sea- son for his alma mater, NC State. "The fact that I was inducted into any ath- letic hall of fame is an insult to any great ath- lete standing today," Haynes quipped. Haynes tried to keep any hoopla surround- ing his Millbrook honor to a minimum, telling no one, including his longtime partners on the Wolfpack Sports Network for football games, Gary Hahn and Johnny Evans. Yet when Haynes showed up to the stadium, there both Hahn and Evans were. It's that bond between the three of them and their crew that has been together for what will be their 18th straight football season this fall that has allowed them to become the cel- ebrated voices of Wolfpack athletics. ■ The Play-By-Play Announcer Al Mangum, general manager of the N.C. News and Sports Radio Networks with Capi- tol Broadcasting, had a very specific ques- tion for Gary Hahn when interviewing him to replace the retiring Wally Ausley: "What's wrong with you?" The reason Mangum asked is because of Hahn's well-traveled professional career up to that point. After graduating from Butler Uni- versity in Indianapolis, Hahn had worked with television and radio stations in Indianapolis, Louisville, New York, Columbus and Ala- bama. He helped broadcast college games for Alabama, Butler, Louisville and Ohio State, and even worked briefly with an Indianapolis TV personality named David Letterman. Throughout every stop, Hahn had a con- sistent pull towards being a play-by-play an- nouncer. With encouragement from Alabama radio personality Eli Gold, he applied for the opening at NCSU. There were 130 applicants for the job, but Hahn found himself in front of Mangum. Hahn went over all of his previous jobs and the various reasons why he moved on. Mangum liked Hahn, but he wanted one pledge: "I promised him, I gave him my word, which to me is very important, that I would stay five years," Hahn said. ACCURATE AND CREDIBLE Gary Hahn, Tony Haynes and Johnny Evans Have Formed A Strong Bond While Serving As The Voices Of NC State Football From left to right, Haynes, Evans and Hahn are in their 18th straight Wolfpack football season together. PHOTO COURTESY TONY HAYNES

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