Voice worth hearing: JSU's Parris lands honor as national sportscaster of the year

Mark Edwards, The Anniston Star, Ala.
·3 min read

Jan. 9—Jacksonville State radio voice Mike Parris said he was "surprised and shocked" to hear he had been named 2022 Alabama sportscaster of the year by the National Sports Media Association.

The award was announced in a release the organization distributed Monday afternoon. Parris will be honored at the NSMA's 63rd awards weekend and national convention June 24-26 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"I feel very humbled. I feel undeserving, but I'm greatly appreciative of the recognition," Parris said Monday night. "A lot of people have helped me along the way — too many to mention, because I would leave somebody out.

"A lot of people who I worked with at Jacksonville State have helped me — "Scoop," Mike Galloway; Greg Seitz; and Josh Underwood, the sports information directors. But mostly the fans for turning on the radio.

"I appreciate my family for how gracious they've been. I'm certainly gone a lot. I'm very thankful."

Parris began broadcasting Jacksonville State football games in 1983 and hasn't stopped, even though he retired from his JSU job as assistant athletics director for broadcasting Aug. 1, 2021. He returned a month later as a part-time employee, serving as the voice of the Gamecocks for football, basketball, baseball and just about anything the school needed.

Parris was inducted into the JSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.

Parris grew up in Georgia wanting to call games on the radio, just like legends in the business at the time, such as Larry Munson at Georgia, John Forney at Alabama, John Ward at Tennessee and John Ferguson at LSU.

"An SEC job would've been very intriguing, quite honestly," Parris said in 2021. "But, those jobs just don't come open."

In the end, staying at Jacksonville State has worked out well for him — and JSU. He said Jacksonville was a great place to raise his children. He's gotten to travel from Maine to California, and Michigan to the Virgin Islands.

He added that he's enjoyed watching the program grow from Division II to Division I with better and better facilities.

But, it's more than that.

"It's just home," he said. "You build relationships with people. The closeness and family-type atmosphere here, and I'm not talking just athletics; it's campus-wide."

When he retired in 2021, he mentioned on social media that he was cleaning out his office. Folks took that to mean he was retiring from everything, including calling games.

"I take a picture, and dummy me, I post a picture on social media and tag that I was cleaning out my office and came across this," he said. "I said I probably won't be able to use this again."

He added that if Seitz, now the athletics director, had told him he couldn't call games while retired, he might have made a different decision in 2021.

"It just felt like the right time, and the fact that Greg was gracious enough to let me keep doing the radio broadcast," he said. "That made it a whole lot easier to make the decision. If he had said, 'No,' I don't know. I'd probably still be working full-time."

Senior Editor Mark Edwards: 256-235-3570. On Twitter: @MarkSportsStar.