Royal Oak Shrine announcer Wright Wilson, who also calls CHSL championship contests, prides himself on “giving everyone a fair shake,” he said.Metro Detroit — Who’s on first?
Well, if Lou Costello had Wright Wilson or Larry Griffin or John Mulroy at the public announcer’s table, he’d know.
(May I digress for a moment: Those 50 or over may have to explain to the younger set who Costello and Abbott were, or, better yet, log on to Google or YouTube for “Abbott and Costello Who’s on First.” It’s a hilarious way to get in the mood for the upcoming baseball season.)
Wilson at Royal Oak Shrine, Griffin at Warren De La Salle and Mulroy at Bloomfield Hills Marian are a reflection of the voices fans hear at the wide range of Catholic League boys and girls athletic events from fall to spring.
Interviewed separately, their definition of their roles meshed: “To communicate with the crowd what’s happening on the field or court (Wilson), to add enthusiasm or excitement for the game (Mulroy), but never to upstage the game itself (Griffin ).”
Wilson has been the voice of football, basketball and volleyball for the past 20 years at Shrine, where he has been the track and field coach since 1989 and cross country coach since 1997, and a part-time English teacher. For several years, he’s been the announcer at the Catholic League’s football, basketball and track and field championships.
Wilson, 51, puts into practice all that he learned at Central Michigan (journalism major, broadcasting and speech minors), also announcing basketball at Schoolcraft College for 10 years, working at a handful of radio stations in the state and doing some freelance sports writing.
His style is even-handed, professional, yet folksy on occasion. “I try to give everyone a fair shake, players, coaches and referees,” he said. “What pleases me the most is when I’m complimented for being fair.”
Griffin, manager of donations relations for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, has been De La Salle’s football and basketball games announcer for a decade. He comes to the games packing a couple dozen CDs of music to entertain the crowd during timeouts or halftimes, or get the fans fired up by blasting the sound of a “roaring jet that can probably be heard two blocks away” when the Pilots score a touchdown.
The trio makes it a priority to correctly pronounce a player’s name. Griffin relates how he had been pronouncing DLS’ 2012 all-state forward Conner Tava’s name for three years. In Tava’s senior year, his grandmother scolded Griffin: “Don’t you know his name is pronounced ‘Teevee’? I asked Conner about it. He said, ‘Don’t worry. The kids all call me Tava.’”
Mulroy, 54, has been announcing basketball and volleyball at Marian since 2002. Unlike Wilson or Griffin, Mulroy keeps his own scorecard and, at halftime and the end of the game, announces the scoring totals. “Parents want to hear what their daughters did, and fans are interested, too.”
Mulroy is noted for the way he announces that a player has two free throws coming: “Shooting two,” making a bird-like chirp for the “two.”
“It just came up,” he said. “The people giggled, so I just kept on doing it.”
A Detroit Catholic Central grad (and backup center on the Shamrocks’ 1976 state football champs), he was a walk-on basketball recruit at the University of Detroit Mercy. “I was the last college player (then-Titans coach) Dick Vitale ever cut,” he jokes.
He has been an assistant basketball coach at Central Michigan and St. Louis universities, and was interim head coach for a year at UDM (7-23 record).
Mulroy currently is a security officer for the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s campus, where his son, Brendan, is a senior. However, he would be interested in getting back to coaching if the opportunity arises, he said.
