- 6 days ago
New Shocker Sports Voice Denning Gerig Joins Sports Daily
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00:02all right welcome back in everybody right now to sports daily glad to be with you on this friday
00:07glad to be joined by the voice of the shockers denning gehrig how's that sound denning it sounds
00:13pretty good thanks for having me jacob you bet you know i was reading through the uh through the
00:17announcement i was traveling all day yesterday got home late to the news was excited to see it
00:22um i i did notice though in the bio there it um it it must have i i think it
00:30must have been missed the
00:32time that denning spent across the office uh from yours truly for a little while at catch at kansas
00:39i i think they i think somebody denning i don't know if we need to get that i don't know
00:44if you
00:44noticed that but uh it didn't it didn't make it in the it didn't make it in the bio how
00:48that slips
00:48through the cracks uh you know foundational piece my career legacy so yeah that needs to be an
00:54addition for sure it's so cool to think back to that tongue out of cheek uh long time ago how
01:00long
01:00ago was that i don't even i lose track of these things it would have been 2015 i think i
01:07was still
01:07under that at wichita state so yeah so more than a decade ago quiet denning who's just you know
01:13chomping away at the bit writing high school sports articles has come i remember and i think
01:18i sent you this the first time you were on a baseball broadcast i was like that's denning
01:22that's that's our denning right that's the same denning uh just crushing it i was a big fan i was
01:27like denning you're awesome at that like i didn't know that was in the cards i didn't know you had
01:30any
01:30interest in that fast forward a few years and here we are is was this a goal 10 years ago
01:37young
01:37denning in the office or is this something that you kind of grew into and and realized you liked
01:42to do it no this was this was pretty much the goal from day one um throughout my time at
01:48wichita
01:48state i just kind of found myself saying yes to anything that was even tangentially related to
01:55to working in sports and i just felt like if i could do a bunch of different things that would
02:00make me a little bit more valuable and you know working at catch of kansas was really interesting
02:05because that was the first time i'd really like covered sports in that sense you know we we had the
02:10high school football preview magazine and then we would go out on friday nights and cover games
02:14and stuff like that and i'd never done that before um and so that was like another tool to kind
02:19of add
02:20to the toolkit but the end goal was always was always broadcasting was always play by play i think
02:25that's kind of been the vision from day one yeah when you have that itch you just can't resist
02:31especially when you first get it and uh thing if you anybody listening or watching wants to learn
02:36more about then of course we got an article up at kwch.com uh highlighting your career and kind
02:42of your journey and you touched on that just just now that that journey i think anybody who has that
02:48itch you you do that right you just you say yes you just try to uh get a foot in
02:54the door in any way
02:55you can and uh boy didnning it's uh really really paid off and i guess that's the big message right
03:02for folks and i think the other thing about this jumping at the opportunity it's so hard for these
03:09gigs to open because you got you have guys like mike kennedy wouldn't when you get this sort of gig
03:15you don't want to let it go and uh mike kennedy did it for 47 years so now you gotta
03:21get at least 50 i
03:22think right i mean that's that's the that's the mark yeah i saw one of the comments on the facebook
03:29post yesterday was like congratulations standing so the standard 46 year contract right and i mean
03:34that's i i heard someone describe it as like it's like a supreme court justice basically like you get
03:39one of these jobs and it's it's pretty much yours until you don't want it anymore unless you say
03:44something truly horrific on the air at some point um which i'm not planning on doing um but you can't
03:51rule anything out um but brady to kind of go back to what you're saying like my first job
03:58in sports was the student manager for the baseball team here i was washing laundry
04:03i was washing alec bohm's laundry that was my first job because it was just like
04:08i want to work at wichita state i just have to say yes to anything that will get me started
04:14and that was how mike kennedy got to know me and then when somebody else recommended me as like a
04:19broadcaster for a college summer team he was able to come up to me at a practice and be like
04:23hey denning
04:23are you interested in the derby twins and that turned into my first broadcasting gig all because
04:28i was there you know running practices as a student manager which doesn't have anything to do with
04:33broadcasting but it was just like that was my chance that was my way to get started at wichita
04:38state and get started in sports so whenever i go talk to classes or like speak to interns or anything
04:43like that i just say you you never really know where something's going to take you and saying yes
04:49just kind of ends up opening doors that you didn't really think were there to begin with
04:53i i echo that sentiment greatly the voice of the shockers den and garrick joining us it's so
04:58interesting too i don't brady's an old radio honk too like play-by-play when i was in college when
05:03i
05:03was kind of in that same i was there's just for sure going to be a play-by-play guy
05:07you know like
05:08that was that was what you want to do and and it was it became like the timing it was
05:13like
05:13opportunities there and i took a different path i i think it's so cool that you
05:18stayed the course on that and that supreme court justice job did come up and now you get to follow
05:25mike kennedy after 46 years well that that's fun too right like you get to terrifying jacob that's
05:32what that is get ready for you know all the people that have been listening to mike kennedy for 46
05:38years
05:38to have uh tips and advice um because it's coming but that's you know that's it just like how cool
05:46is
05:46that especially when you got to work alongside him to take that you know that's a that's a special
05:52thing that you guys had that you get to do now that you know really nobody else would have had
05:58the opportunity to do you have a chance to to make a relationship with with mike and then keep it
06:04going
06:04that's that's just so cool yeah this last baseball season was awesome because so i've been doing color
06:12with mike for the last few years but once he had announced that it was his retirement in like you
06:17know this was going to be it for him obviously the baseball season was very much towards the end it
06:23was like could this be the last game like wichita state had to win the regular season finale just to
06:28make it to the conference tournament and then when you get to the conference tournament the first round
06:31single elimination so it was like is this the last time is this the last time is this the last
06:37time
06:37and we they just kept winning you know they kept stretching out that run down in clearwater but it
06:42really like mike and i would talk about this before and after games it was like we appreciated each one
06:48of those broadcasts a little bit more at the end because it was like maybe this is our last pregame
06:53together you know maybe this is our last game together and honestly like we had a lot of fun because
06:59there were some great games there at the end some some like real thrillers and mike said that it felt
07:05a lot
07:05like the basketball season where you know wichita state had a very nice finishing kick to the end
07:11of the season they had a good run in the nit they lost a great game to a tulsa team
07:16that played really
07:17well and he was just like okay like that was a good one to end on it was kind of
07:21the same thing with
07:22baseball where it was like they went as far as they could before they truly like ran out of pitching
07:26against east carolina and so it just kind of felt like a natural like okay that was a good closing
07:32end to
07:32everything and to have a chance to like be there sitting next to him for the end of it was
07:38really
07:38special as somebody who grew up listening to him who idolizes him who sees him as a mentor and
07:44that's something that'll take with me forever it didn't i gotta ask you know being a younger guy
07:49when it comes to your uh what was your earliest exposure i guess to uh radio play-by-play or
07:56i guess
07:56maybe watching a tv broadcast was there anybody that uh i guess maybe besides mike kennedy that
08:02you listened to and thought like boy that sounds that sounds like a blast to do wouldn't it be great
08:09because i was the same way growing up i remember uh espn uh sunday night football with mike patrick
08:15and joe diesman watching those broadcasts that's where i first got the bug and thinking like it would
08:21be cool to do that at some level someday and thankfully i was able to do quite a bit of
08:27high
08:27school and some college play-by-play here and there when do you remember getting that bug especially
08:32being a younger guy where uh you know younger generations typically not listening to radio
08:37play-by-play so what was kind of that first exposure for you was it like a family parents that
08:42sort of
08:42thing growing up my family didn't have a cable tv and so the radio was kind of it for me
08:48um so if i
08:49wanted to follow baseball i would go out on these summer nights we had a volkswagen euro van which i
08:55don't know if you've ever seen one of these things but it is literally looking it up it's a fridge
08:59with
09:00wheels and so i would turn the radio on in this euro van in the driveway and i would slide
09:05open like
09:06the big side door and i would turn the radio up as loud as it could go and i was
09:10usually on either
09:11like denny matthews with the royals or a guy named steve schuster who's the broadcaster for the
09:16wichita wingnuts for a long time and i would just put one of those games on and i would just
09:20throw
09:20a tennis ball against our garage door for like two hours and just listen to baseball and so those are
09:27kind of the voices that that got me started on it i just obviously when you're a kid you're like
09:30i want
09:31to play baseball but if there's always this thought kind of in the back of my mind like all right
09:36if i
09:36don't throw 95 what's the next step in it i was like okay broadcasting sounds like it could be really
09:42fun um and and denny and steve were kind of the the voices that got that started for me along
09:47with
09:47mike obviously damn genetics uh and garrick joining us here so we know you obviously we've heard and
09:55we've you've heard we've heard you forever here on kfh on the baseball side how much is basketball
10:01a part of you know obviously it's the biggest part i don't think we need to dance around that issue
10:06the
10:06most the most important thing you'll do is be the voice of shocker men's basketball so you know how
10:11much energy is there for that how how big a basketball fan are you we haven't had the chance
10:16to hear you as much with basketball tell us a little about that yeah really excited about that
10:20i think something that's that's going to make the process a lot easier for me is that dave doll is
10:25going to be joining me again as my color commentator for the home broadcasts and obviously that is
10:31somebody that wichita state fans are super familiar with um but as the long time color commentator
10:37along with mike and so i think that's kind of a nice transition for shocker fans to a new voice
10:42in
10:42myself but just having been around this team over the last few years working in the sports information
10:48department here i feel like i have a good sense of coach mills and the players and i help out
10:53with the
10:54espn plus broadcasts and i've been on with those and it just feels like i've been around it enough that
11:00i have a good understanding of this team and um obviously shocker basketball when it's going good
11:06is is unlike anything here in the city of wichita and uh just can't wait to be a part of
11:10that
11:11i looked up the euro van denning horrifying that's an adventure that's an adventure on wheels right there
11:18listen i i we are pregnant with our fourth kid i grew up in you know cargo vans too big
11:24family
11:25i i am like we're about to have our fourth kid and i'm like am i gonna be a minivan
11:30guy
11:30but maybe i just need to say hang on am i gonna be a full-size van guy should i
11:36just skip minivan
11:37i mean maybe i should look i think you'd look great in a chrysler town and country jacob yeah
11:43there we go yeah let's go um denning so what's next now you you've got that gig uh as we
11:49as we've got
11:50a couple minutes here the full steam ahead what what starts is it you know is it i i know
11:56in there
11:56and i would invite people to go you know read the articles and stuff because a lot of what you're
12:00going to do and a lot of what you're going to do here with odyssey is it goes beyond the
12:03games you're
12:03going to do other things but what starts right now for you i think we're gonna kind of kick things
12:10off
12:10with like some digital content that'll be a big part of the job is is creating stuff for social media
12:16media so some video series with coaches and players the coaches show podcast will continue
12:21whenever we get into those kind of seasons um but yeah i think the idea will be this is a
12:27job that
12:28can kind of take people behind the scenes a little bit get to know the coaches and players a little
12:32bit better um and use social media and those platforms as a way to do that so until the the
12:38seasons get rolling i think that'll be our main focus getting what go ahead go ahead brady i was just
12:43going to ask uh what's uh mike kennedy's reaction been i'm sure he's reached out to you when the
12:49news broke that uh you were a replacement or the air if you will yeah i was i was fortunate
12:54enough
12:55that i got to tell mike that i got the the job and um that was probably the coolest part
13:02of all of it
13:03was like his reaction to it um he said from the beginning you know he did he never wanted to
13:08vouch for one candidate um he said there were a lot of really qualified people and a lot of people
13:13that he was good friends with and so he never wanted to just pick one name or the other um
13:18but
13:18we have a good relationship and so um when i told him um he gave me he gave me the
13:24mike kennedy fist
13:25bump and he was like way to go dude you're gonna crush it so that was in terms of like
13:30the list of
13:31cool moments from this last week that was that was pretty high up there denning we're excited for
13:36you they made a great choice you know i've been a fan for a long time good luck and we'll
13:40talk again
13:41soon sounds good thanks guys appreciate yourself voice of the shockers didn't garrick we're coming
13:45back with another this is 975 and 1240 kfh wichita k248 c1
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