Oh my, it’s time to say goodbye

UF radio voice Hubert has ended long career

Oh my, college football radio broadcasts in the Sunshine State will never, ever be the same.

First, it was Gene Deckerhoff who turned off his legendary microphone at Florida State several weeks ago. Then this weekend the iconic Mick Hubert broadcast his final game as the radio voice of the Florida Gators.

Florida’s baseball game against South Carolina on Saturday was the last time UF fans will ever hear Mick’s signature catchphrase — ”Oh my!” — and his passionately euphoric, historic calls that so often have given goosebumps to Gator fans over the past 33 years.

Who will ever forget that night in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1993, when UF quarterbacks combined to throw seven interceptions, but still the Gators won the game on the famous 28-yard pass from Danny Wuerffel to Chris Doering in the final dramatic seconds? Hubert going bonkers and excitably screaming into the microphone — ”DOERING’S GOT A TOUCHDOWN! DOERING’S GOT A TOUCHDOWN! OH MY, DOERING’S GOT A TOUCHDOWN!!!” — is the most famous call in UF history and kick-started Hubert and Doering on their way to Gators greatness.

Hubert, 68, took time out earlier this week to talk with me about his memories from the more than 2,500 football, basketball and baseball games he broadcast at UF. Here are some excerpts from our conversation: MB: So did you know you were retiring a few weeks ago when Gene Deckerhoff, your counterpart at FSU, announced his retirement?

MH: “I did. This is something I’ve been praying on for about a year. I’ve always said that if around August 1st I’m not chomping at the bit for another football season to crank up, then I’ll know something’s wrong. Well, last summer, for the first time, it was at the end of July, and I was like, ‘Oh man, another football season. I don’t know if I’m ready for it.’

“I got over the hump and did

the season, but I knew I had to heed my own words and listen to what God was telling me. And God was telling me, ‘It’s time to move on, Mick.’ It’s time for me to serve God instead of serving the Gators.”

MB: Have you always been a man of faith?

MH: “No. When Andy Lopez was the baseball coach at Florida, he led me to the Lord. In fact, it was 25 years ago, May 17, 1997, when it happened.

“I was 43 years old. I hadn’t been in church for 30 years. Over the course of the years Coach Lopez had mentored me and taught me about the salvation of Jesus Christ. Finally on that May 17, we were at the SEC Baseball Tournament in Columbus, Georgia, I went to Coach Lopez’s room at 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning and accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.

“I always tell people that my greatest moment came in a hotel room alone with another man; actually, two other men — Andy Lopez and Jesus Christ.” MB: Can you describe what the “Doering’s got a touchdown!” call meant for your career?

MH: “I used to kid Chris Doering, ‘You were nothing until I put you on the map with that call,’ but actually it was Chris Doering who put me on the map. I like to say that call went viral before the term ‘going viral’ even existed.

“There was no social media back then, but Keith Jackson picked up on it the following week on ABC’s college football telecast and ESPN picked up on it as well. It took on a life of its own. Everybody has to have a moment like that. The team has to create the moment and the broadcaster has to capture the moment in real time because you can’t go back and correct it. There’s no backspace on the tongue. Even though I had been at UF for five years, I was broadcasting in relative anonymity. And then — boom! — that call happens and Mick Hubert is on the map.”

MB: Can you describe your excitable style?

MH: “I’ve always tried to have enthusiasm. Yes, I wanted to be factual and credible, and I didn’t want to be some slapstick doofus, but I also wanted to entertain my audience. Sports are emotional and I wanted radio listeners to experience the roller coaster of emotions from the game.

“I was never one of these smooth, mellow broadcasters who goes an entire broadcast with the same voice inflection. No, no, no, that’s not me. I’m going to get excited when the Gators make a big play.

“People always say, ‘You can tell Mick loves the Gators.’ They’re right, I do love the Gators, but I also love the people who are the fabric of the Gators. When I called a game, I was rooting for my friends.

“If you’re a national game of the week announcer, you blow in for a couple of days to do the game and you don’t have a lot of attachment to the teams you’re covering. But when you’re the home broadcaster, you’re traveling with the team, living with them, watching them practice. You become part of the fabric and you want ’em to win because they’re your family.” MB: So tell me how you took Dick Enberg’s ”Oh my!” and made it your own.

MH: “When I was a young broadcaster going to Illinois State, one of my broadcasting mentors went to California and got a job and started sending me tapes of Dick Enberg calling Los Angeles Rams games on the radio. I was always told growing up that all great broadcasters needed a catchphrase. Well, when I heard Dick Enberg saying, ’Oh my!’ I was like, ‘That’s it! That’s going to be my catchphrase.’

“Dick Enberg was in California, and I was in the Midwest, and I didn’t figure anybody would notice so I started using ’Oh my!’ when I became the basketball play-byplay guy for Bradley University and then when I went to the University of Dayton. Then when I got to Gainesville, I figured it would work here too because I didn’t think anybody in Florida would have a clue that Dick Enberg was using it. Plus, Dick Enberg was then using it mostly on TV with a different voice inflection and I was using it on radio, and my ‘Oh my!’ was a little different; a little harder.

“When Coach Spurrier was coaching the Gators, he ran into Dick Enberg at a celebrity golf tournament and told him, ‘Hey, our radio guy Mick Hubert uses ‘Oh my!’ but he always gives you credit.’ And Dick Enberg looked at Spurrier and said, ‘You tell Mick I stole ‘Oh my!’ from a radio guy in the 1940s and he has my blessing.’ ”

MB: Mick, between you and me, your ”Oh my!” is 10 times better than Dick Enberg’s.

MH: (Laughs) “I don’t know about that, but it’s served me well over the years. You know, 98 percent of the time I said, ’Oh my!’ in a very positive way, but it’s versatile phrase that covers a vast array of emotions.

“There were times when the Gators made a bad play and I said, ’Oh my!’ when I really wanted to say something else, but if I had said something else I would have been fired. So, you see, ’Oh my!’ has saved my job a few times over the years.”

MB: Now that you and Judi — your wife of 45 years — are getting ready to retire to Sarasota, what are you going to remember most about your 33 years at UF in which you became the only broadcaster in history to call national championship victories for the same school in college football (three), men’s basketball (two) and baseball (one)?

MH: “Mark Twain once said, ‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’ I found out when I was an 8-year-old I wanted to be a sports broadcaster, and I can honestly say I haven’t worked a day in my life since I came to Gainesville 33 years ago.

“Holy cow, I’m just a kid who grew up in the cornfields of Illinois, and I’ve been blessed to call national title and SEC championship games with Hall of Fame coaches, Heisman Trophy winners and future NBA stars. All I can say is, ‘Lord, thank you. Thank you for giving me the desire to do this andfor giving me a career that really has been too good to be true.’ ”