Legendary sportscaster Dick Vitale pays tribute to Mike Patrick with heartwarming message

ESPN announced on Tuesday that longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick had died on Sunday of natural causes at 80 years old in Fairfax, Virginia. Patrick made a name for himself as the voice of "Sunday Night Football" after arriving at ESPN in 1982.

Patrick called the network's first NFL game in 1987 and he called games until 2005 despite taking a break after a heart surgery procedure in 2004 when Pat Summerall took over. Patrick was not confined to the NFL and also called college football games.

In 2006, he became ESPN's play-by-play announcer and moved from his Sunday slot to the prime Saturday slot. Between 2009 and 2017, he took the same spot at ABC. Patrick also called college women's and men's basketball games and even did the College World Series before retiring seven years ago.

After the announcement of the news, longtime National Sportscaster Hall of Famer Dick Vitale paid a heartfelt tribute to Patrick in a post on X.

"Mike Patrick was a multi-talented @espn broadcaster - he brought such energy to each of his telecasts. May Mike RIP," Dick Vitale tweeted.

Popular analyst pays tribute to Mike Patrick

Respected ESPN analyst Jay Bilas joined the eminent names in the industry by paying tribute to Patrick via a tweet on X.

“So sorry to learn of the passing of the great Mike Patrick,” Jay Billas tweeted. “Mike was the voice of ACC Basketball when I was a player, and I had the honor of working with him and calling him a friend. Mike Patrick was a pro’s pro. RIP Mike Patrick.”

Before he became a household voice with ESPN, Patrick was the sports director at WJXT-TV in Florida in 1970. He also called games for the Jacksonville Sharks in the World Football League between 1983 and 1974 and he also did the play-by-play for Jacksonville University basketball.

Between 1975 and 1982, he was a weekend sports anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington D.C while being a sports reporter alongside his role as the voice of the Maryland Terrapins basketball and football until 1978. During that time, he also did the play-by-play for NFL preseason games until 1982 when he formally joined ESPN. In 1984, he juggled his role with ESPN with a play-by-play role for ACC games.

The last game that Patrick called was the Iowa State Cyclones' Liberty Bowl win over the Memphis Tigers in 2017 before retiring the next year.