Patrick rose to national prominence at ESPN starting in 1982, and was a consistent presence on the network's football and basketball broadcasts for over 30 years. His final ESPN call came in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl. That career included being the play-by-play announcer for the first NFL regular-season game ever broadcast on ESPN, back in 1987, with Joe Thiesmann and Paul Maguire frequently joining him as color commentators over the years.
Mike Patrick, who spent 36 years as a play-by-play commentator for ESPN and was the network's NFL voice for "Sunday Night Football" for 18 seasons, has died at the age of 80. Patrick died of natural causes on Sunday in Fairfax, Virginia. Patrick's doctor and the city of Clarksburg, West Virginia, where Patrick originally was from, confirmed the death Tuesday. Patrick began his play-by-play role with ESPN in 1982. He called his last event, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, on Dec. 30, 2017.
After starting his career in 1982, Patrick became well known as the voice of ESPN’s "Sunday Night Football," a role he starred in for 18 years. He began that job in 1987, calling some of the best in NFL primetime until 2005. He was in the booth with former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, and then Paul Maguire. He was also well known for his roles in college football and basketball for the "Worldwide Leader in Sports." For college basketball, Patrick was most known as the voice for ESPN’s Women’s Final Four coverage, which began in 1996 to 2009.
