Longtime KWC broadcaster Joel Utley to be spotlighted during tonight's game

Joel Utley has been calling Kentucky Wesleyan basketball games for six decades. Tonight, he begins his 61st consecutive season as the radio play-by-play voice for the Panthers when Wesleyan plays your University of Kentucky Wildcats in Rupp Arena. He will break Kansas legend Max Falkenstein’s record for seasons by a broadcaster, according to Jerry Tipton. It will be his 1,704th game.

To commemorate Utley’s new record and legendary career on the Owensboro airwaves, the SEC Network is expected to tap into Utley’s broadcast at some point during tonight’s game. Kevin Fitzgerald and Jimmy Dykes will have the call for the SEC Network’s TV broadcast, but it will be a nice treat to basketball fans statewide and beyond to hear some of Utley’s commentary.

ICYMI, Joel Utley '74 is making college basketball history tomorrow when @KWCMBB plays @KentuckyMBB at @Rupp_Arena. Can’t make the game? Tune in to @SECNetwork at 7 p.m. ET. The broadcast is expected to tap into Joel’s radio commentary and highlight his achievement and career. pic.twitter.com/53TxUSavPL

— Kentucky Wesleyan Alumni (@kwcalumni) October 29, 2021

If you want to check in on Utley’s play-by-play throughout the night, his broadcast can be heard on Owensboro’s WBIO (94.7 FM).

Hall of Famer

Joel Utley is a Class of 2013 inductee into Kentucky Wesleyan’s Athletics Hall of Fame and a 2016 inductee into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.

A native of Madisonville, Kentucky (*fist bump*), Utley is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he worked at WVLK with legendary broadcaster Claude Sullivan. Utley began his long-running career as the “Voice of the Panthers” in Owensboro in 1961 and tonight he makes history in Rupp Arena.