NEW YORK
There are broadcasters who announce sport and broadcasters who become part of how we remember it. Dan Hicks was firmly the second kind. When the news broke on Thursday, November 12, that the longtime NBC Sports play-by-play man had died at 64, the reaction across golf, swimming, skiing and college football was immediate and strikingly personal. People weren't only mourning a professional. They were mourning the sound of their own memories.
Hicks's wife, the veteran sportscaster Hannah Storm, announced his death on X. "Our family is heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected passing of Dan following an acute illness," she wrote. "He was a devoted husband of over 30 years, loving father to our three daughters, and cherished friend to so many. His loss is immeasurable." The family did not name the illness, and no further details about the cause have been made public.
From Tucson to the world stage
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Hicks began his television career at CNN as a sports anchor in 1989 before joining NBC Sports in 1992. That year would turn out to be the start of one of the longest and most varied careers at the network. In the 1990s he called NFL play-by-play for NBC from 1992 to 1998, worked the network's NBA coverage, and picked up assignments as wide-ranging as the French Open.
In 2000 he became the lead voice of NBC's golf coverage, a role he held for 26 years. Across that span he called the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup and the U.S. Women's Open, along with week-in, week-out PGA Tour broadcasts. He also became the voice of Notre Dame football, calling games from 2013 to 2016 and returning as NBC's lead Notre Dame play-by-play announcer in 2024. He was in his seventh season in that chair when he died.
Sixteen Olympic Games and a record in the pool
If golf was Hicks's weekly home, the Olympics were his biggest stage. He worked 16 Olympic Games in total and called play-by-play at 15 of them, beginning with Barcelona in 1992. According to NBC Sports, that included a record eight Games as the network's swimming voice and, most recently, four straight Winter Games calling Alpine skiing, ending with Milan Cortina in 2026. He won a Sports Emmy for NBC's coverage of the 2024 Paris Games.
Above all, he was the man behind the microphone for Michael Phelps. Hicks called all 28 of Phelps's Olympic medals, from Athens in 2004 to Rio in 2016, including all eight golds in Beijing in 2008. Alongside analyst Rowdy Gaines, he narrated one of the most dramatic races in Olympic swimming history in Beijing: the U.S. men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay comeback that kept Phelps's eight-gold bid alive. For millions of American viewers, that summer's soundtrack was Hicks's voice rising with the water.
"Expect anything different?"
Two months before Beijing, Hicks had delivered what may be his most quoted line. At the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods stood over a 12-foot putt on the 18th hole needing to make it to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate. When the ball dropped, Hicks met the moment with understatement rather than volume: "Expect anything different?" It was the kind of call that defined him. He trusted the pictures, let the crowd breathe, and found the single phrase that would outlast the shouting.
Woods was among those paying tribute this week. "Dan Hicks was beloved by all who had the privilege of knowing and working alongside him," he said.
Tributes from across sport
NBC Sports leaders Rick Cordella, Sam Flood and Molly Solomon issued a joint statement calling Hicks "an extraordinary colleague, friend and person," adding that in his 34 years at the network he was "an exceptional storyteller and caller of games and events." They described him as the signature voice of NBC's golf coverage and remembered a man who greeted teammates with a smile, a joke or a word of encouragement.
The PGA Tour said it was "devastated by the sudden loss of Dan Hicks," adding a line that captured the feeling of many fans: "The sound of his voice is woven into our memories of the game." The USGA called him "a true friend to the game," USA Swimming called him a "legendary broadcaster," and even a rival network weighed in. "We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Dan Hicks, a respected voice in sports broadcasting," said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
A sports-media family
Hicks and Storm were one of American sports media's best-known couples. Storm, herself a former NBC Sports host who later spent many years as an anchor at ESPN, was married to Hicks for more than three decades. He is survived by Storm and their daughters, Hannah, Ellery and Riley.
His death comes at an unsettled time in sports broadcasting, but this loss is different in kind. It is not a contract story or a ratings story. It removes a constant from several of NBC's biggest properties at once, including its golf franchise and its Notre Dame package in the middle of the college football season. NBC has not yet said who will handle his upcoming assignments.
What this means for you
For viewers, the change will be felt most on Saturday afternoons in South Bend and on Sunday afternoons on the back nine. The way a broadcaster calls a moment shapes how we remember it, and for many sports fans the definitive version of a Phelps relay or a Tiger putt plays back in Hicks's voice. This week is a good time to revisit those calls. The Beijing relay and the Torrey Pines putt are worth watching again as examples of the craft at its best: preparation that disappears, restraint that lets the drama land, and words chosen so carefully that they become part of the event.
The last word
Hicks never needed to be the story, which is exactly why his death has become one. He spent 34 years making other people's greatest days sound as big as they felt. In an age of hot takes and constant noise, his gift was knowing when to speak and when to let the moment speak for itself. Expect anything different? From Dan Hicks, never.
