Dan Hoard and Tony Pike are set to keep one foot in each world.
The Cincinnati Bengals have added the longtime University of Cincinnati radio voices to their broadcast team, with Hoard and Pike now part of the Bengals’ radio coverage while also continuing their work on UC football broadcasts.
For Bearcats fans, the key detail is simple: the voices they know aren’t going anywhere. UC, Pike and Hoard all confirmed that Pike will remain on the air for Bearcats games even as he takes on the Bengals role.
Hoard’s connection to both programs runs deep. He has called Bengals games for 15 years and has been the play-by-play voice of UC football for 27 years.
Beginning with the announcement Wednesday, Aug. 12, he will now be joined in the Bengals booth by Pike, the former UC quarterback who helped lead the Bearcats to the Orange and Sugar bowls under Brian Kelly. The Bengals’ radio team also includes Ring of Honor lineman and color analyst Dave Lapham, who has been on Bengals radio since 1986.
Pike said he’s thankful for the people who helped him along the way and is eager to take on the new opportunity without giving up his UC work.
"I'm grateful for the people in my life who have (bought) into me in so many different ways," Pike told The Enquirer. "I'm not where I am today without all of them.
I'm excited to add this opportunity to work with the Bengals alongside many great people, while still being on the radio each day and still being in the booth for UC football. I'm hoping to be calling a Big 12 title and Super Bowl very soon."
Hoard also sounded ready for the added partnership, joking about the logistics of bouncing between UC and Bengals assignments. He has spent years juggling that schedule on his own; now he gets to do it with a familiar travel companion.
"I'm really excited to add him to the broadcast mix along with Joe Danneman (doing Bengals Pep Rally radio and preseason TV sidelines)," Hoard said. "Our broadcast just got better. Yeah, we'll have some sleepless nights coming back from places like BYU, but I find it to be a lot of fun."
The path to this moment has been anything but smooth for Pike. Last October, he was briefly laid off at iHeart Media before being brought back after public outcry, just before his induction into UC’s Athletics Hall of Fame last October.
In the middle of that stretch, longtime radio color analyst and fellow Hall of Famer Jim Kelly died of cancer. Pike shifted from sideline reporter to the booth late in Kelly’s illness and handled the change well despite the grief surrounding it.
There is at least one scheduling clash already on the calendar. Hoard has made most of the Bearcats’ games, but when he has been unavailable, talk show host, game host and site engineer Mo Egger has taken over play-by-play duties.
That will again be the case for the UC at Houston football game on Nov. 7, because the Bengals will be in Madrid, Spain, for their game against the Atlanta Falcons.
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