Rik Danburg has been the announcer for Mentor dwelling soccer video games for 50 years, however he mentioned that is his final 12 months. He was inducted into Mentor’s athletic corridor of fame earlier this week. (Tim Phillis – For The Information-Herald)
Rik Danburg stepped outdoors the press field at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium and took a deep breath as he scanned the scene earlier than his eyes.
The visible is one he has soaked in for a very long time — in all probability longer than anybody else available this specific night to observe the Mentor soccer crew defeat visiting Shaker Heights, 44-29.
A smile came to visit his face as he took all of it in. The Mentor soccer crew on the sector celebrating a house victory, followers flooding the sector to congratulate their hometown heroes, the autumn colours on the bushes across the stadium…
For 50 years Danburg has appreciated that sight and being a part of all of it as Mentor’s public handle announcer. Possibly that’s why he stopped and soaked within the environment — as a result of after 50 years of saying Mentor soccer video games, he solely has just a few extra video games remaining earlier than he hangs up his proverbial microphone.
Danburg has introduced that this — his fiftieth 12 months because the Voice of the Cardinals — might be his final.
“I’m going to overlook it,” Danburg admitted, “However 50 is an efficient time to cease. I do know my final sport goes to be emotional. I’ll have tears in my eyes. But it surely’s time.”
Danburg has been a fixture within the press field ever since Dick Gardner, a former assistant superintendent at Mentor, traveled to Excessive Level College in North Carolina looking for out an educator or two that match what Mentor Public Colleges was on the lookout for.
Danburg has been concerned at all the pieces at Mentor as a well being and bodily training teacher, a choreographer for musicals and extra. However most know him for his voice and his rousing catch phrase when the Mentor soccer crew crashes via a banner previous to kickoff.
Heeeeere come the Cardinals!
“You recognize,” Danburg mentioned, “it’s worthwhile to have a grand opening (line) to announce the crew in all its glory. I keep in mind once I first began and the crew was down in the long run zone prepared to return out and I mentioned that, ‘Right here come the Cardinals.’ And it caught.”
Danburg’s roots behind the microphone will be traced all the best way again to Gainesville, Fla., the place he grew up after his household moved there from the Pacific Northwest. The one son of a mom steeped in opera and a father who was a composer, Danburg had a melodic voice that was pinpointed early on.
“The Gainesville (Excessive) Purple Hurricanes have been excellent, however they didn’t have an announcer,” Danburg mentioned. “The coach requested our instructor Mrs. Mary Elliott, she’s the one who taught me inflection and readability when talking, if she had a advice. She mentioned, ‘Riki Danburg can be my alternative.’”
So Danburg’s first soccer saying job got here when he was a sophomore in highschool.
After shifting on to Excessive Level College — “My mother and father mentioned if stayed at Gainesville (College of Florida) I’d need to dwell at dwelling” — Danburg introduced sporting occasions on the school stage for 3 years. That’s when Dick Gardner, an administrator at Mentor, got here to North Carolina and located his college’s future voice.
Danburg taught well being and bodily training at Mentor for 31 years, aside from a one-year hiatus when he attended Bowling Inexperienced for post-graduate work. He introduced a number of sports activities at BG whereas doing graduate work there.
“Ron Priest was the announcer once I got here again to Mentor in 1971, however he handed away,” Danburg mentioned. “That they had me are available and had scripts written out to say. I began they usually interrupted me and mentioned, ‘Cease. You’ve obtained the job,’ in midstream.”
Ever since then, it’s been Danburg’s voice that has resonated all through Memorial Discipline after which the JTO when Mentor’s soccer crew moved there in 1985.
“When my spouse, Nanci, and I moved to Avon in 2005, she mentioned, ‘I suppose you’ll surrender your saying job?’” Danburg mentioned with fun. “I mentioned, ‘I suppose NOT.’”
Recollections of the years roll off Danburg’s tongue like a Broadway musical when accounting for all of the occasions for which he’s introduced.
The younger student-athletes he’s watched play.
The followers with whom he turned shut.
“I had a former pupil come as much as me and requested if I remembered saying his title,” Danburg mentioned. “I did. Then he requested me, ‘Do you keep in mind saying my son?’ And I did. Then he mentioned, ‘Mr. Danburg, tonight you’ll announce my grandson.’”
Danburg was inducted into Mentor’s athletic corridor of fame on Sept. 28, his son Curtis introducing him along with his spouse Nanci and son Jarrid proudly watching earlier than turning the remainder of the grasp of ceremonies over to his father for the remainder of the night. Danburg mentioned he was touched by the Corridor of Fame nod, along with his grandchildren Tyler, Hannah, Lenna, Griffin and Perry on stage to welcome their grandfather into the corridor of Mentor athletic greatness.
“It was a terrific evening, so gratifying and great to see so many associates and former college students on the occasion,” mentioned Danburg, who was moreover touched by the presence of longtime administrator Neil Sharp in attendance.
“Being in Mentor’s Corridor of Fame is sort of a cherry on high of the cake. It’s the end result of all the pieces I really like about Mentor Colleges.”
Danburg obtained just a little tear in his eye after Mentor’s win over Shaker Heights when he was summoned onto the sector and offered the sport ball by Coach Matt Grey in entrance of a throng of appreciative and grateful student-athletes who weren’t even a twinkle of their mother and father’ eyes when Danburg first introduced a Mentor sport.
That’s the reason saying goodbye after 50 years gained’t be simple. He mentioned that he has his spouse’s permission to fill in in case of an emergency, however moreover that, his saying profession at Mentor comes all the way down to Oct. 6 in opposition to Brunswick, Oct. 20 in opposition to Euclid and any potential dwelling playoff video games the Cardinals might need.
“Let me inform ya,” Danburg mentioned to the Mentor gamers, “I don’t need my final sport to be Oct. 20. I wish to do extra playoffs with you, OK? That’s gonna occur. You’re gonna be within the playoffs, OK?”
Coach Matt Grey of @MentorRedline presents Friday’s sport ball to Rik Danburg, who’s in his fiftieth and remaining 12 months of saying Mentor soccer video games. pic.twitter.com/Vp3wYAEmp2
— Information-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 30, 2023
Danburg may provide little greater than a shrug of the shoulders when requested what he’s going to do with a free Friday evening within the fall, one thing he and his spouse haven’t had in 50 years. However similar to he got here up with a catch-line when he first introduced at Mentor, he already has one drawn up for subsequent fall at dwelling.
“As a substitute of ‘Heeeeeere come the Cardinals,’” Danburg mentioned, “It’ll be, ‘Hey Nanci, I’m hoooooome!”
