Remembering: Mike Mentzer was the voice of Harrisburg High School sports

Mike Mentzer was not a player but an equipment manager for 1960s football dynasty John Harris High School.

Yet his athletic passion matched anyone?s, and he succeeded better than most at extending the sports dream beyond high school.

Mentzer, who died late last year at 61, was the public address announcer for Harrisburg High School sports events for about 30 years.

Illness forced him to give it up about five years ago, but he remains known as ?the voice of the Cougars.?

?Mike was the voice of Harrisburg sports and he still is,? said Harrisburg athletic director and boy?s basketball coach Kirk Smallwood.

?He was our Dave Zinkoff,? he said, referring to the late Philadelphia announcer known for exclamations such as Julius ERRRRVING! ?Our kids really loved him. He could get them fired up with just the way he said your name.?

Mentzer, who was married with three daughters, was a blue-collar worker for Unilever Best Foods. He spent many years on the overnight shift, which enabled him to announce games and coach assorted youth sports teams.

In 1990, he took over a Harrisburg High baseball team that hadn?t won in four years. The team quickly broke the losing steak and became competitive. But to Mentzer?s great regret, a move to the 3-11 shift prevented a second season.

He had no training in broadcasting when an opportunity arose to announce Harrisburg games, including football and basketball. His pay never topped about $20 per game, according to his daughter, Michelle Mentzer.

?He just really, really loved sports and loved to be around the kids,? she said.

She said her father was very proud when athletes recognized and approached him in public. He always began the conversation: ?Are you hitting the books??

Smallwood said that, as a coach, he loved the way Mentzer called out not only the name of the player who made the basket, but the one who made the assist.

He said Mentzer?s affection for Harrisburg kids was unmistakable. ?He was as partial as you could be without being partial,? he said.

Bob Gambler was a life-long friend and fellow Harrisburg sports fanatic. When Mentzer became an announcer, Gambler came along to spot who made the plays and help with stats. They worked side by side for years, with Gambler eventually becoming a paid scorekeeper.

At away games, with no role in the announcer?s both, they were welcome on the Harrisburg sidelines, he said.

?We both loved the kids. They knew us and we knew them. We got along real well with most of the coaches,? said Gambler, 60, of West Hanover Twp.

Michelle Mentzer said her father?s happiest Harrisburg sports moments involved the boy?s state basketball championships, which came in 1998 and 2002.

The championship games were played away from Harrisburg, and she recalls her father?s frantic effort to beat them back to the school and announce their arrival.

About five years ago Mentzer developed kidney failure which forced him to stop working and to give up announcing not long after that.

He continued attending games until about year ago, when his condition finally made it impossible.

Michelle Mentzer?s said one of her father?s biggest disappointments was that he didn?t get to watch his granddaughter, Lexus Allen, who became a starting softball pitcher last year as a freshman at Harrisburg High School.

One thing Michelle Mentzer doesn?t regret is the way she and her sisters spent their childhoods at his coaching and announcing events.

?As long as we can remember we were always at a field,? the 39-year-old said. ?For us to share our dad with other kids didn?t hurt us, because he was a role model for some that didn?t have fathers around.?

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/03/remembering_mike_mentzer_was_t.html

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