How John Ward influence still follows new ‘Voice of the Vols’ Mike Keith

Sometimes he has too much information in front of him, but it's there if he needs it. For years he watched John Ward--the late Voice of the Vols--do the same in the radio booth at Neyland Stadium where Keith had a front row seat to a masterclass in broadcasting.

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Ward was the teacher, the soundtrack to Tennessee football and men's basketball for more than 30 years whose Vol Network radio broadcasts were as revered as the plays and the players that made them.

Now Keith will assume that role.

"John Ward is the biggest part of the equation," Keith said. "Because in learning from John, there were so many lessons all of the time. I've talked a lot about the preparation part of it, because John was so prepared that it was just phenomenal. And I've followed that to a T throughout, to the point of being over prepared most of the time."

Those lessons from Ward, who passed away in 2018, followed Keith through his own storied career as the radio play-by-play lead for the Tennessee Titans for 26 years--a job he might have considered the pinnacle of the profession.

He called the "Music City Miracle" in 2000, when Frank Wycheck lateraled a ball on a late kick return to Kevin Dyson in a last-ditch effort to keep the Titans season alive in an AFC Wild Card game. Dyson returned it 75 yards in the final seconds and the Titans beat the Buffalo Bills, 22-16 on the way to their first and only Super Bowl appearance.

Since the franchise moved from Houston to Nashville, Keith--a middle Tennessee native--had been its only voice. But the Vol Network called with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Bob Kesling, who Keith worked alongside after graduating from Tennessee in the 1980s, was next in line after Ward retired in 1999. Kesling's run leading football and basketball broadcasts is nearing its end after he announced in November that he would retire in the spring after 50 years with the Vol Network, the last 26 as its play-by-play voice.

That announcement put Keith was on the cusp of realizing a dream that began at Neyland Stadium on Oct. 5, 1974 when he watched as a 7-year-old from the stands as Stanley Morgan returned a punt 48 yards for the game-winning touchdown against Tulsa.

"I really wanted to be the Voice of the Vols...When I was a kid, I thought, 'That's all me. That's what I want to do,'" Keith said.

Keith almost cringes at the thought now, his 17-year-old self on a visit to Tennessee's campus when he was asked about what he wanted to do. His youthful confidence provided the answer: "I'm going to be the next Voice of the Vols."

Then Keith got to work for the Voice of the Vols. He studied Ward, his routines and his preparation.

"I could give you six hours on what John Ward would think about everything that he said out loud and then the things that we watched him do that we've all stolen from him over the course of our careers. I admit it," Keith said.

But there was more to Ward than the note-taking and knowing rosters. It was the storytelling, done in a way that turned living rooms into Neyland Stadium, Legion Field or the Louisiana Superdome.

Keith saw what separated Ward from other broadcasters and why households throughout Tennessee turned down television sets and turned up radio dials on Saturdays in the fall, instead. It followed him to Nashville and it will follow him back to Knoxville.

"His secret was that his connection was there in every way, because he was most interested in hitting that," Keith said. "John never forgot that the thing, was the thing. And the thing was the fans. That's why they listened and that's why they followed it."

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