Cameron Set For 1,000th Mercer Broadcast On Saturday

MACON – Although spending a large chunk of his childhood standing in front of a muted 13-inch black and white television emulating his favorite broadcasters, Rick Cameron could not have dreamed of a life many years later as the "Voice of the Mercer Bears".

But, as he prepares to put on a headset and produce his 1,000^th Mercer broadcast on Saturday when the women's basketball team takes on Furman in the front half of a 2 p.m. women's and men's basketball doubleheader in Hawkins Arena, he has allowed himself time to reflect on all of the memories that he has helped create over the last two-plus decades for Mercer fans and student-athletes alike.

"It is totally surreal," Cameron said. "Some days, it feels like I have done it forever. Some days, it feels like it was just yesterday that I got the call to go to Oklahoma State with the men's basketball team and call a Mercer game for the first time."

A 2019 Mercer Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, Cameron has been the voice behind some of the most iconic moments in Mercer athletics history over his 20-year stint in Macon. He was in the booth when the Bears made their long-awaited return to the gridiron, ushering in a new era of Mercer football with a 40-37 win over Reinhardt on Aug. 31, 2013.

He has since been along for the ride for the steady growth of the football program, including Mercer's first FCS Playoff appearance in 2023, and was on the call again in November when the Bears won their first-ever Southern Conference football championship on the way to an unprecedented run to the NCAA quarterfinals.

Perhaps the highlight of Cameron's career, however, also doubles as the most iconic moment in the history of Mercer athletics. Making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1985, the 14^th-seeded Mercer men's basketball team pulled one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA March Madness history by taking down third-seeded Duke, 78-71, in the 2014 Big Dance.

Cameron's call that afternoon in Raleigh, N.C., is forever intertwined in the fabric of Mercer history, marking a day in which the Bears etched themselves in March Madness lore. Eleven years after that fateful day, Cameron remains a staple in the broadcast booth, delivering the sounds of Mercer sports to the Bears faithful with no signs of slowing down.

"I am the eyes of the person listening, whether it's a true radio broadcast or if it's on SportsMic," Cameron said. "They can't see what's going on and how hard our men and women are competing, but I try to pass on that energy to them.

"It's been a blessing to do this, and I have thoroughly enjoyed not only calling the games, but also being able to get to know the players and the coaches. It certainly means a lot to me that they appreciate the job that I am trying to do."

Cameron's path to Macon was varied, for sure. After graduating from Georgia in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in Radio, TV and Film, he dabbled as a high school play-by-play announcer for Clarke Central High School in Athens, as well as for his hometown Lafayette High School as the "Voice of the Ramblers" before diving headfirst into the newspaper business as a publisher.

Mercer opened up a door for him in 1997 when he attained a position in the University's Marketing Communications Office where he applied some of the same skills that he had mastered in the newspaper business over the course of the 20 years prior. In his part time, he served Mercer Athletics as a public address announcer for basketball games in Porter Gym. Then, one foggy eve in December of 2005, he got a call that would eventually change his life.

Call it fate or call it a stroke of luck, but then-athletics director Bobby Pope needed a fill in radio play-by-play announcer for the men's basketball team's road trip to play both Oklahoma State and Colorado. Despite voicing his reservations over having not broadcasted a game in more than 20 years, he joined the Bears on that trip and has been a mainstay on the headset ever since.

"It was kind of like when you haven't had anything to eat in a long time, and you sit down with a big steak in front of you and you take the first bite and it sure does taste good," Cameron said of that game in Stillwater, Okla., on Dec. 18, 2005. "I called the first play of the game and was astonished as to how much I had missed doing radio."

Since then, Cameron has been courtside and perched in pressboxes for a slew of Mercer memories, including the 2011-12 CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship run by the men's basketball team, as well as a handful of NCAA Tournament appearances by the women's basketball and baseball programs. His support system has remained the same throughout the 999 broadcasts in that spectators will usually find his wife, Myra, handling the spotting duties, or offering her support from a nearby seat in the stadium.

A former employee in the MU athletics department from 1997 until her retirement in June 2022, Myra is regularly in the passenger seat on football and basketball road trips, and will likely throw out the loudest cheers when Rick is recognized between games on Saturday in Hawkins Arena.

"She knows athletics and she loves athletics," Rick said. "You can ask any of the former student-athletes that came through when she was working full time in the athletics department, but she was like their mother away from home. So many times, because of my commitment to broadcasting basketball, I missed out on a lot of events and a lot of my kids' events.

"Myra was the anchor that understood that I had the 'Gift of Gab'. Because of her commitment, I was able to continue to do what I love to do."

Mercer University Athletics

Cameron Set For 1,000th Mercer Broadcast On Saturday

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