Legendary Florida Gators voice Mick Hubert retiring after 33 seasons on the microphone

By OnlyGators.com Staff
May 19, 2022
Legendary Florida Gators voice Mick Hubert retiring after 33 seasons on the microphone
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Image Credit: Courtney Mims / UAA

He’s called conference championships, national championships, buzzer-beaters, walk-offs, Hail Marys and everything in between. Punctuating them all with his signature “Oh My!”, Mick Hubert has been the voice of Florida Gators athletics across parts of five decades. After 33 years of standing out as the signature sound of the Gators, Hubert, 68, has decided to call it a career.

“That’s going to be it,” Hubert said in a release announcing his decision to retire after the Florida-South Carolina baseball series this weekend. “This wasn’t the end of a five-year plan. I don’t know if I can explain how I knew, but i knew. I had been considering this for a little while. I just had to do some praying about it and enjoy every game.”

Hubert, just the third “Voice of the Gators” in program history, informed Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin of his decision earlier this week, the school said. This after recently selling his Gainesville-area home for a permanent move to Sarasota with his wife, Judi, for their retirement. Judi, a kindergarten teacher, retired 12 months ago.

“Five years ago, I’d probably told you I was going to do it until I was at least 80,” Hubert said in a release. “That was five years ago. A couple of years ago, I started changing. I had a change of heart. Only God can change a person’s heart. I’m just being obedient right now.”

In all, Hubert called more than 2,600 football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, gymnastics and tennis events for the Gators. He’s been around for all but one of the program’s national championships in those sports (1982 gymnastics) and stood out as the lead voice for almost every memorable moment in modern history for the athletic program.

Even more remarkably, Hubert did not miss a single football game across 33 seasons, and the handful of men’s basketball games he missed were only due to time or travel conflicts with football. He steps down from his post at what he considers to still be the top of his game.

“As the years went on, his incredible passion for the Gators, you could feel it come through the broadcasts,” said UF athletic director emeritus Jeremy Foley. “When the Gators won or something exciting happened, he could bring it to life. I used to love watching Gator highlights from TV that had his call on them. He’s incredibly talented. Mick Hubert, in multiple sports, was part of the fabric of following the Gators. He’s meant a lot to this program. He obviously rewarded our faith in him by becoming one of the all-time greats.”

Hubert will be honored by Florida during his final Gators baseball series this weekend, and he will also be part of a planned special ceremony at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium surrounding a football game this fall. Though he does not have any plans to work again, he did leave the door open for potential one-off opportunities with UF should a unique situation present itself.

“I hope [the fans] heard the enthusiasm, and the credibility is important to me,” Hubert said. “You need to be factual and credible, but you need to be enthusiastic. That’s what I always felt. I always wanted to take my audience on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. I also wanted to give them enough information so they could paint that picture in their mind.”

For parts of five decades, Hubert indeed painted those pictures. And for decades to come, Florida fans will continue punctuate those moments on their own with his voice in their head.

Oh my, indeed.

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