Wendell Broyles, 1913 - 2004: Huskies voice was touchstone for generation

The former voice of Husky Stadium, Wendell Broyles spoke to legions of University of Washington football fans, his wry, low-key delivery uniting those in the stands with the action on the field for 35 years.

Mr. Broyles, who retired 20 years ago as the stadium's public-address announcer, died Monday at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland of complications associated with progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disorder. He was 90.

Mr. Broyles left the press box after calling the final home game in 1984 — a 44-14 victory over California that improved the UW's record to 9-0.

He provided steady narration for some of the Huskies' legendary teams and players, from Hugh McElhenny and Bob Schloredt to Warren Moon and Jacque Robinson.

"It was the dream of every young man who grew up in Seattle and aspired to play football at Husky Stadium to have Wendell Broyles announce his name during a game," said Carver Gayton, who graduated from Garfield High School to become a three-year letterman at the UW, capping his career in the 1960 Rose Bowl. "That voice will stay with me forever."

"That was Sonny Sixkiller completing a pass to Jim Krieg for 12 yards and a Husky first down," Mr. Broyles would say matter-of-factly, avoiding the homerism of other stadium announcers.

"The job of stadium announcer is to inform, not to be part of the show," he said in an interview with the student-run University of Washington Daily on the eve of his retirement. "I try to be more in the background. I'm there just to keep people informed because a lot of people can't see the yard line, they can't tell who carried the ball. Between the scoreboard and me, it keeps them posted."

Mr. Broyles also interjected humor into the games.

"There's a hanky on the field," he would say when a penalty flag was thrown.

Routinely, he would alert an unidentified owner of a car parked in the stadium lot to immediately return to the vehicle: "Your engine is running." The crowd never really knew if it was a running joke, but it elicited a giggle every time.

"I would always think, 'Oh no, is that my car?' " said Sixkiller, who remembers Mr. Broyles' deadpan style more as a fan after he graduated than when he played quarterback from 1970 to 1972. "As a player, you are just so wrapped up in what is going on."

Mr. Broyles moved from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest in 1934 to study journalism at the UW. A track athlete in junior college, he wanted to be a sportswriter. He wrote a column, "Broyled Down," as sports editor of the UW Daily in the fall of 1935.

"Sports was always his focus," said Rosella Broyles, his wife of 57 years. "Even through to the end, when I was reading the sports pages to him because he was no longer able to, I would mention a name in the paper and ask, 'Do you know this kid?' And he would say, 'Oh yeah, he played at such and such high school.' "

Mr. Broyles became UW sports information director in 1942 and later the assistant athletic director. Mr. Broyles' duties included traveling to other campuses in advance of Huskies road games. After the birth of his first child, the team had a game at Notre Dame.

"I had just come home with this new kid, and he said, 'You'll be all right. There are various people to look in on you. I have to go to South Bend,' " Mrs. Broyles recalled, laughing. "I came second to the Huskies many times."

Mr. Broyles also was public-address announcer for basketball games at Edmundson Pavilion for 13 years.

Mrs. Broyles, a retired writer for The Seattle Times, said her husband supported her career at a time when working mothers were frowned upon. He brought that same sensitivity to King County Medical Blue Shield, where he worked for 28 years, retiring as president and CEO in the late 1970s.

"He supported the women where he worked as well as the women in his family," Mrs. Broyles said. "And I'm so proud of him for that."

Mr. Broyles had a multitude of other admirers among people who knew him only by voice.

"To me, Wendell was the logo, the signature of the experience of watching a football game at Husky Stadium," said David Enroth, a 60-year-old sports fan from Madison Park. "That voice is what ties the memories of football in Husky Stadium to my soul."

That voice. It was high-pitched and crackly, not as polished as those of most announcers. He stumbled over names difficult to pronounce, such as UCLA defensive lineman Manu Tuiasosopo, whose sons played for the UW.

But he had credibility and a reverence for the game that put him in rarefied air.

"He was so classy," said David Torrell of Sammamish, curator of the Husky Fever Hall of Fame and a fan in the stands since 1956. "In a lot of other venues you go to, the announcer is a cheerleader for the team. But Wendell was never like that."

To his family, Mr. Broyles will be remembered as a modest, supportive, precise and charitable husband, father and grandfather. But to scores of Huskies fans, he always will be remembered as a voice from the heavens:

"That was Joe Steele running for about five yards. They'll measure."

Mr. Broyles is survived by his wife, Rosella, of Clyde Hill; son Scott of Clarkston, Asotin County; daughters Dana Jacobson of Kirkland and Julie Broyles of St. Cloud, Minn.; and four grandchildren.

A celebration of his life is planned at 2 p.m. March 13 at the Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave., Seattle.

The family suggests memorials to the 101 Club Foundation, which supports amateur athletics in the region, P.O. Box 1708, Seattle, WA 98111.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com