Hahn's exit another part of Tobacco Road's lost grip on the ACC
NC State's Gary Hahn is turning the mic off after more than 30 years following the Wolfpack's football, basketball and baseball teams. His retirement signals another change for those who remember the golden age of ACC Basketball.
Posted — UpdatedIn Raleigh, NC State fans have taken comfort in the familiar voice of radio announcer Gary Hahn.
Hahn, 71, is going through his own transition. He recently lost his mother and is planning to retire after the 2023-24 basketball season.
Hahn arrived in Raleigh in 1990 and is one of the last men standing from the golden age of the ACC – when a Tuesday night basketball game in January was still one of the main vessels for entertainment in the area. In 2024, some Triangle fans feel left out by a league that's no longer centered around North Carolina and expanding to the far reaches of the west coast, thus deprecating the "Tobacco Road" brand that bolstered the formerly basketball-driven conference.
Hahn's exit is a small part of the vast changes taking place in sports media and in the college game overall.
Hahn has called more than 420 football games (missing one in 2009 after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer) and more than 1,000 basketball games in 34 years behind the mic. His association with State is as strong as Bob Harris was with Duke and the late Woody Durham with UNC-Chapel Hill. Harris retired in 2017 and Durham died a year later.
Hahn spoke with WRAL News about where college sports is going, his retirement plans and favorite NC State players he's covered.
You can't get away from change. It's gonna happen, but I think the changes now that are happening in college athletics, I don't know how they're going to come out, but I'm not in favor of quite a few of them, and I'll just leave it at that.
I really liked Torry Holt. He was the first guy there, he was the last one to leave. He was just a great guy – friendly, outgoing – I'd have to say I liked Torry Holt a lot.
Dantonio Burnette, who's the strength coach now, he was sort of the same way. He just told you the way it was and was very friendly and outgoing. I always liked him.
I'm probably leaving some out, because there's been a lot of nice guys who have played football at NC State who were very cooperative, friendly and outgoing and weren't scared of the media. They knew I was there not to kick them in the butt, but to usually give them a positive spin on things. These guys don't try to fail. They don't try to fumble the football. They don't try to throw an interception. They're trying their best. A lot of fans, I think, lose sight of that.
Basketball-wise, Todd Fuller would be one from the mid-90s. The thing about Todd is he was a perfect student. He never got a B. It was absolutely incredible. With the time limits that are put on these guys, he was just brilliant. I admired him a lot.
When I first got here, there was Chris Corchiani and Rodney Monroe. Rodney was a little more reserved. Chris was a little more outgoing but I certainly liked them.
Tom Gugliotta was another basketball player that was sort of reserved, but as I was there longer and he got better, we hit it off really good.
The nicest person I have ever met in college athletics is Mike O'Cain. I just talked to him this morning. He found out that my mom passed away and he gave me a call at the house. That's the kind of person Mike O'Cain is.
I can remember going back from the game and everyone's deadly quiet in the car, no one wants to say anything. My phone's blowing up with all this stuff. I just said 'guys, you can talk. I've made a decision. I'm gonna let Jesus Christ fight my battle for me and whatever the outcome is, that's going to be his will. And I'm cool with that.' I found out the next couple of weeks that 90 percent of people out there love me. Ten percent hate my guts. The 10 percent called me every name in the book and 90 percent love me. That was the biggest thing I learned from that. I never knew how people felt about me. I knew they must have accepted me because I'm still there for, at that point, 33 years. But I never really thought of how they felt about me as a person and how I represented the university and all of that. It turned out that something that most people would think is a terrible, embarrassing moment actually, to me, turned out to be a blessing.
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