Longevity in sports broadcasting is rare. Most careers burn out or get swallowed by network budget cuts. Then you have Dan Hicks.
Walking into Lambeau Field for a Sunday night clash between Notre Dame and Wisconsin, Hicks quietly crosses a massive threshold. It marks his 35th season with NBC Sports. Thirty-five years. Think about how much the media industry has changed since 1992. Shows launched and died. Formats completely flipped. Yet Hicks stayed, adapting through every shift while remaining the steady voice behind some of the most iconic moments in modern sports.
If you only know him from golf Sundays or Olympic swimming, you might miss just how unusual his path to the top really was.
Starting at the Bottom of the Depth Chart
When Hicks arrived at NBC in 1992 after a stint at CNN, he wasn't handed a marquee assignment. He had spent his early career doing studio work. Play-by-play was the ultimate goal, but he had zero professional reps doing it live.
NBC put him at the very bottom of the depth chart. That meant he drew the shortest straw in the office: breaking in every rookie analyst the network signed.
Working with a rotating cast of analysts isn't easy. Personalities clash. Broadcast chemistry takes time. But that trial-by-fire shaped Hicks into one of the most adaptable play-by-play voices in the business. During NBC's old NFL AFC package from 1992 to 1997, he shared booths with legendary football minds like Joe Namath, Joe Gibbs, Jim Kelly, Bob Trumpy, and Cris Collinsworth.
He learned how to listen. He learned when to talk and when to let the crowd breathe. That foundation kept him secure as networks shifted priorities.
The Tiger and Phelps Era Connection
You can't talk about Hicks without talking about the historic athletes he's tracked. He's called 27 tournament victories by Tiger Woods, including three U.S. Opens. He sits in the golf tower year after year, capturing the agonizing pressure of major championships coming down the final nine holes.
Then there is the pool. Alongside analyst Rowdy Gaines, Hicks has anchored NBC's Olympic swimming coverage for decades, calling historic runs including Michael Phelps' eight gold medals in Beijing and Katie Ledecky's dominant medal haul.
Hicks often points out that Phelps changed the economics and visibility of swimming forever. Because of Phelps, swimming transformed from a once-every-four-years curiosity into a year-round conversation. Gaines and Hicks didn't just report on history; they gave it a soundtrack.
The Lambeau Milestone
Now comes year 35. Notre Dame at Lambeau Field under the Sunday night lights.
Hicks spent several years calling Notre Dame games across different stretches (2013–2016, and returning in 2024). But a prime-time slot at the historic frozen tundra of Green Bay hits differently. It is the kind of high-stakes, high-atmosphere environment that reminds even a veteran why he fell in love with sports television in the first place.
As he puts it, you occasionally have to pinch yourself and wonder how you get paid to watch games from the best seat in the house.
Longevity like this doesn't happen by accident. It takes flexibility, deep respect for the craft, and an ability to make everyone around you sound better. When the red light goes on at Lambeau, Hicks will do what he has done for three and a half decades. He will get out of the way and let the game tell its own story.
