Merrill Reese, KLN ’64, the play-by-play radio voice of the Philadelphia Eagles, is only days away from being immortalized forever when he is enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during this year’s induction ceremonies in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 3.  

He was recently awarded the 2024 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, bestowed annually by the Pro Football Hall of Fame to a member in the broadcast profession in recognition of their “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” 

Typically, the award has been given to national broadcasters, top executives and pioneers in the sports media industry. Yet Reese defied the odds, becoming one the few local radio broadcasters to receive the award.  

“I absolutely never thought the Pro Football Hall of Fame could be something I was ever going to be involved with,” he said. “When they called me, I was shocked to tears of joy. It’s the single greatest honor I’ve ever achieved.” 

Philadelphia’s passionate fan base and even Eagles players like Lane Johnson have often impersonated his broadcasting style, which he has perfected while calling every Eagles play over the last 47 years. To Reese’s amusement, he remembered calling in to participate in a Merrill Reese sound-alike contest on SportsRadio 94WIP’s morning show with former host Angelo Cataldi.  

“I called in saying, ‘This is Joe from Drexel Hill and I'd like to enter the contest,’” recalled Reese, who finished the contest in fourth place. “I did my play-by-play as I had done it a thousand times. I didn’t win. I couldn’t believe it.” 

“I never tried to develop a style, for I try to be myself, sharing my excitement of the game and love of football,” he added. “I always try to be as prepared, fundamentally sound and as comprehensive as possible for the best fans in the world.” 

Reese’s preparation is unmatched  

He is the longest-tenured announcer in the NFL, calling Eagles games since 1977. His game-prepping process remains unmatched. He carefully studies the plays and memorizes the numbers of each player. He gathers information from around the league and speaks with contacts he has acquired from the opposing team’s cities. His wife, Cindy, even uses flashcards to quiz him throughout the week.  

On game day, Reese starts every morning by sitting in a chair in a quiet room. He envisions a play and feels a sense of control and calmness through practicing psycho-cybernetics, which focuses on the mind-body connection of imagining and succeeding in a goal. His pregame meal is the same every time, a stack of pancakes that Cindy makes to hold him over until the end of each home game. For road games he still orders pancakes at the team’s hotel.  

“For my approach to calling football games, I call it the STDD—score, time, down and distance,” he said. “You can make all the exciting calls, but if the audience is not aware of these things at all times you are not doing your job.” 

Due to his photographic memory, he never forgets a game or date. When asked about his favorite Eagles’ Miracle at the Meadowlands, he quickly said the one on Dec. 19, 2010, before preceding to do a play-by-play of every Eagles’ touchdown from their stunning come-from-behind win against the New York Giants.

“On the air during halftime, I said, ‘The score is the Giants 23 and the Eagles are still at the hotel,’” he recalled. “Even though I love the Eagles I pride myself in not being a homer. I have too much respect for the fans, and I give them the honest picture because they know a lot and want to know the truth.” 

Enrolling at Temple and navigating the radio broadcasting industry 

Reese’s love for the Eagles started in his youth and he would listen to games from a large console radio in his family’s living room. He enjoyed various broadcasters but was most influenced listening to Bill Campbell, a legendary Philadelphia sportscaster who notably called the action on the Eagles’ NFL championship season in 1960. In Reese’s high school yearbook, he stated his ambition was to be a play-by-play broadcaster. He enrolled at Temple University to major in broadcast communications.  

“The goal was always to be a play-by-play broadcaster,” said Reese, a native of Overbrook Park, Philadelphia, and graduate of Overbrook High School. “There were few colleges in America that had communication majors. Temple was one of the pioneers in having broadcast communication courses, so it was a natural fit for me.” 

By his second year at Temple, he was named sports director of WRTI, and for the next three years, he did play-by-play broadcasting for Temple’s football, basketball and baseball teams. WRTI had a broadcast line at the Palestra where all Philadelphia Big 5 basketball games were played, so he would cover at least five college basketball games a week.  

“Temple had very good professors and one of the great things about going there at that time was the hands-on experience, which prepared me for the position I am in today,” said Reese.  

Following a stint as a public affairs officer in the U.S. Navy, he auditioned at radio stations throughout southeastern Pennsylvania but struggled to land a job for a year. Every six months, he had doubts that he would make his broadcasting dream a reality. There were days when he would say, “This is not going to happen,” before ultimately picking himself up and continuing to look.  

He finally landed a radio job in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, at WPAZ, where he did everything from hosting a talk show and disc jockey show to reading obituaries with the sounds of organ music playing and even did commentary for Little League Baseball in the summer. 

He transitioned to doing radio news reports at WBCB in Levittown before landing at WWDB in Philadelphia. Despite WWDB not being a sports radio station, Reese was determined to bring sports to the platform. He pleaded with the station to do five minutes of sports between 6–9 a.m. for free. Afterward, he would give tennis lessons for a couple of hours, earning $7/half-hour before working a news shift at WWDB from noon to 8 p.m.  

“This is such a difficult business where you don’t say I want to do football or I want to do basketball. You just work to try to find an opportunity to do something,” said Reese. “The fact that I ended up doing Eagles football was the break of all breaks.”  

Eagles football, the break of all breaks 

While working at WWDB in the early 1970s, Reese received a phone call from Al Shrier, former sports information director at Temple, who said that WIP radio was looking for someone to do summer replacement work for Charlie Swift, the station’s former sports director and voice of the Eagles. Reese was selected from several dozens of applicants who auditioned.  

“On my first morning at WIP, it was 6:05 and I was scared to death. I did five minutes of sports before reading a card that said, ‘It’s ten past six, time for the start of the Ken Garland show,’” Reese said. 

“Ken Garland comes on the air and the first thing he said was, ‘Wow if I were Charlie Swift, I would hurry home from vacation.’”    

Before Reese left the building on his first day at WIP, they signed him to do the pregame and postgame Eagles shows, along with a show that featured Ed Khayat, former Eagles head coach.

Reese was later promoted to color commentator, working alongside Swift during games. His life would change forever after he received some devastating news in 1977. Swift died before the Eagles’ week 13 game. Reese was asked to serve as the play-by-play voice of the Eagles for the last two games of the season. Since he was only filling in temporarily, Reese had many conflicting dreams about whether he would win the job on a permanent basis.  

“I had dreams of them either telling me I had the job, or they decided to go in a different direction,” he said. In the spring of March 1978, he received a call from WIP that they hired him as the new official play-by-play voice of the Eagles. Reese has never looked back and has no plans to retire. 

“I will never willingly retire,” Reese said. “They will have to remove me with a crane because I love doing this more than anything else.”