The following story is from the Spring 2026 edition of the "Roar Report" that came out March 24. It is authored by Gary D'Amato, the former longtime sportswriter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who joined the staff as the feature writer for the Roar Report in the Fall of 2018.

The Gold Standard: Adding "Black & Gold" to the "Green & Gold"
 
Wayne Larrivee has, at various times throughout a distinguished and well-traveled career, called games on radio or TV for the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, Big Ten football and basketball and, of course, the Green Bay Packers.
 
He's worked with Bob Costas. He helped Kevin Harlan get his first job. He's called Super Bowls and NCAA Tournament games. And — true story — he once called a high school basketball game with none other than Michael Jordan.
 
If Larrivee works two more years as the radio play-by play voice of Packers, it will mark his 50th year in the NFL. If he does three more years, it will mark 30 years with the Packers. He and Larry McCarren already are the team's longest-tenured radio team.
 
Oh, and yes, since 2017 he has done television play-by-play for the Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball team. This past season, he did seven games on ESPN+ as part of the Horizon League's media package.
 
The Packers and the Panthers? It would seem, on the surface, to be an odd pairing, but it's an arrangement that works on many levels for Larrivee. He calls only home games at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, an easy commute from his home in Grafton. The work allows him to keep busy in the Packers' offseason, but it's not the what-town-am-I-in-today kind of schedule he once kept.
 
But the biggest reason? At 70, Larrivee still enjoys the challenge, the preparation, the on-air execution, the rush. It's still fun.
 
"This job with Milwaukee, I really enjoy it," he said. "For me, it's great because it doesn't involve a lot of time and travel. I can do a game and I'm home by 9:30, in time for the 10 o'clock news.
 
"The other thing is, the people are good to work with. On the pro level and the upper divisions of college sports, sometimes it's not as easy to talk to people, coaches especially. Sometimes PR people are hit or miss. Around here, people respond, they take your call, they get back to you. There are a lot of good people at this school."
 
The story of how Larrivee came to call Milwaukee games is serendipitous. In the spring of 2017, he was leaving the WTMJ Radio studio — TMJ had the Packers back then — when he doubled back to talk to Scott Warras, then a producer for the station.
 
"He goes, 'Hey, Scott, who do they have doing the TV for Panther games?'" said Warras, who had just finished his first season as the team's radio voice. "At the time it was a transitional period. I said, 'I'm not sure what the plans are for next season but I would be happy to connect you with the people who make those decisions.'"
 
Warras introduced Larrivee to Chris Zills, Milwaukee's associate athletic director, who then connected Larrivee with Amanda Braun, the director of athletics. And the rest is history.
 
Needless to say, Milwaukee is thrilled to be associated with Larrivee, who brings credibility, professional polish and a familiar voice to the (courtside) table.
 
"From the very beginning, we knew we were adding one of the most respected and recognizable voices in the state — as well as across the country — but what has stood out even more is the genuine care and enthusiasm he brings to telling our student-athletes' stories," Braun said. "Wayne elevates our broadcasts, strengthens our brand across the state and helps create countless memorable moments for Panther fans.
 
"We are incredibly grateful for the impact he has had on our program and the professionalism he has brought to our partnership."
 
Said Warras, who just finished his 10th season calling Panthers games on radio: "To have Wayne Larrivee tied to Panthers athletics every season is such a blessing. I'm so happy for the program and the athletic department, and it's a personal privilege to call him a friend of Panther athletics and a colleague in the industry."
 
Larrivee has built strong relationships at Milwaukee. He calls Braun "one of the standouts in her field. She does a great job. I think she has a great eye for coaching talent." Of Panthers head basketball coach Bart Lundy, he says, "Three straight years with 20 wins at this level, different rosters every year … he's a heck of a coach. And I think the program has a lot of potential."
 
Larrivee's resume is as impressive as it is long. A Massachusetts native and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, he has called thousands of basketball and football games at every level.
 
He took a semester off before his senior year at Emerson to call high school football games for KGRO Radio in Pampa, Texas, a town of 24,000 northeast of Amarillo. He missed the phone call offering him the job because he was at a PGA Tour event, running coffee to Chris Schenkel as a gopher for ABC Sports.
 
"My father took the message and wrote 'Tampa,'" Larrivee said with a laugh. "I thought, 'Wow, that's a big market.' He got it wrong. It was a 'P,' not a 'T.'
 
After college, he took a job with KSTT Radio in Davenport, Iowa, where he called University of Iowa football games and Quad Cities Angels minor-league baseball games. KCMO Radio then hired him to do play-by-play for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was just 23 years old. Later, he helped convince KCMO to hire Harlan, who went on to call more than 500 NFL games on network TV.
 
"We had a great media group in Kansas City," Larrivee said. "We played touch football on Thursday afternoons in the fall. One of the guys who played with us was a sales guy for the Royals: Rush Limbaugh. He was a huge Steelers fan. He would show up in his black and gold No. 75 'Mean' Joe Green jersey."
 
In 1985, Larrivee was hired to be the radio voice for the Chicago Bears. He held that position until the end of the 1998 NFL season, and took over as the voice of the Packers the following year. He was the television play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Bulls on WGN-TV for 17 seasons. He worked Big Ten football and basketball games for nearly 25 years and still picks up an occasional Big Ten basketball game for Compass Media Networks when it fits in his schedule.
 
That one-game partnership with Jordan? It happened when the Tribune Co. hired Larrivee to do the television play-by-play and Jordan the analysis for the championship game of the Tribune-sponsored Chicago City High School Tournament.
 
"To my knowledge, it was the only time Michael has been an analyst on a basketball game," Larrivee said. "This was around 1988. He was already a megastar, but I didn't know him. I wasn't doing Bulls at the time. We had our production meeting in a latrine in the UIC Pavilion. It was me, my son Scott, who was nine or 10 at the time, and Jordan. He was sitting on a toilet seat, eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.
 
"Three or four years later, I'm doing the Bulls, so we had a natural relationship. He was great to me. He was very gracious."
 
Larrivee recalled working a Bulls game in Chicago and NCAA Tournament games in Tampa — with a "T" — on the same weekend. He called Friday night NCAA action, flew commercially to Chicago on Saturday morning and called the Bulls game that night. The network chartered a plane for him Sunday morning and he got back to Tampa in time for the NCAA games that afternoon.
 
Dizzy yet?
 
"I don't know mentally if I could handle it anymore, especially when football crosses over with basketball," Larrivee said. "I would have a Bulls game in Los Angeles on a Friday night. The next afternoon I had to be in Champaign (Illinois) for a Big Ten football game. I would get out of the Lakers game, get on the redeye, get to O'Hare, drive down to Champaign, do that game and then the next day pick up the Bears or Packers, whoever I was doing at the time. That was just crazy."
 
He has slowed down some, but he still runs circles around people half his age. How long can he keep it up?
 
"I don't know," he said. "People think I'm going to do this stuff for 15 more years. I don't think so. And I don't think it will be my decision, either. In this business you never know. … I go back and look at the games that I do, and if I don't like the way it sounds, that bothers me. I'm not going to hang on just to hit a number."
 
Milwaukee basketball fans should enjoy the ride, for however long it lasts.
 
ORIGIN OF 'THE DAGGER'
 
Wayne Larrivee breaks out his signature call — "And there is your dagger!" — when a late-game score or a defensive stop assures victory for the Packers. He has even used it, on occasion, during wins for the Panthers over the years.
 
After all, the call has its origins in basketball.
 
"That's where it came from," he said. "When the Bulls would be in a tight game, leading by three, and Michael (Jordan) would come down and hit a three-pointer — now there's 10 seconds left and they're up by six — there's your dagger."
 
The call made its way into football almost by accident. In October 2001, the night after he called a Bulls game, Larrivee called a Packers game against the Baltimore Ravens, who were the defending Super Bowl champions.
 
A touchdown pass from Brett Favre to tight end Bubba Franks with 7:03 left in the game put Green Bay ahead, 31-10, in a game the Packers would win, 31-23.
 
"I said, 'And there is your dagger,' because that touchdown put the Packers up by three scores," Larrivee said. "I knew there was no way Baltimore was going to score three touchdowns in the last (seven) minutes. I just kind of blurted it out.
 
"The next week I didn't say it and people were saying, 'What play was the dagger?' It took on a life of its own and really, I never intended that."