A Trojan sophomore back then and a huge baseball fan, Hoard was anxious to know how Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between Kansas City and the New York Yankees was going, so he asked the bus driver to find the broadcast on the radio.

“We’re weaving through these winding roads in the country and the radio station wasn’t coming in very well,” Hoard recalled. “There was a lot of static and the signal was popping in and out, so I basically pressed my ear to the bus speaker and then relayed the play-by-play to my Southwestern High School teammates.”

Nearly a half-century later, the Jamestown native has traded his broadcast location from the back of a school bus for one at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the site of Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13. The voice of the Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network since 2011, Hoard has covered five Super Bowls during his career, but never in a play-by-play role.

“Every time I’ve been at one, I just pinch myself how lucky am I to have gotten into this profession with the hope of attending games like this, but so much has to fall in your favor for that to happen,” he said. “Now, I’m actually getting to broadcast one.”

Dan Hoard

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Hoard, who also does play-by-play for the University of Cincinnati football and men’s basketball teams, has been named Ohio Sportscaster of the Year four times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

His professional resume proves that his decision to make broadcasting his career choice was a wise one. Upon graduating from Syracuse University in 1985, Hoard became the radio voice of the Syracuse Chiefs baseball team of the International League, before transitioning into television as the sports director at WTVH-TV in Syracuse. Upon moving to WXIX-TV in Cincinnati in 1994, Hoard added University of Cincinnati football and basketball radio play-by-play duties and, later, began hosting the Cincinnati Reds TV pregame show on Fox Sports Ohio. In 2006, Hoard returned to baseball play-by-play, broadcasting as the TV/radio voice of the Pawtucket Red Sox. In 2011, he moved back to Cincinnati when he was hired to replace Brad Johansen as the radio voice of the Bengals.

But Hoard admits that there is nothing that compares to calling a Super Bowl.

“It’s just mind-boggling,” he said. “The last two mornings I’ve gotten up, and the first words I’ve said to my wife have simply been, ‘The Bengals are going to the Super Bowl,’ with this tone of disbelief in my voice, because it really is unbelievable.”

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It has been quite a journey for the Joe Burrow-led Bengals, who were the NFL’s worst team only two years ago, but rallied in the second half of last Sunday’s AFC Championship game to shock Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium, courtesy of Evan McPherson’s field goal in overtime.

“It was an amazing game,” Hoard said, “but it was almost identical to the one the two teams played four weeks earlier … at Paul Brown Stadium. The one big difference being in that first game the Bengals controlled the ball on offense in the second half, so the Chiefs only had three drives, which helped explain why they only scored three points.

“In the most recent game, the Chiefs had the ball seven times in the second half and they didn’t score a touchdown. Who does that against Kansas City? … It was just an incredible job by the Bengals’ defense. I’m a little bit annoyed by the national coverage I’ve seen since that game, which seems to just be piling on the mistakes the Chiefs made, as if the Bengals had nothing to do with it. Maybe that’s the ‘homer’ in me coming out, I don’t know. In any case, it was just an incredible performance, and they’re very deserving of their trip to the Super Bowl.”

Hoard’s description of McPherson’s game-winning boot was pretty impressive, too.

“In terms of the entire call, it’s mostly spontaneous,” he said. “In this particular game, I mentioned the fact that Evan McPherson was basically just out of high school four years ago, because it’s just been so striking to me the last few weeks just how incredible he is. He looks like he’s 12 years old and he keeps coming through in these pressure situations. I was looking for a way to emphasize that. … My kid (Sam) is a 10th-grader. It would be like him six years from now sending a team to the Super Bowl. It’s just incredible to me. That’s why I included it.”

Since Cincinnati’s victory, Hoard’s phone has been figuratively blowing up.

“What’s the modern measurement?” he asked rhetorically. “It’s how many text messages you get, right? That seems to be the modern gauge. It’s somewhere in the hundreds. So far I haven’t been able to get back to everybody, but I will. People are kind. It’s amazing how many people reach out after something like that. It’s a good reminder to always send a text when a friend or family has something special, because it’s very meaningful. I appreciate everybody that has taken the time to do that.”

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Tom Priester, Hoard’s high school cross country coach, was volunteering at the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame in Jamestown earlier this week when he was asked about his former runner. Without missing a beat, Priester recalled Hoard’s play-by-play from the back of the school bus 44 years ago.

“That’s how we knew he was going to go big,” said Priester, a 2014 CSHOF inductee, “because he was bound and determined to reach the big time.”

It won’t get any bigger than at 6:30 p.m. a week from Sunday.

“And,” the 2016 CSHOF inductee emphasized, “it’s not even close.”