By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com

At 5 p.m. this Saturday, before more than 70,000 fans at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and another 25 million watching the CBS telecast, Fighting Illini fans will be hearing a familiar voice announcing the starting lineups for Auburn, Virginia, Texas Tech and Michigan State at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.

For the 17th consecutive year, former University of Illinois student and current Illini football public address announcer Gene Honda will be behind the microphone at college basketball's premier event.

Growing up in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood on the north side, Honda's Japanese parents, Ben and Toshiko, always emphasized the value of an education to their son and his sister, Janice, an eventual Northwestern University graduate. His father was the chief architect for Bertrand Goldberg, best known for designing the Marina City complex in Chicago.

Upon his graduation from Senn High School, Gene began as an engineering major at the U of I in 1972, but switched to real estate finance after his first year. With only a few semesters remaining, Honda knew deep inside that he hadn't yet discovered the niche for which he would become truly passionate.

"It was 1975 and I was in summer school," Honda explained. "WPGU had placed a small ad in the Daily Illini that said 'Are you interested in becoming a DJ?' Well, my father had always suggested that if I ever got a chance to enhance my ability to speak in public, I should do it. Secondly, it was a way to meet girls."

Says the 65-year-old bachelor today, "I'm still batting .500."

He fondly remembers those early days of his broadcasting career.

"Back then, WPGU was actually two stations," he said. "The FM station still exists today, but they also had a carrier current station. It was about 10 watts and could be heard through the dormitory system. That was WPGU's training ground. It was called DBS—the Dormitory Broadcast System. On page one, paragraph two of the station's hand book, it says 'Welcome. People think you need a deep masculine voice or a soft feminine voice to succeed on the air. This is not true. All you need is to be is conversational.' That's still great advice and it's something I fall back on as a fundamental."

Honda sporting Illini gear as the voice of the Chicago White Sox (left) and as a staff announcer for the University of Illinois's WPGU Radio in 1975 (right).

So it was there in the basement of UI's Weston Hall where Honda began his long and winding "Road to the Final Four".

In 1978, then just three credits shy of securing his degree, Honda was hired at Champaign's WKIO Radio by Mike Haile (now the General Manager at WDWS Radio). Honda stayed for five-and-a-half years, but finally came to the conclusion that 'Fun's over, time to get a real job.'"

He packed up his belongings and returned to his hometown for a position that marketed cable stations, including Bravo, The Playboy Channel and SportsVision.

"I had given up the thought of being on the air," Honda said. "One night, I was listening to a radio station in Chicago and heard a familiar voice. Even though he was using a different name, I knew the voice from working with him at K104. So, I called Bruce (Testory) up and said let's go to dinner. Instead, he said to me, 'You get your rear in here. We're looking for a weekend announcer and you'd be perfect.'"

"After a couple of weeks I thought, how many chances am I going to get to be on the air in a major market? So I went in and made a tape. Two weeks later, I got a call and started doing weekends at WLAK."

Honda was on the air in February of 1985, reading the Chicago Sun-Times in between songs.

"There was a small article saying that the White Sox had lost the services of their public address announcer," he said. "I decided to apply. Well, a funny thing happened … I got the job."

Honda eventually also became the P.A. announcer for DePaul basketball, linking him to athletic media relations director Scott Reed and his next big break.

"A couple of years later," Honda continued, "Scott says to me 'I'm getting married. Would you come to Iowa and introduce our bridal party?' I don't like doing those kinds of things, but it was Scott, so I did it. Well, I did my duty and a gentleman named Mark Bedics approached me at the bar during the reception. He said, 'I've heard you do DePaul games; you do a nice job. Would you be interested in doing the Final Four?' My first thought was 'How many have you had?!?' In November of 2002, I got a letter from the NCAA, inviting me to do the 2003 games in New Orleans."

During that first Final Four and his very first semifinal game, Honda was sitting at mid court of the Superdome and thinking, 'What did I get myself into?'

"Well, my father was still alive and I'd gotten him and my sister tickets," he said. "I looked over and dad had a smile on his face. And I was thinking, 'I guess I'm supposed to be here. Now, it's time to do my job.'"

Honda has picked up a wide variety of other gigs along the way. Besides serving as the P.A. announcer for White Sox games (since 1985) and DePaul hoops (since 1999), he's held similar duties for the Chicago Marathon (since 1997), the Chicago Blackhawks (since 2001), Major League Baseball's All-Star Game (2003), the World Series (2005), the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament (since 2007), the Maui Invitational (since 2009), Illini football (since 2014) and the American Flag Football League (since 2018).

Honda also has worked for Chicago's WTTW-TV since 1993 and has hosted numerous Public Broadcasting Service pledge drives, providing him with worldwide visibility and leading to bit roles in a couple of movies.

Decades later, he knows that none of his life's journey would have ever happened had it not been for the University of Illinois.

"It's why I'm doing what I'm doing now," Honda said. "The University was able to provide me with all sorts of wonderful options and different experiences that I would not have been able to get anywhere else. This sounds terrible, but since I never did actually get a degree from the University of Illinois, I tell people that my undergraduate came from WPGU and my graduate degree came from WKIO and 'Professor' Mike Haile. But none of that happens without my time at the University. I'm very grateful."