KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For more than 25 years, Bob Kesling has called Tennessee football and basketball games as the “Voice of the Vols.” On Thursday, Kesling made an important announcement about his career: It’s time.
The Voice of the Vols will be someone else next football season as Kesling prepares to move on to something new after the basketball season.
“I still love the games. I still love game day. I still love being around the players. I still love being around the coaches, but this past summer I just sat there. How much longer do I really want to do this?” he said. “If I can’t do that, then it’s probably time to move on and do something else.”
Kesling has four grandkids with another on the way. He wants to start spending more time with them. He said all the time he didn’t get to spend with his family was a big driving force for his decision.
“I thought back of all the stuff I missed when my two girls, Allison and Melissa, were growing up and I just thought, you know, it's time for me to quit missing everything and be a grandfather,” he said.
Kesling is a Vol For Life. Before he donned the orange tie, he donned UT Orange football gear as a fullback in 1972.
He inherited the title of “Voice of the Vols” from the legendary John Ward not long after the 1998 national championship season. At the time, he had more than two decades of broadcast experience in Knoxville as the play-by-play announcer for the Lady Vols and as the sports director at WIVK and WBIR Channel 10.
After nearly 20 years at Channel 10, he got a call out of the blue in 1999 that changed his life.
“John Ward announces before the start of the ‘98 season, he's retiring and it stunned everybody a little bit because John was still at the top of his game,” he said. “And then John did his final game in the NCAA tournament on a Saturday and they got beat. Doug Dickey called me at 7:30 Monday morning and said, ‘Can you be in my office at nine o'clock?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I don't know whether he's gonna talk to me about the job who he should hire or talk to me about if I was interested. But when Doug Dickey called you, you responded and went.”
Coach Dickey offered Kesling the job.
“I went back on Friday and he had an offer in an envelope, but I didn't even look at it. I was really afraid to open it,” he said. “I had a lawyer in town kind of help me negotiate some of the contract and I'll never forget. He opened the envelope from Coach Dickey and he said, ‘What did you ask for?’”
Kesling was offered everything he had asked for, but it wasn’t an easy decision for him. He was attached to his coworkers and career at WBIR and had doubts about following in Ward’s footsteps, but it was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.
“So then they brought me up and told the whole newsroom, and that was really emotional because this was my home for 18 years… all my friends. Now I gotta go replace this legend and I don't know what I'm doing again,” he said. “They're not hiring John Ward the Second. They're hiring Bob Kesling. You, you're trained, you've done this your whole life. Just go do it the way you think it ought to be done.”
In his nearly 26 years as the Voice of the Vols, Kesling has been there to call some of the best and worst times for the Vols. Through it all, he could always count on the fans and listeners.
“I just want to thank everybody. Lindsey Nelson told me once that you need to take a job with passion and it's not necessarily your passion, it's the passion of the people that are listening. Because if you're doing games and nobody's listening, trust me, it's no fun,” he said. “I always know that the passion of the Tennessee fans is there.”
Kesling is hoping to end his broadcast career with the Vols on a high note just like Ward did with the ’98 championship season.
“I told Coach Heupel this the other day, ‘You know, John went out with the national championship. That's the least you can do for me.’ And he said, ‘OK, big boy, we'll get after it,’” Kesling joked. “I've never done a Final Four with Tennessee, so I'd like to see Coach Barnes get a chance to go to the Final Four. So that would be two goals I would have this year… just to go out on such a high note.”
Kesling has some advice for the next person chosen to be the Voice of the Vols: Be yourself.
“There'll be plenty of guys that will want this job. It's one of the best, if not the best play-by-play job in the country. There'll be lots of great candidates for it and they'll find a great replacement, and I'm fully confident in that,” he said.
And much like his predecessor John Ward, the “Voice of the Vols” said he has no regrets about his decision to leave because he was able to do what he loved.
“It's been a blessing and I knew it was gonna be a big job and a big responsibility. But it has been just a labor of love and it's just been really special for 26 years. I wouldn't trade it for anything.”
You can watch more of our interview with Kesling below:
After the announcement Thursday, UT Athletics Director Danny White congratulated Kesling on his career.
"Bob has truly given his all for Tennessee!" he said. "“He embodies the true spirit of someone who has given his all for Tennessee. As an icon in the broadcasting industry, we are deeply appreciative of the professionalism he brings to Tennessee Athletics each time he takes the microphone. His contributions resonate with all of us here on Rocky Top and we cannot thank him enough for everything he has done.”
Kesling was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Murfreesboro in July.
“Bob Kesling has been the soundtrack to the memories of generations of Vols fans,” UT Chancellor Donde Plowman said. “From his calls of Pat Summitt’s six national championships to the 2022 football win over Alabama, he has cemented his place in Tennessee Athletics history. His professionalism, dedication, and love for Tennessee is unmatched and we are grateful that he chose to share his talents with all of us for the last three-plus decades.”