Five questions with new Notre Dame Stadium public address announcer
As an avid sports fan, a gifted public address announcer and now the voice of Fighting Irish football inside of Notre Dame Stadium, Chris Ackels admits that he needs to pinch himself to be certain all of this is not a dream.
In addition to adding his new gig, the 30-year-old Ackels already holds a similar role at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago for MLB’s White Sox.
Ackels, a Chicago resident, will make his Notre Dame debut Sept. 11, for the Irish football home opener against Toledo. His tall task is to adequately replace legendary public address announcer, Mike Collins, who retired following the 2020 season after 39 years on the job.
A Dallas native who attended St. Louis University as an undergraduate and earned a Master’s from DePaul, he has previously served as an announcer at NCAA events for Northwestern, DePaul, Southern Methodist and St. Louis along with the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks in the professional ranks. In addition, Ackels has worked multiple NCAA conference championships and tournaments, including for the Big East, Big Ten and Atlantic 10 to name a few.
BGI: How did the opportunity at Notre Dame come about?
Ackels: “I did not know that this position was open until a friend of mine at the White Sox recommended me to Notre Dame. I got a call out to the blue from a South Bend number and that began kind of a three- or four-month process in which Notre Dame undoubtedly had dozens of great candidates.
“It was a really great process, really well organized with a lot of great people. Somehow, someway the roulette wheel landed on me.”
BGI: Mike Collins became a PA legend at the stadium, are you up to the challenge?
Ackels: “You talk about big shoes to fill. I’m a fool if I think I can just step right into those shoes and just be that guy on day one. I’ve got to figure out a way to honor that legacy and also step into my own shoes and find a way to continue that legacy.”
BGI: What is your greatest challenge while working a game?
Ackels: “I know I am the person you see and hear, but there are 20 people doing an unbelievable job behind the scenes, a lot of which I would have no idea how to do. Call it a challenge or call it just teamwork, but to do this job well it takes a lot of good people doing a good job and none of those things are easy, all of those require some specialized skill.
“Is it a challenge? Yes, but what makes it a lot of fun is when you’re on a good team.”
BGI: Would you expand on the necessary behind-the-scenes help?
Ackels: “If you go to a game and you walk out of that stadium hearing, ‘Man, Chris did a really good job, he’s a good PA guy,’ what that means is that about 15 or 20 people all did a really good job with different responsibilities.
“That’s going to include my two spotters who I’m going to have up there helping me. That’s going to include all of the audio technicians and all of the video techs because a lot of things we do now are coordinated with video.”
BGI: How excited are you about this opportunity?
Ackels: “This is Notre Dame football, and there’s centuries worth of legacy, and of families who have come here through generations, and all of the memories that are going to be created between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, grandparents and their grandchildren.
“When the team is doing well and you’re part of that with 80,000 people, that’s what I’m most excited for.”
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