A new voice will be heard throughout Notre Dame Stadium this season.
The university announced the hiring of Chris Ackels as the stadium's new public address announcer on Tuesday. Ackels, a St. Louis University alum, has served as the in-stadium host and emcee for the Chicago White Sox for the last five years. He replaces 39-year Notre Dame Stadium public address announcing veteran Mike Collins, the 76-year-old Irish graduate who retired at the end of the 2020 season.
Ackels has worked with the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks as well as Northwestern University, DePaul University, Southern Methodist University and his alma mater. He has also done public address announcing for Big East, Big Ten and Atlantic 10 championship events.
Ackels got his start announcing games for his high school, Dallas Jesuit College Prep. In a way, what he did there several years ago helped set the table for going after the job he has landed with Notre Dame.
"I always had this dream of doing this," Ackels said in an interview with Fighting Irish Media. "I think where I’m seeing God a lot in this is I’ve also always loved Notre Dame, and I think anyone who grows up Catholic, especially Catholics in the Midwest, love Notre Dame. We have Irish in the family, and we’ve all got that one uncle, and I do too, who is a Notre Dame grad and talks about it every chance he gets. I’ve been rooting for them since I can remember."
Ackels said one of his role models in the sportscasting industry is former Notre Dame on NBC announcer Tom Hammond. He also had a close friend from high school, Nick Taush, play on the Notre Dame football team as a kicker.
From his ties to the university to his overall excitement at the idea of holding such a prestigious position, Ackels cannot wait for the first time he addresses thousands of fans at Notre Dame Stadium.
"I’ve announced at three different professional sports teams, four different colleges, but this is different," Ackels said. "This is a place that really, really means something to me and really means something to a lot of people."
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