As a child, walking into the old Robertson Fieldhouse with his late father for a Bradley Braves basketball game, Dave Snell ‘76 needed only one game to fall in love with a university, basketball team and city that to this day he calls home.
“I’m just like any fan growing up a Bradley Braves fan,” Snell said. “The moment I walked in [to the Robertson Fieldhouse] and I saw the big scoreboard along with the atmosphere of the whole building, I was hooked.”
The Pekin native has been at the helm as the radio voice of the Bradley men’s basketball team for 35 years. Starting in 2010, he was named assistant director of Athletic Communications, making him an official part of the Bradley athletic community.
Snell has been around to hear some of the great voices of sports, including some he personally had the honor of working with and whom today he calls his role models. However, he said most of them have died.
“Most of the people I look up to as broadcasters are gone,” Snell said. “Harry Caray when he was doing play-by-play for the Cardinals, former Bradley play-by-play man and mentor Mort Cantor, Jack Buck and Chick Hearn all exemplified characteristics that I try to embody on a daily basis as a broadcaster.”
As he remains the play-by-play man for the Braves, in the back of his mind, Snell said he realizes at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what type of game it is. He said he needs to be the best at what he does for people who can’t see the game.
“I learned from all of these great broadcasters humility, excitement, preparation and always do the play-by-play like it is going to be the last game that you are going to call,” Snell said. “Whether it is a consolation game against Hawaii at noon or playing Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, the preparation needs to be the exact same because you owe that to the people listening.”
Even as he finishes another year on the Hilltop, Snell said he realized even though there have been many changes in the department, there are also some things that just never change.
“The challenges of being a private school have been tough,” Snell said. “With that it means that some of the sports here are not fully funded and that causes us [the athletic department] to have a lot of limitations that the state schools don’t have.”
Snell said soccer coach Jim DeRose’s success is amazing given those limitations.
“Most state schools hand out scholarships for sports like golf, soccer and tennis,” he said. “That is why it is so amazing what [soccer coach] Jim DeRose has done to compete on the national stage when you are not fully funded.”
The things that don’t change in the athletic department and the university, Snell said, are the reasons why he still comes to work every day.
“Family is what has stayed consistent,” Snell said. “Because of the size of the campus, it has given me the ability to bond with not just people in the athletic department, but people from all over the university.”
One thing that has been a large change for Snell has been the recent naming of Bradley’s first mascot since 2000, Kaboom!, which was named after his dunk catchphrase.
“I thought the gargoyle was a very unique idea,” Snell said. “I’m the type of person that wants to just do their job and do it very well. I’m very honored and humbled by the name but I wondered how I would handle the name because I don’t seek notoriety for what I do.”
Snell said he was at first taken aback by the naming of something he just does as a part of his job, but now he said he realizes that the new mascot gave him a chance to tell a story that very few students know.
“I didn’t know how the people would react and handle the name of the mascot,” Snell said. “If you didn’t know me or the story behind the name, it may be confusing. But I told myself that this could be an opportunity to tell the story to more people. It’s grown on me, and I’ve accepted it.”
As Snell has racked up more than 900 consecutive games as the play-by-play man for the basketball team, he said that although the current squad has seen some recent down moments, the team will turn it around soon.
“I think there have been some strides that have been made that don’t necessarily show up in wins and losses that have happened already,” Snell said. “Our team needed to get tougher, we needed good chemistry, high basketball IQs and smart student athletes because we don’t take idiots at Bradley. So, all of these strides have been in motion and now we need to capitalize on them.”
If anyone on the Bradley campus or in the Peoria community was worried that Snell is going anywhere any time soon, don’t. He hopes to be wearing the headset and calling Bradley men’s basketball games until someone tells him he can’t do it anymore.
For this local legend in Central Illinois, he said the small city life is all that anyone could ask for.
