Sideline Stories: Jeff Mannix, The Big JAB, Broadcaster

From my early childhood in Presque Isle, I think just about everyone around me knew I was destined to go into the family business. When I wasn’t organizing my adult family members for “game shows,” I was probably running around a living room or backyard pretending to broadcast about any sporting event I could think of. Hockey quickly became my favorite sport and I was fortunate when my mom decided in 1992 to get a new degree from the University of Maine and we moved to Bangor. During that school year, I got to see the greatest college hockey team ever assembled up close regularly.

It was then that my desire to be a sportscaster was truly cemented. I would follow in the footsteps of my grandfather, Harold Glidden, who called high school basketball on the radio in Aroostook County for 30 years and opened WAGM-TV, which still operates today.

As soon as I became a student at Maine myself, I immediately jumped into the sports department at student radio station, WMEB-FM. I was calling Black Bears hockey games, both men’s and women’s, in my first semester. I also learned how to broadcast baseball and football, while honing my basketball call. Hoops was the first sport I got to broadcast as part of the Video Club at the former Garland Street Middle School in Bangor.

I am incredibly fortunate to have broadcast every level of hockey professionally in my home state at a relatively young age. Ranging from high school, to the Black Bears, Lewiston MAINEiacs, and Portland Pirates, I have gotten to call games from two Frozen Fours, a Memorial Cup, and the final five seasons of the Pirates.

Since the Pirates left town, I’ve broadened my range as a broadcaster more than I ever imagined. Though it was incredibly difficult at the time, my impact on the Maine sports community became clearer to me over those next few months. During that time, I became the host of my own radio show (which I now co-host with my brother, Taylor). Offers to broadcast small college and high schools sports started rolling in from multiple outlets. I’ve met some of my favorite people in the world by doing so, and those events and people helped me through a very difficult time in my own career and life.

This past year of disruption has made me especially grateful to be able to do what I do. I love telling stories and lifting up the great athletes, coaches, and others in athletics from Maine. Our sports landscape is diverse and underrated. It is because of the love I have for sports and for Maine that I do what I do.

I have always been inspired by our state motto: “Dirigo.” Translated from Latin, it means “I lead.” I apply it in my own life, but also try to live that self-chosen credo through my work. If we take pride in who we are in everything we do, there is nothing we can’t achieve as a state. No matter where my career takes me, if I am able to help build recognition and pride in the sports community here in Maine, then I view that as a giant success!