Greg Sharpe’s bout with cancer shows special relationship he has with Nebraska

It was great to hear that voice.

Friday was a good day for Greg Sharpe.

He ran some errands around Lincoln. The night before, he returned to “Sports Nightly.” Sharpe was thinking about a trip to Haymarket Park for some Husker baseball over the weekend, too.

But the Nebraska broadcasting legend had lost his voice just a few days earlier after spending the weekend in the hospital.

The voice of Nebraska football and baseball since 2007 has pancreatic cancer.

Sharpe found out last month. He announced it on his radio show. Of course.

Sharpe has a special relationship with Husker fans.

He’s the voice that follows them to all corners of this state, from the harvest fields to their cars to all the juke joints from Ogallala to Omaha. Their phones, too.

On 12 Saturdays per year, Sharpe tells fans what’s happening and why it’s happening. He’ll get loud or he’ll break it to them gently.

He’s their companion. Their friend.

A few weeks ago, their friend announced he was taking some time off to fight a ruthless opponent.

He told them he had Aug. 31 circled as a motivator, a focus in the fight, a light in the distance.

That’s the day Nebraska opens its season against UTEP.

Sharpe, 60, has a passion to be there, seated in his perch high above Memorial Stadium. He loves college football. And he loves doing the only job he ever wanted: narrating the game he loves for the folks who love it just as much.

Passion can be a powerful thing.

It has been this way since he was 7 or 8, he said, growing up in Olathe, Kansas, just south of Kansas City.

“I was just fascinated with that little box and the voices coming out of it,” Sharpe said. “So many Saturdays I would sit in my room and flip the radios around and pick up the different broadcasts.”

His heroes were men behind the mic.

Fred White and Denny Matthews doing Royals baseball. Tom Hedrick behind the KU mic. Dev Nelson for Kansas State.

His first live sporting event was a Nebraska-Kansas basketball game in the Big Eight holiday tournament in 1971. Sitting high up at Municipal Auditorium, Sharpe imagined himself calling the game.

A decade later, he was on his way. Sharpe attended Kansas State and got into its broadcasting program.

There, Sharpe was “fortunate to meet” Mitch Holthus — the longtime voice of the Kansas City Chiefs who was the voice of K-State football and basketball from 1983 to 1995. Holthus invited Sharpe to be his spotter and stats guy in the booth. He became Sharpe’s mentor.

“I learned the preparation part of it from Mitch,” Sharpe said. “Watching how meticulous he was, how much material he had ready for a Saturday.

“And the ability to be entertaining as well as be informative. In that time, K-State was so bad you had to be kind of an entertainer to keep your audience engaged.”

Soon Sharpe was working at Topeka’s WIBW radio and TV. He shot video on news stories. He was a disc jockey playing country music. If you want to move up, do whatever you can.

That’s the passion talking.

By 1995, Holthus wanted to devote his full attention to the Chiefs. Sharp was “the next guy up” as the Big 12 kicked off in 1996.

He had a six-year run calling KSU football and basketball, including a historic run by Bill Snyder.

The run ended in 2002. But Sharpe was back in the booth on Saturdays when Nebraska hired him. And Husker fans got to hear that passion.

“I love the NFL but to me, it doesn’t compare to college football,” Sharpe said. “The excitement level of a campus on Saturday, and how towns — small, medium and large — transform themselves. I can’t get enough of that.”

The idea that he was talking to an entire state wasn’t daunting to Sharpe. That was the best part.

“Mitch and Kevin Harlan always told me, ‘Know your audience. Know who you’re talking to and tell them the story of the day.’

“It could be a guy sitting in a rocking chair in McCook or a guy sitting in his cab working the fields. That guy is listening to you and his perception of the game is likely based on how you present it.

“I do think about that a lot.”

When I mentioned that he has an important job, Sharpe said, “It’s funny, I don’t see it as a job. It’s just the next day and what’s up. It’s a beautiful thing. I get to go talk football and baseball on ‘Sports Nightly’ and meet great coaches and athletes.”

Call it a passion, not a job. And a passion that he’s going to need every ounce of in this fight.

“No question,” Sharpe said. “The want-to continue doing what I’ve been doing is a real fire for me. My goal is, I want to be there for kickoff for UTEP in August. My passion for sports drives me.”

He wasn’t ready for the response.

A lot of K-Staters reached out, including a phone call from Snyder. The Minnesota athletic department sent him a get-well package, and Sharpe was particularly touched because he doesn’t know a lot of folks in Minnesota. KU reached out. Old Big Eight friends. Hundreds of folks.

The folks he touched over the years. Like family.

Mostly, his Nebraska family.

He has been a part of it since his first game: 2007 at Kansas, a 76-39 loss. Oddly, Sharpe’s next game was a 73-31 win over K-State.

Bill Callahan was fired the next week, then Sharpe followed the Big Red Odyssey. From Bo Pelini to Mike Riley to Scott Frost to Matt Rhule.

His mother, a Nebraska graduate, “was pretty proud” when he got the job. It didn’t take long for the K-State guy to become the Nebraska guy.

“I totally feel like a Husker,” Sharpe said. “I’ve been through the highs and lows. It’s been a marvelous 16-year run. Some good times, tough times. And two baseball league championships.

“I’ve been blown away by some of the things (baseball coach) Will Bolt has done for me. Wearing those patches on their hats, giving me a jersey on the field. He checks in with me a couple times a week.

“It is overwhelming and it kind of makes me stop and think about the impact that I didn’t know I had. It’s been very humbling.”

Sharpe isn’t philosophical and doesn’t want to think about the big picture, he says. He’s going day by day. Some are good, some are the other. And more of both are on the way.

“It’s a battle,” he said. “Everyone knows this is a serious thing I’m dealing with. Just try to take it one day at a time. Get the treatments done and see where we are.”

This started with a pain in his shoulder around Christmas. Sharpe saw a physical therapist. The pain persisted. Then he saw an orthopedic specialist — former Husker Dane Todd. An MRI exam revealed the tumor.

Part of his routine now is visits to the Nebraska Med Center in Omaha. Sharpe lauds the “advancements” and says he’s in “good hands” with the “world-renown doctors.”

He has lost 20 pounds but not his sense of humor.

“The thought of losing my hair is just horrible because I have so much of it up there,” Sharpe says.

His team includes wife Amy and daughters Emily (24), Campbell (21) and Taylor (15). And, of course, thousands of Nebraskans who also have Aug. 31 circled.

It’s football season. And they want to hear that voice.

Their man is a fighter. Sharpe sent a message last month. He postponed his first round of chemo so he could call the Spring Game.

“I thought (Dylan Raiola) did really well,” Sharpe said. “He has an amazing arm and talent. He’s still a freshman. There will be some mistakes made.

“I’m so encouraged by the progress in this program. I like the way the schedule sets up for the Huskers. I think it could be a really fun fall. And Husker fans deserve that.”

Can’t wait to hear all about it, Greg.