Robert Courtland Rathbun (born November 25, 1954) is an American sportscaster, motivational speaker, and author. He has been the television

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present In linguis ...

announcer for the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

basketball games on

Bally Sports South Bally Sports South (BSSO) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from acros ...

since

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

. He is the play-by-play announcer for the NBA Atlanta Hawks, and the WNBA

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded for the 2008 WNBA season. The team is owned by real e ...

. He is currently partnered with

Dominique Wilkins Jacques Dominique Wilkins (born January 12, 1960) is an American former professional basketball player who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, a seven-time All ...

, a nine-time NBA All-Star and player for the Hawks. In addition, Rathbun also serves as the play-by-play announcer for

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

football games on FSN South and Atlantic Coast Conference college basketball and football games for

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...

. Rathbun served as the play-by-play announcer on

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in B ...

baseball games on

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Ma ...

(formerly SportsSouth) from 1997 to 2006. Rathbun began his career as a sports director for

WSTP WSTP (1490 AM) is a radio station licensed to and serving the area of Salisbury, North Carolina, United States. History WSTP signed on New Year's Eve 1939 from the Yadkin Hotel ballroom. Its letters stood for "Salisbury Times and Post", the to ...

Radio in

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropoli ...

, in 1973. Rathbun served as the lead broadcaster for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

covering ArenaBowl '87, the inaugural championship game of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, alongside

Lee Corso Lee Richard Corso (born August 7, 1935) is an American sports broadcaster and football analyst for ESPN and a former coach. He has been a featured analyst on ESPN's '' College GameDay'' program since its inception in 1987. Corso served as the h ...

in 1987. He has previously done broadcast work for both the

Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

. His baseball experience includes

gigs with

Tidewater Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesapea ...

, and the

Richmond Braves The Richmond Braves were an American minor league baseball club based in Richmond, Virginia, the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 2008. Owned by the parent Atlanta club and colloquially referred to as the ...

. From 1992 to 1994, Rathbun worked as a radio broadcaster for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

. Rathbun and

Rick Rizzs Rick Rizzs (born November 17, 1953) is an American sportscaster and is the lead radio voice for Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners. Early life and career Rizzs is from Blue Island, Illinois, where he attended Eisenhower High School, and h ...

replaced legendary Tigers' voice

Ernie Harwell William Earnest Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the acti ...

and his partner Paul Carey. Rathbun was very unpopular with Detroit fans. At the end of the 1994 season, Rizzs and Rathbun were fired. After being named Virginia Sportscaster of the Year six separate times, he was awarded the same honor in Georgia in 1998. In 2008, he was named to the

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame honors athletes, coaches, administrators, journalists and other contributors to athletics. Many of the more than 350 inductees since 1972 were born in Virginia or enjoyed success in college, professional, amateur or ...

.WTKR NewsChannel 3: News, Weather, and Traffic in Hampton Roads and North Carolina , 7 Inducted Into Virginia Sports Hall of Fame
/ref> Rathbun is a 1976 graduate of

Catawba College Catawba College is a private college in Salisbury, North Carolina. Founded in 1851 by the North Carolina Classis of the Reformed Church in Newton, the college adopted its name from its county of origin, Catawba County, before moving to its ...

and was inducted in the school's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1988.

References

External links

Bio
from the Atlanta Hawks' website
Official website
1954 births American sports announcers Arena football announcers Atlanta Braves announcers Atlanta Hawks announcers Atlanta Thrashers announcers Baltimore Orioles announcers Catawba College alumni College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Detroit Tigers announcers Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters People from South Kingstown, Rhode Island Washington Bullets announcers Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers {{Atlanta-stub