RICHMOND, Ky. – After 47 seasons of covering the Colonels, longtime Eastern Kentucky University sports broadcaster Greg Stotelmyer has retired.
 
The Voice of the Colonels began calling EKU football and basketball games in the 1979-1980 sports season. In Stotelmyer's first season in the booth, legendary head coach Roy Kidd led the EKU football team to its first-ever Division I-AA national title.
 
In total, Stotelmyer has called nearly 500 EKU football games and more than 1,300 men's basketball games.
 
He preferred to describe his work as a "passionate hobby," not a job. 
 
"The short-term memories fade fast. It's the long-term memories that you remember, and you cherish the most," Stotelmyer said, as he wrapped up his last broadcast of the basketball season. "What an honor to call 498 Colonel football games – so many of them coached by the greatest coach ever, Roy Kidd. I called 1,315 men's basketball games. It took 25 years behind the mic, but finally in 2005, I called my first of three EKU games in the NCAA Tournament. It was a dream come true for a short kid who grew up in the heartland of hoops. I'll take with me so many unforgettable memories over 47 seasons in the broadcast booth and courtside, sharing the highs and the lows with co-workers who became lifelong friends, and you – the listeners."
 
Stotelmyer's Colonel broadcast career includes 44 years on the radio/audio network and four seasons in the mid-1980s broadcasting television replays of EKU home games. He also produced and hosted weekly television shows for several EKU football and basketball coaches.
 
He has been the lead announcer for ESPN+  broadcasts of Colonel football and men's basketball, plus softball, soccer, volleyball and baseball over the past few seasons.
 
The native of Connersville, Indiana has been chosen the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association two of the last three years. In 2024, he was inducted into the EKU Athletics Hall of Fame. Stotelmyer was inducted into the Kentucky Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2023.
 
From 1979 through 1986, Stotelmyer worked at WEKY-AM as the station's News and Sports Director. For the next 25 years, he was a multi-faceted reporter at WTVQ TV, the ABC affiliate in Lexington. He covered the regional beat, agriculture, and then politics. But, he was best known for his well-liked weekly feature, "Kentucky's Backroads."
 
Stotelmyer has seven Emmy awards from The Ohio Valley Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in addition to various other honors including an Edward R. Murrow award. 

In his retirement, Stotelmyer and his wife, Paula, plan to travel the world and spend time with their "Starting 5," their five grandkids.