Toronto Maple Leafs public address announcer Mike Ross is entering his 10th season with the club, but there was a time — before he was hired by the team — when he thought his PA announcing career would be over.
The 51-year-old sat down with Nick Alberga and former Maple Leaf Jay Rosehill of Leafs Morning Take to discuss the entire journey, from beginning his career at University, announcing football games, all the way to how he was hired by the Maple Leafs in 2016.
“I can’t believe I’m about to walk into my 10th season already. Like, that’s just mindblowing to me. I can honestly say I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever be in this position,” Ross told Alberga and Rosehill.
“I’m a guy who grew up in Ottawa, I was a Maple Leafs fan growing up, and got into public address announcing in sports very much haphazardly.”
Ross was doing a sports show on his University’s campus radio station when the school’s football team approached him to be their announcer. He said they offered him 50 bucks for each game that he worked, which was great to Ross because it turned out to be his beer money.
“I jumped into it and had no idea that this could ever become a thing. It was literally a way to get 50 bucks a week for four or five weeks during the university football season,” he smiled. “But eventually, I just really enjoyed it.”
After a few seasons announcing for the University’s football team, Ross auditioned to be the PA announcer for the OHL’s Ottawa 67s. He got the gig there, and then it snowballed with him also working with Ottawa’s triple-A baseball team, the Ottawa Lynx.
In 2001, Ross moved to Toronto and thought his public address career had been over. At the time, he said, every sports team had the position filled, and it didn’t appear as though any PA announcers would be leaving their spot.
“I figured, that was a nice chapter of my life and I’m not going to be doing any announcing anymore because guess what, every team in Toronto has their voice, and at that point, these were people that had been in their positions for a while, or in the case of at least the Maple Leafs, Andy Frost had only been in the job for two seasons, maybe three when I moved to Toronto.”
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However, in 2010, he received a call about doing games with the Ottawa Senators. It turned out that the person who hired Ross to do PA announcing with the 67s was working with the Senators, and they needed a fill-in.
“That was sort of my foot back in the door if you will,” he said.
Ross was the PA announcer for several games across a few seasons, which got him interested in the role again. And when he heard that the 2015 World Junior Championship was in Toronto, he had to audition.
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“Being fully bilingual, I knew that Team Canada and Hockey Canada always hired two announcers — they hired a French announcer and an English announcer. I called up Hockey Canada and said, ‘Hey, I’m fluently bilingual, I’ve done junior hockey, I’ve done the Memorial Cup, I will kill two birds with one stone for you, can I get an audition for the job in Toronto?’” he said.
“I got the audition, I won the job, and that was it. I was working with folks at MLSE, and that just, I don’t know, that put the spotlight on me a little bit in and around the GTA, because from there, I got an invite to audition for the Pan-Am Games. In 2015, I did baseball for that. Then I get an invitation to go out and do some games for the Men’s National Soccer Team and some World Cup qualifying games.”
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Similar to his years in University, Ross’ career was snowballing with more and more opportunities. In 2016, with the Maple Leafs’ organization in full rebuild mode, Ross received a phone call from MLSE.
“I get a call from the Maple Leafs, and they said, ‘Listen, we’re sort of hitting the reset button on our in-game entertainment, we’re looking for a new announcer, and we’d like to offer you an audition,’” he said.
“I was one of 22 people who got a shot at auditioning for the job and went through the process, and when it was all said and done, I got a phone call that, for me, that phone call which ended by having the director of game presentation say, ‘Welcome to the Toronto Maple Leafs.’
“I mean, that to me, was, I mean, my knees went weak. It’s something I’ll never forget. I got chills when it happened. I get chills when I recount it happening. It was a very special moment, and I can’t believe it’s 10 years ago already.”
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In his nine seasons of announcing games, Ross says there are “too many” Maple Leafs games that he’ll remember announcing. He recalled his very first home opener, the outdoor game, the All-Star Game, and the 2023 NHL Global Series, in which Ross travelled with the team to Sweden to be the voice of that series.
“Imagine you’re the new in-arena announcer for the Toronto Maple Leafs and they say, ‘By the way, your first home opener, there’s going to be a ceremony which we’re going to retire all these numbers, and here’s your script, it’s 30 minutes long, good luck,’” Ross smiled.
“The preparation that went into that whole ceremony was unbelievable and a great way to sort of be baptized into the organization.”
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Ross added that the individual events, too, are special, like announcing Auston Matthews’ goals and the first season the Maple Leafs returned to the playoffs in 2017. That game was the first time his parents had heard announcing for the Maple Leafs.
“Just a ton of special moments along the way that, if you ask me, is there one? I could never ever just pick one,” he said. “There’s just been way too many.”
This article originally appeared on The Hockey News: 'It's Something I'll Never Forget': Mike Ross Details How He Became The Maple Leafs' PA Announcer
(Top photo of Ross: @RossyOnTheMic / X)