Brandstatter's Formula for 43 Years of Broadcasting Success: Spontaneity, Personality, Speaking with Authority
Whether it's his Wolverines or a delicious slice of carrot cake, the lovable voice of Michigan football enjoys sharing it
Photo Courtesy of Jim Brandstatter
By Steve Kornacki
There’s a reason why someone lasts for nearly a half century in the media. And in the case of Jim Brandstatter, it’s because he knows his stuff, does his homework, never takes a play off, exudes enthusiasm, and loves not only what he’s doing – but the team he’s calling.
He makes Wolverine football games seem special – even bigger and more important than they really are.
But that’s just fine with the fans who have been listening to him since Anthony Carter was electrifying the faithful, and love the fact that the son of a Spartan All-American, husband of an Ohio State graduate and a member of Bo Schembechler’s first team is pouring his heart and soul into every word, every description.
It’s been some run, but he’s retiring, and I can’t get over the fact that we all have only one or two more chances left to hear Jim do a game.
We’ve been spoiled by 43 years of listening to Brandstatter make Wolverines football so vibrant, so maize and blue. He used to tend bar along with Michigan All-American and Green Bay Packers star Ron Kramer at Wolverine athletic director Don Canham’s parties the night before games. It was there that he met Kip Taylor, who scored the first touchdown at Michigan Stadium nearly 100 years ago, and countless other players and media stars.
He knows everything about this team and its deep traditions.
The Friday (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m.) encounter with Georgia in a national semi-final game could be the 515th and final Michigan game Brandstatter calls, dating back to the cable TV broadcasts for several seasons beginning in 1979 before hooking on with the team’s flagship radio station, WJR-AM, and moving along with the changes that today have him on the Learfield network.
“There was only one Michigan game I missed,” said Brandstatter. “It was the Holiday Bowl versus BYU after the ‘84 season. For some reason, the outlet I was working for couldn't broadcast that game because of contractual issues with the national broadcast rights.”
He’ll do the College Football Playoff game with his partner for the last eight seasons, former “Monday Night Football” analyst Dan Dierdorf, his Michigan teammate in 1969, when they helped pull off that legendary upset of No. 1 Ohio State.
And keep in mind that Brandstatter also did Detroit Lions games for 31 seasons, and for all those years was running out of the press box after Michigan’s game to catch a plane to wherever the Lions were playing Sunday.
So, this could be the last of over 1,000 pro or major college football games he’s done.
“The only guy I think that is ahead of me, and he is amazing, is Gene Deckerhoff,” said Brandstatter. “He does Tampa Bay Bucs football (since 1989) and Florida State football (since 1979).”
Brandy, as he’s best known, will drive down Interstate-95 from his winter home in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., with his wife, Robbie Timmons -- whom he met at a Jackson TV station before they both moved onto rival Detroit stations – to prepare for the Orange Bowl and then call the action from Hard Rock Stadium.
The couple had just returned from a grocery run when we hooked up on the phone. “The carrot cake at Publix is the best IN THE WORLD,” Jim said before we turned to football.
And in that comment is the essence of James Patrick Brandstatter -- a man who knows what he likes and wants to share it with you.
I began by asking what he enjoys most about calling a game.
“Wow,” he said softly before pausing. “The 10 minutes before kick(off). You’re laying out all your stuff and anticipating this and that, and you’re watching warmups. It’s like playing, you know. You’re waiting for the kick. It’s getting into the (broadcast) open and the teams are going out on the field, and they’re getting ready to toss the coin before kicking it off – the toe meeting the leather, you know.
“If that doesn’t get your blood pumping, I don’t know what would. And once you’re into it, you kind of got to back off and become business-like, and do your job. But it’s preparing and then ad-libbing your way to make it as understandable, informative and entertaining for the listeners. That’s job one.”
And now he might have just one game left – though he’s pulling hard for two more with the Jan. 10 national championship game in Indianapolis the dream ending.
Prior to the Big Ten championship game win over Iowa in that same Lucas Oil Stadium that will host the title showdown, I asked Brandstatter what it was like to go out in such a glorious manner.
“It’s a fairytale,” he said. “Really, who could write a script like this for us?”
Recently, Brandstatter added: “People have asked me: ‘Is this all bittersweet? It’s your last game, last road trip.’ But I’ve never thought about that. The big thing that’s gotten to me is how grateful I am to be there, to have done all of this for that many years. And in my business, it’s not always that way.
“But it’s also about having played football at this university, and been a part of the Bo Schembechler era, and followed up with Mo (Coach Gary Moeller) and (Coach) Lloyd (Carr) and now into Jim Harbaugh. And it’s also a university I have a diploma from. You can’t get any better than this, and that’s why my overwhelming feeling through this year is how grateful I am that I fell into this thing and was smart enough to not screw it up.”
We laughed at that point.
“Everybody says the grass is greener but I always said, ‘Remember what you’ve got here. This is special here.’ So, don’t go over the hill and look for some other things. Maybe in the back of my mind, that’s Schembechler speaking in my ear: ‘Do your job. Be part of the team.’ ”
His father, Arthur F. Brandstatter, was an All-America fullback for Michigan State in 1936 and was on the faculty there. His brother and hero, Arthur L. Brandstatter, lettered for the Spartans as an end, 1959-61. But for a variety of reasons, Coach Duffy Daugherty didn’t recruit Jim, and Bump Elliott brought him to Michigan.
It turned out that Brandstatter came to the Big Ten program on a big upswing, going to two Rose Bowls. He backed up Dierdorf until he left for the NFL, and Brandstatter finally started as a senior in 1971, relishing that his two best games were against MSU and OSU.
Then, after signing as a free agent with the New England Patriots but being released in June 1972, his focus soon became broadcasting. And he more than made the cut there.
Brandstatter said, “When people ask me, ‘What’s the best game you’ve ever done?’ I give an answer that I don’t mean to be flip, but I mean it to be true: ‘I haven’t done it yet.’ But I truly believe that.
“But I really hope that the best game that I do is the next game that I do. That goes back to being a 19-year-old kid and sitting in front of Schembechler at his desk and hearing him say, ‘Get better every snap. Get better every play.’ You carry that stuff around with you in your head, and Dierdorf carries it, too.”
Dierdorf, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame located in his hometown of Canton, Ohio, and Brandstatter decided long ago that whenever they left the broadcast booth, they would do so together. They began discussing the timing two years ago, and decided in January 2021 that this would be it.
“Then we had to keep it quiet,” said Brandstatter, who made the announcement five minutes prior to the season opener with Western Michigan. “He and I did not want to be the story. We wanted the game to be the story, and thank the Lord that this team has done what it’s done, because they have become the story.”
Brandstatter has been both the play-by-play man and analyst – a role that fits Dierdorf like a glove. He analyzes a play thoroughly before even seeing a replay, and is better at that than anyone else. Bob Griese and Joel Klatt have been two of his very few rivals in that regard in college football.
“It is amazing,” said Brandstatter. “It’s how you watch a game. Most people watch the ball or the quarterback or two players. Dan watches five players, a clump of guys, and I don’t know how he does it. But he’s able to sniff through why and what happened and explain it. That’s the best part: explaining it in six to eight seconds so the average guy can understand it.”
EMOTIONS POUR OUT AFTER WOLVERINES BEAT OHIO STATE
At end of the 42-27 win over Ohio State, Brandstatter, standing in the open press box as he does about 90 percent of the game, looked at Dierdorf sitting to his right, and it was challenging not to break down amid all the emotions they were sharing. What Brandstatter then said in summing up the game came spontaneously and from his heart, taking into account a rule he has for the end of big games: “Don’t script anything.”
“What then comes out of your mouth is real – the emotion, the passion couldn’t be written somewhere. When (the Buckeyes) throw the complete pass on fourth down but it’s short, with no timeouts left, I said, ‘Michigan fans, Wolverine nation, Ohio State is vanquished. The long drought is over. Michigan is going to win the Big Ten East and head to Indianapolis for the championship.
“And the one thing I remember most is that Dan had never broadcast a Michigan victory over Ohio State in our eight years together. It’s Ohio State kicking our ass (every year). And in the summer, he told me, ‘I just don’t think we’re ever going to call a Michigan win over Ohio State, and it fries my ass.’ And so now, I am like the people in the stands, I’m over-joyed. It’s all pumping out of me. I want to say, ‘Go back to Columbus, you (expletives).’ But I can’t say that on the air.
“What I say is, ‘As happy as I am for me, Dan, I’m more happy for you…I’m so glad for you. Congratulations.’ And he didn’t say anything for like two seconds. And then he went: ‘I have nothing to say.’ And at that point, I didn’t mean to do that because the emotion had overtaken him. We both benefitted from everybody’s success. Bo taught us that, and it’s true. Watching him enjoy that was as good as the win.”
In the game wrap-up, Brandstatter once again touched on all the significance of the outcome. Dan interrupted Jim, saying, “None of that stuff means a darned thing to me. I’m just glad that I didn’t get my ass kicked. I was tired of getting my ass kicked by Ohio State.”
Not the best choice of words for a family audience, but it was real.
Jim added: “And Dan says, ‘What are they going to do, fire me?’ The booth was jammed with family and Dan was so very emotional. Katie, his daughter, reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder. She had tears in her eyes, too.
“Dan, at one point, said, ‘Why is this so important? It’s just a football game.’ And I said, ‘Dan, it’s in your DNA. Since you were 18, beating Ohio State was a goal to achieve. And sitting here and broadcasting it is no different.’ And we both have that feeling. We are richer because of it.”
Brandstatter plans to make an “audio book” out of all the great moments and Michigan greats he’s come across as told by those who achieved the feats.
“I’ve got Kip Taylor telling me about the first touchdown ever at Michigan Stadium,” said Brandstatter of that Oct. 1, 1927 happening. “Kip Taylor was as lucid as he could be: ‘I’m running down the field, and I’m running down the field. And Bennie Oosterbaan is running down the field and they keep throwing it to him, and he’s being covered by three guys! I understand that because Bennie’s a great player (and a three-time All-American). But I’m wide open!
“So, I went back to the huddle and told them to throw the ball to me. I’m wide open. The quarterback (Louis Gilbert) looked at me and said, ‘Shut up, you dumb sophomore.’ So, OK, I shut up.”
Brandstatter finished the story: “Two plays later, he gets the ball, makes the guy miss and scores the first touchdown ever at Michigan Stadium. It’s unbelievable.
“All this stuff is over 20 years ago and I’ve got it in my garage. I’ve got Bo’s pre-game speeches, Desmond Howard, (John) Wangler talking about Anthony (Carter) coming up to him in the huddle against Indiana, saying, ‘Get the ball to me.’ Braylon Edwards talking about his Michigan State game.”
I’m having difficulty realizing that next year, when Michigan opens Sept. 3 with Colorado State at the Big House, I won’t be able to listen to Jim and Dan.
What I wanted to know was where they planned to watch games in 2022.
“I have no idea,” said Brandstatter. “But Dan and I talked about watching the first game at his house up near Petoskey, sitting next to each other with the radio sound up and the TV sound down, moaning about how stupid the announcers are (laughter).
“And I don’t know what’s going to happen. But we’re just playing it by ear. I don’t know whether I’ll go to many games next year because I don’t know if I can sit there and watch a game without talking after 43 years of doing this.”
Brandy chuckled.
“I don’t know,” he concluded. “I don’t know. Remember, spontaneity is the best thing we do.”
There’s no script. Just that belief in following his heart, and taking what the moment presents him. And whatever that is, Jim is sure to be grateful.
Pass that carrot cake, my friend.
Check out Brandstatter’s take on the 2021 Wolverines and upcoming opponent Georgia:
A Look at Why These Wolverines Display a Knack for Seizing the Moment (substack.com)
Wow!