Former CMU student, Detroit Tigers radio personality Carey dies at 88
Hall of Fame broadcaster and Mount Pleasant native Paul Carey died Tuesday in Rochester at the age of 88.
Carey died of complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and heart disease. He was placed in hospice about six weeks ago.
Carey graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1946 and attended Central Michigan University from 1946 to 1948. He transferred to Michigan State and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in speech, radio and dramatics.
Carey Hall — located in the Towers residence halls — was named after his father, Joseph P. Carey, who was a geography professor at CMU. Carey Hall was the first co-ed residence hall on campus.
Carey was on the original announcing staff of WCEN radio station in Mount Pleasant when it debuted on Aug. 8, 1949. He made history in the fall of 1949, when he was on the first ever broadcast of a Central Michigan football game.
After serving in the U.S. army, Carey returned to his broadcasting duties in 1952, working as a disk-jockey in Saginaw and joined the announcing staff at WJR in Detroit in 1952.
In his 35 years with the station, Carey worked as a play-by-play announcer, created and hosted the Michigan High School football and basketball scoreboard programs.
His most notable work came as the color commentator alongside Ernie Harwell on Tigers broadcasts. For 19 years, the duo was the voice of Tigers baseball and had many memorable broadcasts, culminating in the team’s championship in 1984.
Carey worked in all facets of radio and was even the Tigers broadcasts’ engineer. After Harwell retired in 1991, Carey also decided to call it quits.
The Tigers released a statement on Carey’s death.
“The Tigers organization is saddened by the loss of Paul Carey. Paul was a consummate professional who had one of the most distinctive and classic broadcast voices,” it read. “Paul captivated Tigers fans for 19 seasons behind the microphone including the magical 1984 World Series Championship. The Tigers family extends our sincere condolences to Paul’s wife, Nancy and his family.”
After winning the Michigan sportscaster of the year award six times, he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. Carey also won the Dick Schaap Memorial Award for outstanding national journalist, and the Centennial Award at Central Michigan, among other honors.
Carey is survived by his wife Nancy, brother-in-law Duane Wackerly and eight nieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
