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High school English teacher loses job as school’s P.A. announcer for plugging novel during football game By Jake Bumeier, THG Sports August 22, 2004 When legendary announcer Tim Baize decided to hang up his microphone to pursue other interests, officials at F. J. Reitz High School didn’t have to go far to find a replacement. English teacher and novelist Mike Whicker volunteered to fill the post. A respected member of the Evansville community, Whicker has an extensive public speaking background, regularly giving talks to book clubs and civic groups about his novel Invitation to Valhalla, a World War II spy novel that has been as high as #19 on Daltonbooks.com’s fiction bestseller list. Whicker has also played or coached a variety of sports for over thirty years. He seemed like the perfect person to fill’s Baize’s shoes. That is until Friday night, when athletic director Richard Nau fired Whicker immediately after the Panthers routed Jeffersonville 39-18 for shamelessly plugging his novel dozens of times during the game. Every time Reitz ran for a first down, Whicker would announce, “Another big Reitz first down brought to you by Invitation to Valhalla, a novel by Mike Whicker available at local fine books stores or at Amazon.com!”
Many fans were so disgusted with Whicker’s announcing that they left the game early. When the fourth quarter ended, only about 500 fans remained, despite Reitz handily defeating the outmatched Jeffersonville squad. When asked why he kept mentioning his novel over and over, Whicker said, “I volunteered to do this job—I am not getting paid. The least I can get is a little advertising out of it. I don’t see what the big deal is.” Nau said that Whicker will retain his teaching position at Reitz, but a letter of discipline will be put in his personnel file. Reitz will begin looking for a new football announcer on Monday.
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