The Rowan Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact welcomed a special Philadelphia sports guest on Nov. 2 to speak with students in King Auditorium. Matt Cord, the public address announcer for the Philadelphia 76ers  came to Rowan to speak about his illustrious career that has spanned over 25 years. 

To open the conversation, Cord told the students in attendance how he got started with the 76ers all those years ago. In 1995, he was approached by Ike Richmond, to become the new public address announcer for the Philadelphia Wings, the city’s lacrosse team. 

At the time, Cord was working with the radio station, 93.3 WMMR, and hadn’t known anything about lacrosse. From there, then Sixers owner, Pat Croachi recruited him to also do the public address announcing for the city’s basketball team.

“I had to audition. They were looking for a new announcer, and it was 1996, and we had just drafted [Allen] Iverson,” Cord said. “There were over two hundred people who auditioned, and I came in second.”

Cord went on to explain that he missed out on the job the first time around, but after a year he became the replacement. Later on in his career, he said one of the things that he loves is when people ask him to announce players, especially old school ones. One of Cord’s side quests also includes Cameo, where he is often asked to announce fantasy draft picks.

With an intense job such as Cord’s, students were curious what his game days looked like from a public address announcer’s perspective.

“I have a ritual, I kind of pretend like I’m a player,” Cord said. “I get there three hours before tip off to go over all of the announcements that go off throughout the game.”

During his pregame preparation, Cord also checks in with the visiting team and the public relations departments to ensure he pronounces all players’ names correctly before game time. To give students a deeper insight into his interactions with visiting players, he shared a story about Giannis Antetokounmpo from his rookie year.

“I went right up to him and asked him how to pronounce ‘Antetokounmpo’,” Cord said. “By the fourth try, he looks at me and goes ‘No one will know you got it wrong but me’.”

As the conversation continued, Cord revealed to students one of his best talents when it comes to public address announcing, even one that almost got him into trouble. The thing that Cord is often remembered for is his monotone way of pronouncing the visiting players’ names during the game. He recalled specific incidents where writers told him about changing his style because they were unable to hear who scored on the opposing team. However, on a larger level, issues were brewing about his voicing techniques.

“The league said, ‘Listen, if he doesn’t pick it up for visiting teams, we’re gonna fine you,’” Cord said. “Pat looked at me and said, ‘Keep doing it, I’ll pay the fine.’”

To this day, Cord doesn’t know if his actions ended up having consequences. 

Before ending his time with packed room of students, Cord left them with one last piece of advice.

“Work for free in the beginning, let your ego go,” Cord said. “Volunteer constantly, and just be that person.”

Cord wanted to stress to students that everyone starts at the bottom as an intern, even Philadelphia Eagles’ general manager, Howie Roseman. 

“Internships are very hard to get,” Cord said. “But if you have the drive, you will get it.”

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