‘Love of the game’ kept Rick Sipovic behind the mic for 44 years

Growing up in Mendota, Rick Sipovic became interested in radio while listening to Art Kimball broadcast games and report on local sports in the mornings on WLPO.

“I was very intrigued by Art and his voice and everything else,” Sipovic said. “That’s the way my interest began.”

Later, when he was the public address announcer for La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College football and basketball, he got to know WLPO sportscaster Lanny Slevin.

In 1979, when Slevin was looking for a new partner, he asked Sipovic.

And the rest, they say, is history.

Slevin and Sipovic called games together from 1979 to 2013, when Slevin retired. Sipovic continued on – switching from more of the color role when he was with Slevin to play-by-play duties – until this basketball season, when he decided to retire himself.

“Love of the game,” Sipovic said about what kept him on the air for more than 40 years. “I just enjoyed the fact I could tell people about what was going on.”

Sipovic called his last game Feb. 29, when the St. Bede girls basketball team played Altamont in the IHSA Class 1A third-place game in Normal.

“Rick is a professional, all-American broadcaster,” Slevin said. “He can handle any sport. He can do anything you ask him to do. … He’s one of a kind. He’s a natural jokester. He has a great personality. I wish him all the best in his retirement.

“He’s going to be greatly missed by the people in the Illinois Valley.”

Sipovic decided it was time to spend more time with his family.

“I’ll be 72 in May,” Sipovic said. “My wife and I will be married 48 years this year. Almost every year we’ve been married, I’ve been gone on every weekend doing games. We have five grandchildren. They’re all healthy and fun and great to be around. While I’m able to be healthy and fun to be around too, I want to spend more time with them. I have two older grandkids, one who plays football at St. Bede and one who plays soccer at Plainfield North. I want to be able to go see them play.”

Sipovic said he didn’t really know what to do when he first got behind the microphone with Slevin 44 years ago.

“When I went to go do my first game, I had no clue what i was supposed to be doing,” Sipovic said. “I kind of knew how to keep stats, which was part of what I was doing. Lanny told me it’ll come to me, that I’d develop my own system of doing things, and I’ll have a system of getting him information, and as we go along I’d want to talk more.

“He said it’ll just happen on its own, and he was right.”

The duo was known for calling basketball, including many state tournaments, and football, but also did baseball, softball, volleyball and other events, including a tug of war with an appearance by legendary Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus.

“He does everything well,” Slevin said. “He was called upon to do a variety of things. Rick is very versatile.”

Sipovic said he learned from Slevin early on that pregame preparation was crucial.

“One thing I learned from Lanny was to overprepare and underuse, meaning prepare a lot more information than you’re likely to need during a game, because it’s OK if you don’t use it, but if you don’t have enough, you can sound pretty bad on air,” Sipovic said.

Sipovic always handled setting up the equipment, allowing Slevin to talk with coaches and gather information. During games, Sipovic kept statistics and made sure Slevin had the necessary numbers and info.

“Rick and I worked together so long that whenever I needed a number or how may yards this guy had, he could point it out,” Slevin said. “It made the broadcast go much smoother because we weren’t messing around trying to figure out who did this, who did that.”

Traveling all over the state calling more than 100 contests per school year for more than 30 years, Sipovic and Slevin developed a strong friendship that came through with a good on-air rapport.

“We had a lot of hours on the road,” Sipovic said. “We found out we had a lot of things in common, and it just kind of rolled from there,” Sipovic said. “We became friends. Once you’re friends, you want to do things more with them, and it kind of grew.

“We liked having fun. I think more people knew we were there to have fun. To tell a story, obviously, but to have fun both with the game and each other, as well.”

When Slevin retired in 2013, Sipovic moved into the play-by-play role and carried on. He said he enjoyed doing color and play-by-play.

“Doing color is actually more fun than doing play-by-play,” Sipovic said. “Play-by-play you have to be on every play. You have to look for everything. You have to try to keep it smooth and keep it going. Whereas when you’re doing color, you can interject something whenever you see it and whenever you want. You don’t have to have that rhythm going all the time. It was more fun doing color, but probably more rewarding doing play-by-play.”

Sipovic estimates he broadcast close to 4,000 contests during his career, and he did so from some pretty interesting places.

He and Slevin broadcast from press boxes (inside and on top), sidelines, end zones, ladders, flatbed trucks, pickup trucks, scaffolding, bleachers, stages and the roof of a dorm among other places. They broadcast inside and through all sorts of weather, including rain, wind, snow and ice.

“We had some very unique places,” Sipovic said.

Sipovic said IVCC football was a phenomenon, and he has fond memories of covering those games. He also enjoyed calling Hall’s runner-up basketball teams, the three straight Bureau Valley third-place teams, La Salle-Peru and St. Bede teams and “all those great athletes” that came through the area.

“The fun thing was when you’d get to the state tournament and had a local team there,” Sipovic said. “That added a real lot.”

Fittingly, Sipovic’s career ended at a state tournament. His final week also included calling L-P boys basketball in the Pontiac Sectional.

Sipovic said he heard well wishes from plenty of listeners leading up to his final game.

“Most of the people who I hear from I know or I recognize,” Sipovic said. “Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes it’s just people who have listened over the years, and they want to come over and say thanks and congratulations and we’re going to miss you. I guess I never realized really how much people are listening anymore.

“It’s pretty neat we’re able to connect like that here at the very end.”