David Kellum has served as the voice of Ole Miss sporting events for nearly half a century. For fans listening from kitchens and cars near and far, Kellum gives listeners a glimpse into the action happening on fields and courts where the Rebels can be found.
The sports announcer is a man whom fans might have an easier time recognizing on the radio rather than in person.
With Oxford as his canvas and his voice as his brush, Kellum has painted vivid, iconic moments for the Rebels for almost 50 years.
“I’ve always wanted to try to paint the picture. I want you to feel like, if you’re listening to the radio and you don’t have the visual aspect, that you feel like you’re there,” Kellum said in an interview with The Daily Mississippian.
Kellum has been broadcasting sports since before he was a university student. As a senior at Lafayette County High School, he called the SEC Baseball Tournament.
Even though, in this instance, he was in the right place at the right time, he enrolled at the University of Mississippi weeks later in 1977 and was hired by the local radio station. From there, he began broadcasting play-by-plays for baseball and women’s basketball.
Early on, Jack Cristil, the legendary play-by-play announcer from Mississippi State, advised Kellum to “give the score till you’re sick of it” and “cut out all the bull(s–t).” Still, the voice of Ole Miss embraced a more descriptive, picturesque approach.
As a high school athlete and the son of a theater professor, Kellum blended his sports experience with his flair for the dramatic to become an effective storyteller.
“My theater background helped me a lot. It’s entertainment, and sports is, to a certain extent, reality, but it’s also entertaining. The combination of that has helped me go a long way,” Kellum said.
Despite receiving major job offers from other institutions, he has chosen to remain in Oxford. Still, he and Ole Miss have gone outside the Oxford bubble and captured the country’s attention many times since his career began.
Lafayette County and the university have tripled in size over the last 50 years, and the fan base has likely ballooned even faster.
“It’s been so refreshing to see students … come in from different places, different backgrounds, different experiences,” Kellum said. “You come here from (out of state), and you see it, and then you invest yourself in it. A lot of people will come to Oxford and then adopt the ways.”
One way of life in Oxford is tuning in to the voice of Ole Miss on game days. Kellum has a unique perspective from growing up an Oxford local, with many family members attending the university. He grew up listening to broadcaster Stan Torgerson, the Rebel announcer for 17 years.
For Kellum, it is surreal to go from covering players older than him to covering players half his age. He has gone from narrating athletes to narrating their kids and grandkids.
Since many locals attend games in person, Kellum is less of a celebrity in Oxford than he is farther away from campus. His words through radio frequencies are the connection between Ole Miss and the rest of the nation.
Many fans have an almost parasocial relationship with Kellum and feel like they have known him for years. After all, they have heard his voice for decades now.
“I hear people all the time tell me, ‘I can turn on the radio, and I know if we’re winning or losing just by your voice,’ because I want us to win and so if we’re not doing well, you can kind of tell,” Kellum said.
This is the greatest challenge for sports broadcasters: How does one balance impartiality with fandom? Kellum is a “homer,” as he calls it. He does not necessarily hide his fondness for the athletes in navy and crimson.
When he called the final score of the College World Series over Oklahoma in 2022, listeners could almost hear him jump out of his seat with utter elation. He emphatically announced to Ole Miss Baseball fans that their team had climbed to the mountaintop.
“The Ole Miss Rebels are your national champions, 4-2 the final score,” Kellum said. “Oh my goodness. Red and blue streamers everywhere. We got a dogpile in front of the mound. Ole Miss has won it all.”
However, Kellum knows just as well as any Ole Miss fan that Rebel athletics has not always featured national championships, legendary plays and leaving The Swamp in “stunned silence” after upsetting Tim Tebow’s Gators.
Just as Kellum gets to paint triumphs for his audience, he is also saddled with the duty of illustrating losses, injuries and heartbreak.
“It could be a bad season. It could be a bad game. It could be a bad play,” Kellum said. “Whatever the case may be, you have to tell it like it is, to have credibility, but you also still want to protect the brand the best you can.”
He recounts the agonizing 1998 March Madness loss to the No. 13 seed Valparaiso Crusaders as the No. 4 seed.
“It was gut-wrenching for me. I’m an Ole Miss person. … It might not have been (so difficult) if I was just an announcer calling the game,” Kellum said.
As someone with an attachment to Mississippi, capturing devastation while still giving the opponent due credit is a fine line Kellum has had to walk numerous times.
Though he has already begun to scale back, as he no longer calls basketball games, there is no clear timeline for when Kellum might retire. His advice to whoever inevitably takes the throne?
“Just enjoy it, and make sure you’re painting the picture so that the listener feels like they’re actually at the game,” Kellum said.
For generations, Kellum has done just that — not as a witness to Ole Miss history, but as a piece of it as an artist. He has made sure Rebel fans at home, out of state or around the world do not miss a brushstroke.
