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Allan Wylie is the radio analyst for the Philadelphia 76ers G-League team, the Delaware Blue Coats.
Just a college freshman at Rowan University in New Jersey, he has one of the best jobs any 18-year-old could imagine, calling games for a professional basketball team.
But Wylie isn't your average groundbreaking sports broadcaster. He's much more than that.
Because he’s blind.
Mere months ago, he was graduating high school, excited about what college life would be like. But he was a man on a mission. Someone who knew what he wanted at a young age.
It’s hard enough for anyone to score their dream job mere months after graduating high school, much less doing so while visually impaired.
But not Wylie. Because this isn’t his first rodeo.
He’s been calling games as far back as his sophomore year of high school, when he was the football color analyst for Westlake High in Ohio.
He parlayed that into a similar role with the Cleveland Guardians Single-A affiliate Lake County Captains as a senior in high school.
That means, despite being just 18, he’s already on his third job behind the microphone for the 76ers, all while not being able to see a single player, coach, touchdown, bucket or home run.
So how does he do it? An encyclopedic memory is the first step.
Without being able to see the action, he replaces that with an otherworldly knowledge of the game, as well as every team, league, player, coach, assistant coach, GM, schedule, statistic, record, and anything else you can possibly imagine.
Since he can’t bring a cheat sheet to the game for reference at crucial moments like most broadcasters do, he recites it all from memory.
And because he’s not wasting time looking for stats or quotes on paper, he can actually respond quicker to his broadcast partner than other analysts can. His perceived “weakness” in turn being his biggest strength.
And, of course, he hears everything. Whether it’s the point guard calling a play, the ball bouncing off the rim, the crack of the bat, and especially the reaction of the players, coaches and crowd. He hears it better than you and I, and he’s able to paint the picture to the listening audience.
For now, he’s loving every minute of his current role with the Blue Coats, but if you ask him, he’s far from his ultimate goal in this business. He wants to eventually have his own sports radio show and continue to call games at the highest level. Perhaps even the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball.
Are you going to bet against him?
