A good chunk of Jackrabbit fans recognize Tyler Merriam as the “voice of the Jackrabbits,” but he doesn’t think of himself like that. He sees himself as “just the next guy doing the job.”
“I don’t like the term,” Merriam said. “I consider Steve Imming and Norm Hilson as the ‘voices of the Jackrabbits’ because they did it for 20-plus years.”
Regardless of his title, the now-Associate AD of Media at South Dakota State started his journey long before stepping foot in Brookings for his freshman year of college. Merriam’s journey to be where he is today, started long before he became associate athletic director for media at South Dakota State University.
“It started at a very young age five or six years old,” Merriam said. “I just knew I wanted to talk about sports, but didn’t know what it entailed. I just knew I wanted to do it.”
His family was heavily involved in sports, leading him to develop a passion for the games at an early age. His father played baseball at Huron College and three uncles were involved in athletics at SDSU.
“Sports has always been a part of my life, as well as talking,” laughs Merriam. “The two kind of meshed and I’ve been lucky.”
In grade school, he would go to the Pierre High School basketball games and sit in the balcony and call the games on his walkie-talkie or recorder by himself. He also worked at a radio station in town doing anything from sports to weather to even playing a little music.
“I’m thankful that the fans around me were kind enough to let me yell to nobody and wouldn’t complain too much,” Merriam said.
Growing up Merriam said Kris Stephens, the play-by-play for the Jackrabbits in the late 1980s, and the Pierre sports director when Merriam was young, was one of the best mentors he could have asked for.
“He would let me run stats during the games, let me watch while he called the games,” Merriam said. “Then, when I got into my freshmen year of high school, he let me do color with him during some games until he passed away just before my junior year of high school. I owe a great deal to him for getting me started.”
When Stephens passed away from cancer in 2001, Merriam stepped into the play-by-play role until he graduated high school. That next fall he attended SDSU, in part because he had an opportunity to work at the radio station in Brookings, which was owned by the same company as the one in his hometown.
Once he came to Brookings, Imming was another mentor for Merriam, providing more opportunities to get behind a mic and learn from a legend.
“When it comes to working with Steve (Imming), I don’t know if I fully appreciated it at the time,” Merriam said. “Just how he handled himself and the position. The same goes with Stephens when I was growing up in grade school to the time he passed away.”
Merriam’s freshmen year at State, he worked under Ron Lenz, the Sports Information Director, as a student helper. He learned the ins-and-outs of not only the broadcast side, but also Lenz’s job as well. He also filled in on the radio for basketball and football whenever he was needed.
“Being able to call those sports in college just gave me more and more opportunities,” Merriam said. “It gave me hands on experience and more chances in the spotlight.”
Another opportunity he remembers having in college was being the public announcer in the Metrodome in Minneapolis at a 1:30 a.m. double-header baseball game against Kansas in the spring of 2007.
“It was 3:30 in the morning, and you were just fighting to stay awake,” Merriam said. “There was like 20-25 people in the stands. We finished one game and then got through about six innings of the next game and had to finish the next morning at 1 a.m., because it was booked from 7:30 a.m. to the time we played again at 1:30 a.m.
“So in between that we went to Perkins to eat.” Merriam said. “Then we headed back to the hotel to try to get some sleep for the rest of the second game and the last game that next morning.”
Just about as the Pierre native was about to graduate from SDSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, Scotty Kwasniewski, who was the women’s basketball radio talent, left for another job, allowing Merriam to slide into his role for the 2006-2007 school year.
After that year, he moved to Rapid City for the summer before ultimately coming back to Brookings for good.
“The summer of 2008 Justin Sell was hired as athletic director,” Merriam said. “We talked about starting a TV show and he asked if I was interested and I said sure. So, I did color for the football games with Steve Imming for two years until he retired and then slid into his role as well as anchoring the TV show.”
Since then Merriam recalls several memorable stories in his time with the Jacks.
“Nate Wolters senior year, December 2012,” Merriam said. “We went on a nine-day road trip. We started in Montana and won in double overtime, then flew to Nashville and sat around for two days waiting to play Belmont, played like garbage and lost. Then we were supposed to fly to Chicago and make a connecting flight there to New Mexico to play top 25 New Mexico who was coached at the time by current UCLA coach Steve Alford.
“The weather was horrible in Chicago, so we packed up everything and rented a bus and drove the 1,200 miles from Nashville to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We arrived the night before and had to play at noon the next day. We ended up beating them, then had to scramble to get to the airport for the last flight out of Albuquerque.”
Merriam said that was a memorable one because of the fact Nate Wolters was a NBA prospect and ESPN was tweeting about the trip and the bus ride from Nashville to New Mexico.
It’s not always sunshine and rainbows for the Merriams. With all the travel during the season, it takes a toll on the family.
“It’s a juggling act, I’m really lucky to have a wife that’s understanding as she is,” Merriam said. “It’s tough at times with having a four-year old son. In basketball season I may be on the road three or four nights in a row for four consecutive months.”
Through all the challenges of the job Merriam says the one thing he loves about being at SDSU and the job he’s in is seeing athletes mature into young men and women.
“Getting to know and work with the student-athletes is something I cherish,” Merriam said. “You come across people who you called their games six or seven years ago and then you see them grow up and have families of their own. That’s an awesome feeling to be able to grow with them in college and now see them pursue their dreams.”
Though Merriam knew from a young age he wanted to be talk about sports, he encourages people to pursue their dreams even if they only find out what they want to do in college or even mid-way through college.
“You never know where it will take you, what the path will be and who you will meet,” Merriam said. “Be involved in college, sit at home and turn the volume off and practice calling the game to yourself.
“It’s like football. The more snaps you take, the better you will be at it. Never turn down an opportunity. Also make sure that’s what you want to do as well, if you want to talk about sports, then by God do it, but if not, then follow your passion elsewhere.”