Longtime play-by-play man retires

Mark Beier, the longtime radio play-by-play voice of the Toledo Rockets football and men’s basketball team retired at the conclusion of the basketball season, concluding his 21 seasons of action.

Beier chose to step down so he could spend more time with his wife of 35 years, Debra, and less time away from home.

Beier was honored in a brief ceremony before the UT’s men’s basketball team regular-season finale versus Eastern Michigan on March 4. Head football and basketball coaches Jason Candle and Tod Kowalczyk presented Beier with a personal game jersey of their respective sports.

Over the length of his 21-year career with UT, he called 606 games as the Rockets play-by-play man. 252 of those were football games, the most recent of which was Toledo’s 32-17 victory in the Marmot Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 22, 2015.

In addition to calling play-by-play for the Rockets, Beier hosted the “UT Coach’s Show” for football and men’s basketball on the Rocket Radio Network since 1995 and has served as emcee for countless football, basketball and Varsity T Hall of Fame banquets.

In his first season as the “Voice of Toledo,” he called an 11-0-1 season capped up with a victory in the Las Vegas Bowl. A year later, he earned the duties to call the men’s basketball games as well.

Beier is known best for his trademark call, “Touchdown! R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-rockets!” after every UT touchdown, no matter the score.

He has worked with five football head coaches beginning with Gary Pinkel (1995-2000) and ending with Matt Campbell (2012-15) and Candle (2015) this past season.

Also during his tenure, he has seen three basketball coaches come through Savage Arena in Stan Joplin (1996-2008), Gene Cross (2008-10) and Tod Kowalczyk (2010-16).

Before coming to Toledo, Beier got his start in broadcasting working for WION in Ionia, Michigan in 1978. From there he moved to WLKR in Norwalk, Ohio where he worked from 1979-84.

Beier then moved on to WLIO-TV in Lima as a weekend sports anchor and later as a news anchor from 1985-88. From 1988-96 he worked as a general assignment reporter at WTVG-TV in Toledo.

In addition to being the play-by-play voice, Beier also worked from 1996-2001 as a general assignment reporter at WKBD-TV in Detroit.

The Rockets have not found a replacement for Beier as they will likely need someone who can do both football and men’s basketball.