Holding a laminated group of orange cards, he sits next to the coach of a nationally ranked college football team.
He listens as the coach talks about injury problems and offensive success, but some wide-eyed football fan has not initiated this conversation.
Dave Hunziker is the “Voice of the Cowboys” and instead of having a lovely family dinner at home on the wet Tuesday night, he sits in the dimly lit section of Mexico Joe’s as a part of Mike Gundy’s weekly radio show.
On top of sitting next to Gundy for the radio show, Hunziker’s commitments for a typical week in his ninth season in Stillwater include 30 hours of pregame preparation, teaching a Tuesday/Thursday class and sitting in the booth for the actual game.
This is the life and job he has been preparing for since he was a child.
“I would play Nerf Hoop and do the game into the recorder. It drove my brother nuts,” Hunziker said.
“That was age 10 or 11 and I guess I never stopped, so here I am.”
The passion for play-by-play started as a boy while listening to baseball with his late father in their Kahoka, Missouri home.
“My dad died when I was 12, but when he was alive he would go to bed early because he had work in the morning and we would listen to the (St. Louis) Cardinals on the radio, listen to Joe Buck and we did that about all the time during baseball,” Hunziker said. “It was a special time with him, and I didn’t know how special of a time it was until he was sick.”
Hunziker’s interest continued to flourish and in 1988, he graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Following his graduation, the road to Stillwater led him through various programs, including Radford University and his final stop prior to Oklahoma State, Western Kentucky University.
After only 54 weeks at WKU, Hunziker made the decision with his wife to uproot his family once more and take the recently opened position at OSU.
Doing play-by-play for a major Division I program is not just some fantasy job for Hunziker, but one that he feels a certain pressure in because of his own dependency on it growing up.
“I know what it meant to me as a child to have really good radio broadcast, trying to follow the team I loved growing up and that was Missouri,” Hunziker said.
“I hope I can somehow come close to give what was given to me as a child. I take it as a great responsibility.”
Not only has his approach in regard to his craft changed and developed, but so have his choices in favorite college teams.
Jon Anderson, ESPN SportsCenter anchor and close friend of Hunziker, said that Hunziker’s loyalties have noticeably shifted since their college days.
“It’s ridiculous, quite frankly,” Anderson said. “If I have one disappointment in the man, it is that he seems to forgotten that he spent time in Columbia, Missouri.”
Hunziker said his justification for the change comes from the relationships he has developed at OSU.
“My college roommate will go to Safeco Insurance in Kansas City and sell insurance Monday morning just fine whether Missouri wins or loses. If it affected his livelihood, I’d feel differently,” Hunziker said.
“The same is not true for Mike Gundy or Travis Ford. I consider them friends too; it’s easy to understand where the loyalties are.”
The Tigers, along with a group of more than 20 of Hunziker’s family and college friends, will descend on Stillwater for this weekend’s Homecoming game.
Anderson said that no matter if Missouri can leave Oklahoma with a road victory, Hunziker will be taunted.
“(The outcome is) not going to matter because we will crush him anyway, because when he says, ‘I don’t think we played very good,’ ‘we’ means Oklahoma State instead of Missouri,” Anderson said.
“We try to remind him all the time that the ‘we’ is gold and black. He seems to somehow been taken over by the power of the orange.”
Anderson said aside from his friendship and Hunziker’s new colors, Hunziker’s talent professionally impresses him.
“I am never without the score, the down and distance, but more importantly, I am never without the description,” Anderson said. “(He is best at) setting the scene each game within each play and I think that has become a lost art.
“I think there a very few true, pure, great play-by-play guys anymore, but I think Dave is one of them.”
Hunziker said that the most important part of his job is insuring that his view of the game is not solely an orange one.
“Deal in facts and let everyone else form their own opinions,” Hunziker said.
OSU football coach Mike Gundy said who Hunziker is as a person sets him apart.
“My family and people that have followed Oklahoma State football for a long time really enjoy him,” Gundy said. “He is a perfect fit for Oklahoma State.”
Gundy and his family will not have to worry about Hunziker going anywhere.
“We are very happy, so my thinking is, as long as they will have us, I will stay,” Hunziker said.
“This is the top for me.”
With Hunziker content, there is nothing else to his story as of now, it is his own words that best fit.
“Good Night Vienna.”
The Daily O'Collegian > Sports
Mizzou alum’s voice roars for Cowboys
Published: Friday, October 16, 2009
Updated: Friday, October 16, 2009
 "Photo: N/A")
OSU radio announcer Dave Hunziker, a Missouri graduate, has become the voice of OSU athletics in his nine years in Stillwater.
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