Fans attending Falcon baseball games at Warren E. Steller field this year can hear a new voice reading lineups over the loudspeakers.

But behind the standard ‘Now batting for your Bowling Green Falcons’hellip;’ is a profound voice of caring for this University’s heritage. That voice belongs to 63-year-old Larry Weiss, who was recently hired to be the public address announcer at every home baseball game this season.

Weiss, a native of Canton, Ohio, actually attended BGSU from 1963-67. He earned a degree in journalism with a specialization in public relations, but also enjoyed classes in TV, radio, and film production.

Upon graduation, he landed a job with a firm in Toledo for a few years, and then moved on to the PR department with a tire business in Akron.

In September 1973, 10 years after he arrived at BG as a student, he received a call from the alumni director at the time, asking him if he would be interested in returning to work here.

‘I said to him then what other alumnis have said to me since,’ Weiss said, ‘That those were the best four years of my life, and I would love to come back.’

Five years later, after leading a successful campaign to build the Mileti Alumni Center, Weiss became the alumni director himself. He spent the next 27 years in various positions within the Alumni Office, and in 2000 moved to administration under Dr. Sidney Ribeau.

All of these positions enabled Weiss to travel around the country, especially to Washington D.C. as a representative of BGSU. This past fall, he stepped down as associate vice president, making it exactly 40 years since he graduated as a Falcon.

But Weiss’ service continues.

President Ribeau requested that Weiss lead the University’s 100th Anniversary Celebration in 2010. He also asked if Weiss could author a history of women’s basketball at BG.

He dutifully accepted both.

‘I thought, ‘You couldn’t find two things that I would enjoy more here in retirement,” Weiss said.

But perhaps he spoke too soon.

This past winter, Weiss contacted Kevin Shields of the Office of Sports Information, and asked if he might need a PA announcer. Shields, who has numerous other duties to take care of this season, including PA work, gladly accepted the offer for someone to share the burden in the press box.

Weiss has been able to use prior experience in broadcasting with WBGU-TV’s programs, ‘Timeout’ and ‘Northwest Ohio Journal,’ along with radio work with WBGU-FM when he was a student.

Those experiences helped shape his voice into one of the most recognizable around campus this spring.

‘No doubt about it,’ said Falcon baseball coach Danny Schmitz. ‘It sounds like he’s worked at Major League parks with that voice. He’s very professional and really good at what he does up there for us.’

Besides the way he sounds inside the press box, there is another element Schmitz feels Weiss possesses that adds to the atmosphere at Steller Field this season.

‘When you think of BGSU, you think of Larry Weiss,’ Schmitz said. ‘He’s been a Falcon for a long time and has a great support of athletics. He’s also just a tremendous baseball fan.’

The passion for his work above the diamond is highly evident to anyone around Weiss on game day, even his wife.

‘This has just been wonderful for me this season to stay close to baseball, which is what I enjoy doing,’ Weiss said. ‘My wife says, ‘I always know when you’re going over there because you have a big smile on your face.”