Chapman professor reflects on journey to becoming Ducks announcer

Phil Hulett, the public address announcer for the Anaheim Ducks, is also a lecturer in Chapman’s School of Communication. Photo courtesy of Hulett

Recently, a group of baby yellow jackets have been trying to squeeze their way through corners in the doors of Phil Hulett’s house. He read that they didn’t like peppermint oil. So to try and “brave” the situation, as he put it, rather than using a bait station or a spray, Hulett rubbed some of his daughter’s peppermint essential oils all across the door, then dropped the cotton ball next to the frame. 

It remains to be seen if Hulett will actually get rid of his yellow jacket problem in that unconventional way. It’s a shot in the dark. But when he takes these types of swings, they’ve seemed to work out well for him in the past. 

An example? In 1996 he obtained his current job – the longtime, beloved public address (PA) announcer of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks – after he was called by an operative for The Walt Disney Company, a corporation that owned the team at the time.

“He said, ‘Hey, what are you doing during the regular hockey season next year?’” Hulett said. “I said, ‘I don’t know, working for you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that sounds good.’”

It’s simple, like Hulett’s signature catchphrase of “Anaheim Ducks, goooaaalll,” a phrase that has become so iconic amongst Ducks fans that it’s inspired a hashtag which frequently trends on game nights. It’s simple, like his style of storytelling, in which he draws you into a neatly organized narrative structure with a warm, knife-slicing-through-butter tone. It’s simple, like the advice he gives his students in the Podcast Production and Editing and Opportunities in Digital Media classes Hulett teaches in Chapman University’s School of Communication.

“When you want something and you think you can help someone’s situation – whether it’s a company, friend or family member – simply ask,” he said. 

He never seemed to ask his family for permission to pursue his dreams, though. His father wanted him in a “nine-to-five, blue collar job,” as Hulett described; punch the timeclock, come home, hop on the BarcaLounger, kick off the shoes, flick on the TV and pop open a beer. 

“That’s not the future I saw,” Hulett recalled. “It was a little more glamorous.” 

Ironically, it was his father’s own fault his hopes for his son were dashed. When Hulett was young, he was given an old reel-to-reel recorder with a microphone. He used it to record over the monologues of the DJ on his favorite radio station, in the process creating his own station he dubbed “KROT.” 

Slowly, Hulett fell in love with how DJs could captivate an audience in that golden age of radio in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s – how it would feel like the world crashed down around him if he didn’t tune in to hear what they had to say. He fell in love with the legendary Chick Hearn’s broadcasts of Los Angeles Lakers’ games, inviting his friends to play pickup basketball at a hoop above his garage in his driveway, and then narrating the entire game like a play-by-play announcer. He fell in love with auditory storytelling, training his voice by recording himself in the broom closet of his high school principal’s office, eventually becoming the program director of a student-run radio show at California State University, Long Beach. 

“I was already completely sold on the concept (of radio),” Hulett said. “Now, did I believe I could be on the radio? I knew I wanted to.” 

That dream took a sharp turn, though. After he bounced around from radio station to radio station after college, Hulett attended an open tryout for the Ducks’ PA announcer position in 1994. One slight catch: the day before he auditioned, Hulett underwent hernia surgery, and on the day he auditioned, the Professional Bull Riders were in town at the Ducks’ arena.

“Not only was I in pain walking, but now I had to walk over the mound of sawdust and cow dung out to a table in the middle of where the ice normally is,” he said, the corners of his mouth upturned. 

He put tremendous enthusiasm into every call he made during that audition. He didn’t get the job. But two years later, that enthusiasm paid off when Hulett was offered the position in that phone call, quickly becoming a name around the league due to the exuberance he put into his announcements.  

“(The NHL would) go to the front office of the Ducks and say, ‘Tell your public address announcer to calm down,’” Hulett said.

He didn’t. He hasn’t. The iconic “Anaheim Ducks, goooaaalll” remains the same, and with it, he’s earned the love of a community of Angels fans who refer to him as the greatest PA announcer in hockey.

Hulett’s sure, of course, other fans refer to their PA announcers the same way. He just doesn’t always like admitting that to himself. 

“I just feel so blessed and lucky to have hockey fans who seem to completely accept me for what I am,” Hulett said. 

What is he? 

“I’m just a guy who talks on a microphone,” he said.