Dan Hicks, NBC’s voice of golf and Olympic swimming, dies at 64

He died late Wednesday, November 11, 2026, in Connecticut. His family and NBC announced his death Thursday, November 12. His wife, ESPN broadcaster Hannah Storm, described “the sudden and unexpected passing of Dan following an acute illness.” The family’s statement did not identify a specific diagnosis.⁠5⁠6⁠8

The suddenness has a concrete measure: Hicks still had a football game on his schedule. He was due to call Notre Dame against Boston College on Saturday, November 14, part of his seventh season covering the Fighting Irish. The available reports do not identify who will take his place or establish plans for a remembrance at the game.⁠5

He is survived by Storm and their three daughters, Hannah, Ellery and Riley. MS NOW described their marriage as lasting 32 years; Storm’s statement called him “a devoted husband of over 30 years, loving father to our three daughters, and cherished friend to so many.” She added: “His loss is immeasurable.”⁠4⁠6

That remembrance supplies something a list of championships cannot. Storm described a man who brought energy, laughter and people together when he entered a room. The colleagues mourning him returned repeatedly to the same distinction: the familiar voice was only part of what they had lost.⁠6

Hicks joined NBC in 1992 after three years at CNN. Golf, his favorite sport, became his defining assignment. He worked as a tower announcer from 1995 through 1999, then moved into the lead play-by-play role in 2000. His broadcast partners included Johnny Miller, and NBC’s joint tribute described him as the signature voice of its golf coverage for 26 years.⁠5⁠6

Accounts differ on the exact length of his NBC tenure. CBS Chicago’s November 12 obituary gave 35 years, while Golf Channel’s report that day reproduced NBC Sports’ statement giving 34. Both accounts place his arrival in 1992; the network’s figure matches the interval through 2026. What is uncontested is the starting year and a working life spanning more than three decades at NBC.⁠1⁠6

The golf totals show how consistently he occupied the microphone: 27 U.S. Opens, 23 U.S. Women’s Opens and 27 Tiger Woods tournament victories, including three U.S. Open wins. His assignments also included the Ryder Cup, PGA Tour and British Open. These were not occasional appearances at marquee events, but years of accompanying the sport’s changing cast.⁠5

Woods’s playoff-forcing putt at the 2008 U.S. Open became one of the moments most closely associated with Hicks. Later that same year, Hicks and swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines called the American swim team’s comeback at the Beijing Olympics. The settings could scarcely have been more different; both became part of his enduring broadcast legacy.⁠6

With Gaines, Hicks called swimming at eight consecutive Summer Olympics. Their partnership chronicled Phelps’s eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008 and Katie Ledecky’s 14 medals across four Games, from 2012 through 2024. His coverage also reached back to Sydney, where Phelps made his Olympic debut.⁠5⁠3⁠16

NBC’s Olympic biography identifies 2026 as his 16th Olympics overall, a total encompassing more than his swimming assignments. He also called skiing, while his wider career included NFL and NBA coverage. The breadth mattered: audiences who knew him principally through golf might encounter the same voice at the pool, on the slopes or during football season.⁠16⁠7

Notre Dame was a recurring responsibility, not simply a late-career addition. Hicks first called its games from 2013 through 2016 and returned in 2024. His scheduled appearance against Boston College belonged to that continuing run of work.⁠5

Hicks himself did not describe that continuity as something he had achieved alone. In a September interview with The Associated Press, quoted by CBS News, he said he was “incredibly lucky to stay at one place this long,” noting that NBC had continued to carry the sports he covered. “But I think I appreciate it more and more the longer it’s been,” he said. It was an acknowledgment that even an established broadcasting career depends partly on where the rights to the games land.⁠5

The tributes after his death paired professional authority with personal warmth. NBC Sports executives Rick Cordella, Sam Flood and Molly Solomon praised an exceptional storyteller who elevated major sporting moments through knowledge, enthusiasm and humor. Then they turned to the teammate who greeted people with “a smile, a joke, or a word of encouragement, sometimes all three in the same sentence.”⁠6

Versant chief executive Mark Lazarus, a longtime colleague and friend, made the distinction explicit: “Dan was one of the very best at what he did, but what I will remember most is the person he was: a loyal friend and a devoted husband and father.” Golf colleague Roger Maltbie’s response was more immediate: “This is a tough one, I mean really tough.”⁠6⁠5

The PGA Tour described his voice as woven into viewers’ memories of the game, saying the warmth of his broadcasts was matched by his kindness away from them. USGA chief executive Mike Whan remembered his generosity and friendship. Sports television executive Sean McManus likewise placed Hicks’s life as a husband, father and friend above even his role in iconic sporting events.⁠5

A replacement can fill Saturday’s broadcast assignment. What those remembrances describe is not so readily replaced: years of shared work, an audience’s accumulated memories, and the person a family expected to come home. Storm thanked those surrounding her and their daughters with love and support. “There are simply no words to express how much he will be missed,” she said.⁠5