Carnie Smith Stadium has long been lauded, profiled and envied for providing one of the best home game atmospheres and home field advantages in college football.
That culture didn't sprout up overnight. It blossomed over time as the victories came one after another and season by season. Conference Championships and deep runs through the NAIA and NCAA Division II National Playoffs. Blowouts, nail-biting last-second wins and everything in-between.
One of the constants through the heyday of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s: the Gorillas' iconic public address announcer Dr. Peter K. Hamilton, who will be posthumously honored for his contributions to Gorilla Game Days among the 15-member Pittsburg State University Athletics Hall of Fame in October.
Hamilton, who grew up in Milwaukee, Wis., and moved with his family to the United States from Scotland at age 8, was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication in 1972 and assumed the role of Department Chair in 1989.
He first stepped into the role of P.A. Announcer for Pitt State football on Nov. 8, 1980, for the Gorillas' regular season finale against rival Emporia State.
His tenure on the stadium microphone spanned the greater part of three decades, from that November day in 1980 until the conclusion of the 2007 campaign 26 seasons later. Along the way, he treated packed houses to his distinct cries of "First Down, Pitt State!", "Here Come the Gorillas" and, eventually thanks to the worldwide success of the rock band Guns N' Roses, his signature "Welcome to The Jungle!" call.
Brian Johnston came to Pitt State as a freshman in 1992 and cut his teeth for the CAPS TV broadcasting crew before graduating from the college in 1996. He's worked in radio for 30 years, broadcasting Blue Springs and Blue Springs South football games, enjoyed a long tenure as a Sponsorship Sales Manager for the Kansas City Chiefs and worked 17 years with PrepsKC.
"Any time I think of Pete as the P.A. Announcer it will always be his approach in pregame to the opponents," Johnston said. "I can hear him while I write this. If we were playing Emporia State: 'Welcome Hornets… heh heh heh (the cackle he had… it was fantastic!) WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!
"Over the years, I have met many former players that played against us (the Gorillas) and all of them have said, 'I don't know who that P.A. guy was but we hated that cackle and Welcome to The Jungle bit. It got the crowd into the game instantly and that wasn't good for us."
Veteran sportscaster Tom Van Hoy, who served as the radio "Voice of the Gorillas" for 15 seasons, from 1990-2004 and now serves as pregame and halftime show host for Furman University football and color analyst for Furman basketball radio broadcasts, recalls the impact Hamilton imparted on game days.
"There's a skill set needed to be an effective and memorable P.A. Announcer and Pete embodied that with his signature calls before and throughout the game," Van Hoy said. "He had an ability to inspire, motivate and encourage a hometown crowd. He knew this is your home field, your hometown, your team and to do whatever necessary to make it the biggest advantage possible. And he'd do this with a pervasive use of words with impeccable timing.
"There's motivational speaking and then there's a motivational speaker and that's what Pete was for Pitt State Athletics."
In addition to his role at Carnie Smith Stadium, Hamilton also served as the P.A. Announcer for men's and women's basketball at John Lance Arena as well as Pittsburg State's bi-annual Commencement activities every May and December.
Record breaking point guard Oscar Gonzalez, who led the Gorillas to three straight trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament and a school record 42 consecutive home victories between 1997 and 1999, remembers the impact Hamilton made behind the microphone at John Lance Arena.
"Everyone remembers Pete as the Voice of the Gorillas," said Gonzalez, a 2010 inductee to the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame who played professionally in his native Spain following graduation. "Back in 1995 during my first games at PSU you could truly hear his voice. The reason? We didn't have many fans in the stands, which definitely was our fault, not his. As we began to win games the crowds came, and he really involved them in the games. Then you heard his voice and he was leading the crowd to loud cheers and so he really changed the atmosphere of John Lance Arena into a true 'Jungle'."
Pitt State women's basketball coach Steve High fashioned one of the most ultra-competitive squads in the MIAA year-in and year-out during his Hall of Fame tenure from 1989-2007. He knows well how Hamilton impacted Pitt State Athletics in positive ways both visibly and behind the scenes.
"Our players would get really excited to have Pete introduce them for games," High said. "He could really damper down an opponent's intro and then really amplify ours. His big, booming voice really made a difference. He made home games at PSU special.
"I think the public saw him as Pete on the P.A. microphone, but Dr. Hamilton as chair of the Communication Department was very willing to meet with recruits on their campus visits. He did a terrific job not just selling a student-athlete on his department but on the university and our individual sports programs as well. He lent his support any way he could."
While Hamilton shined behind the microphone at Gorillas football and basketball games, he also was an elite communication professor, a fact not lost on one his former pupils and now 18-year faculty member in the Department of Communication, Dr. Alicia Mason.
"I often share how merciless he was when it came to statistics and how we used to have to hand-calculate regressions," Mason said. "It could take an entire chalkboard across a classroom just to work through one problem. But in Dr. Hamilton's mind, until you could prove that you understood how to do it—and could do it correctly—you weren't going to get access to the technology that would do it for you.
"There was an important lesson in that. He wanted us to know and understand what was happening beyond the technology, not simply know which buttons to push. That philosophy has stayed with me through my entire professorial career."
Dr. Troy Comeau is serving in his fourth year as Chair of the Department of Communication at Pitt State. A Missouri Southern grad, Comeau came to PSU for graduate studies in 1994 (not available at MSSU when he came to campus) and joined the PSU faculty in 1998. Comeau, who has guided the department's broadcasting emphasis since 2003, recalls both compassion and humor in Hamilton.
"Foremost, Pete cared about his faculty and for people in general," Comeau said. "He would find little ways to help. When my son was born, he was concerned I stay home to become a good family man and father. He encouraged me to arrange my teaching schedule to take a Tuesday or Thursday off to spend time with my wife and my son.
"He also loved to laugh and tell jokes. He really liked to poke fun at MIAA schools. His favorite joke was, 'How many MSSU grads does it take to change a light bulb? One thousand. One to hold the light bulb and 999 to turn the house!"
Generations of PSU students and Gorilla fans hung on his every word. For 12 seasons, from 1985 to 1996, Hamilton never announced a regular season home loss as the Gorillas posted a 74-4-1 record (including postseason play). The Gorillas won 11 conference championships, won the 1991 NCAA Division II National Championship, finished as national runner-up in 1992 and 1995 and a national semifinalist in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990 during that 12-year run.
National Championship winning quarterback Brian Hutchins grew up, and remains, best friends with Hamilton's son, Kevin.
"I was in Pete's house a lot growing up and he knew the Gorillas were recruiting me out of Pittsburg High School," Hutchins said. 'He'd say, 'Hutch, how does this sound? TOUCHDOWN, Brian Hutchins!' He would try it three different ways, playing around with the sounds.
"Pete loved the Gorillas. He had great game day presence. Everyone knew what was coming, and he voiced it all so well."
Hamilton has been often emulated, but never duplicated, in the time that has passed since his retirement from the school and his death, at age 65, in August 2009.
Van Hoy, a broadcasting legend who delighted Gorilla fans across the regional airwaves with his equally memorable "Give'em Six!" cries and his "It's Over! It's Over! It's Oooovvveeerrr!" call at the end of the Gorillas' 1992 overtime playoff win against North Dakota State, sums up Hamilton's contributions to the Pitt State game day experience best.
"Pete was not just a public address announcer, but he was the one who provided the Gorilla Faithful with a prodigious audio advantage on game day," Van Hoy said. "Those who grew up in Pittsburg or were Pitt State fans at that time knew it was football time in Pittsburg when Pete welcomed everyone to 'The Jungle' and prepared them for what was to come in one of the great home field environments in all of college football."
Dr. Peter K. Hamilton will be inducted into the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame, along with 13 additional individuals and the 2016 NCAA Division II National Champion women's outdoor track & field team, in ceremonies Oct. 23-24 on the PSU campus. The formal induction ceremony Friday, Oct. 23, will take place at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts at 6 pm. The event is free and open to the public. The group also will be honored at halftime of the Gorillas' football game vs. Central Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 24.
