In his professional life, Stillwater Ponies Football Head Coach Beau LaBore is a history teacher.  So it should come as no surprise that LaBore relishes telling the history of Ponies Football.

“We’ve been playing great football in Stillwater for over 120 years,” said LaBore.  “In our program, we make it a point to ensure our players understand what a special life opportunity it is to play football in Stillwater.  We do everything we can to remind our guys that we have a historically-high standard of play in our program, and we have to live up to that standard in everything we do.”

So how do you communicate this expectation?  How about by getting one of the nation’s best sports broadcasters over the last 50 years to do your team’s pre-game entrance.

Dick Enberg, who has performed play-by-play for every major sporting event over his 50-year career with stops at NBC Sports, CBS Sports and ESPN, serenades the Ponies and their fans with the team’s historic accomplishments before the team races onto the field. 

“In 70 seconds, we get to share our rich history with our fans as we take the field,” said LaBore.  “We remind our fans and our players about the high degree of success we have in Stillwater football.  I cannot imagine taking the field any other way.”

The list of Stillwater football accomplishments read by Enberg is impressive:  262 All-Conference Players;  72 All-Metro and All State Players; 11 Academic All-State players; 13 Conference Players of the Year;  five Minnesota Players of the Year; two All-Americans; 577 Wins – second all-time in Minnesota; 22 Conference titles; 20 State Tournaments; and 4 state championship titles.

Also impressive is Enberg’s list of life accomplishments:  masters’ and doctorate degrees in Health Sciences; 13 Sports Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy; a combined 14 Sportscaster of the Year awards from the American and National Sportscasters Associations; excellence in broadcasting awards from the professional football, basketball and baseball Halls of Fame; induction into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame; and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  He's provided play-by-play and commentary for the Rose Bowl, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the US Open and the Olympics.

LaBore got the idea for the Ponies’ special entrance after attending “The Game,” the annual season-ending game between Michigan and Ohio State, which was played in Ann Arbor in 2011.  The Wolverines took the field after a listing of their program’s historic successes.

At the game, LaBore was a guest of former Stillwater resident Jeff Byle, who went on to become the Executive Producer of Fox Sports San Diego.  Enberg has been the play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres baseball team since 2010, and Byle presented Enberg with LaBore’s request to record the Ponies’ entrance. 

Even with his a long, rich career in national sports broadcasting, Enberg still treasures his roots in high school football in Michigan.  When Byle spoke about Stillwater’s football program, Enberg didn’t need much convincing to help out. He quickly agreed, and his voice has been used by the Ponies since 2013.

“As a former educator and coach, I know how important high school sports are to bonding a community and aiding in the maturity of young people,” said Enberg.  “I’m happy to play a small part of making game day exciting!”

Sports fans who grew up watching and listening to Enberg’s analysis and delivery will know him best by his iconic “Oh, My!” phrase, a response to significant or unexpected plays in the games he calls.  In an interview with the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame prior to his induction, Enberg talked about how he came up with the phrase.

“All good announcers have a punch line,” said Enberg, a native of Mount Clemens, Michigan.  “In the Midwest, ‘Oh, my!’ is a common expression.  My mother used it often, and you can use it with many different inflections. After about three weeks of using it, my pals in graduate school would see me and say, ‘Enberg, Oh my!’ and I said, ‘That’s going to be a good friend.’”

“Oh, My!  This is Ponies Football!”

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Fans, if you’d like to hear the Ponies' special introduction by Dick Enberg and see our Pony Rider lead our team onto the field, please be in your seats at Pony Stadium no later than 6:50 p.m. on Friday.  This will be our first game in the playoffs and our last home game of the year.

Click "Oh My!" to listen to the 2015 Ponies Football Entrance.

Go Ponies!