Beatrice native Nate Rohr is working at his dream job as a voice at Memorial Stadium.
Presently Rohr works as the public address announcer at home games at Memorial Stadium for Nebraska football. He has also done play-by-play for the Nebraska softball team for about 20 years. He does some play-by-play for some high school sports, public address announcing for the Mavericks and the Storm Chasers in Omaha.
He lives in Omaha with his wife, Ellie, and three children.
He says he believes his success has been a combination of luck and preparation.
Rohr said he’s known since he was 7 years old what he wanted to do with his life.
“My parents took me to a Royals game the year before," he said. "From that day on I knew I wanted to be in sports. I listened to every game. I was smitten. I studied the yearbook like it was a combination of the Bible and lottery numbers. It was everything to me."
People are also reading…
He wanted to be a big-league ball player, but his mom suggested he think about being a sportswriter or a broadcaster.
“The light went on and everything I did from that point forward was in preparation to become a broadcaster," he said.
Rohr said he watched sports and read about all of his favorite teams.
“I wanted to do that anyway,” he said. “It was indirect preparation. But I also bugged my family and did play-by-play games by turning down the sound on the television.”
Jason Sutter was a middle school teacher when Rohr was a student at BMS.
“I had Nate in a study hall at the end of the day and every day he would bring this big book of Nebraska football history,” he said. “He would sit in front of my desk and I would quiz him. I think he has a natural gift, but he was doing a lot of preparation. I’m proud of him.”
Rohr said he luck had its place too.
“When I was a sophomore at Beatrice High School it was custom that a Fine Arts senior would be the public address announcer for basketball games," he recalled. "The afternoon of the first game, John Jarosh asked a student in fourth period who originally said yes, but then decided he didn’t want to do the announcing. A friend connected Rohr with the student. From that point I did announcing for basketball, baseball and football.”
Rohr said his biggest point of fortune was that he did it in Beatrice.
“This is a town that loves sports,” he said. “Sports matter here. It was central and so many people were encouraging. None of this happens without preparation.”
He worked at KWBE during high school. In the fall of 2001, they were not yet automated.
“It was a lot of easy hours for a high school student," Rohr said. "I had two hours on Sunday evening. What they wanted was someone to read the news and play some music. I did that but it was Sunday in the fall and for one hour I had my own sports show whether they knew it or not.
“I had a lot of opportunity at KWBE.”
Rohr said he also made connections while at KWBE and as a student at Beatrice High School. Those connections led to him being hired in the sports information office when he went to the University.
“When someone was unable to announce, I was ready,” he said. “I’ve had a place with softball since. In February I get to go to Puerto Veretto. That led to other assignments with other sports. There are a lot of skills that translate directly.”
He said he also needed a little luck at that stage. Rohr went on to explain a series of events that led to him being hired as public address announcer for Nebraska football.
