Catching up with Reb Porter, the former longtime voice at Pacers home games
Porter talked with Fieldhouse Files while attending his first Pacers game in seven years as an honorary guest of the team.
Reb Porter was pleasantly surprised when the inbound call came in.
“I was shocked,” he recalled.
On the other end of the call was Dean Heaviland, the Pacers’ Vice President of Game Operations and a team employee since 1995.
Porter was the longtime public address announcer for Pacers games since the early NBA days. He ultimately retired from this unique gig, sitting behind the microphone at the scorer’s table for every home game, in 2010.
“When Dean called me up and asked if I wanted to sit in the race car and I hadn’t been here to a game recently other than seven years ago, I thought, ‘Yeah, I think I’d like to get re-immersed in the activities.’ And it’s been wonderful,” he said. “I love it.”
Porter was invited to attend their home game last Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets. And more than that, they wanted for him to be an active participant. First, he was the honorary starter for the game and he Revved It Up, a new tradition that is now in Year 2.
So after team intros, he sat in a custom Pacers IndyCar and revved it up to get the arena fired up — much like he used to do with his voice on the microphone.
Later, seated in special seats at the front of section 15, a game operations staff member brought him a wireless microphone before the two-minute mark of each quarter.
You know what came next.
“Two minutes, two-ahhh!”
Then at halftime, it was good to catch up with a legend of the franchise since he has not been around often since moving on from his visible role.