500 Games and Counting For Matt Noble on the PA Mic

“Have you ever seen a women’s basketball game before?” Brenda Frese asked Matt Noble in 2004. 

Noble, pointing up to the team and player banners in the then-Comcast Center rafters, told the Terps women’s basketball coach, “I’ve seen every one of those players play.”

Noble was a women’s basketball play-by-play announcer for WMUC Sports, the University of Maryland’s student-run radio station, during his four years as a student from 1977-81. Almost 30 years later, he was trying out to be the team’s public address announcer.

“Brenda heard me say about two sentences into the microphone and she goes, ‘You’re good!’” 

Nearly two decades later, Noble is still on the microphone and recently announced his 500th game on the public address (PA) system for Maryland Athletics.

“It’s like a hobby,” Noble said. “I don’t even consider it a job. It’s just a lot of fun to do.”

Noble’s first game as a Maryland PA announcer was on Nov. 14, 2004, when the Maryland women’s basketball team hosted UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League team, in an exhibition matchup.

He thought to himself, ‘Really, it’s my first game and I have to say all these [tough] names.’”

After the game, the opposing team’s head coach told Noble that he did a nice job pronouncing everyone’s names and from then on, Noble’s been a mainstay at the job for Maryland.

In 2011, the Maryland baseball team’s assistant coach Bernie Walter, who knew Noble previously because Noble coached high school baseball for 20 years, said that if he’s not coaching he wanted him to come to do PA. Noble had filled in for one game during the season before when there was a doubleheader and the usual PA announcer could not do the second game, so he had experience in baseball at Maryland.

From there on, he became the full-time Maryland baseball PA announcer. Noble claims he is a baseball person and he’s done 229 Maryland baseball games since 2010, building some of his greatest memories around the program.

“I enjoy going out there to watch baseball,” Noble said. “I was there for their renaissance. The 2010s were a big turn around for the Maryland baseball program. I just love the game of baseball and the fact that Maryland has really improved in baseball.”

In addition to being a part of the Maryland baseball rebuild, Noble has built memories covering other sports too.

The first football game that Noble PA announced for at Maryland was the ESPN-televised Labor Day Monday night game on Sept. 5, 2011, against Miami -- one that Maryland fans won’t forget.

Wearing their new state pride helmets and uniforms, Maryland kicked a field goal in the last couple of minutes to take the lead and defensive back Cam Chism returned an interception for a touchdown on the next drive to seal the win over the Hurricanes.

“That game against Miami was sold out and on national television,” Noble said. “That environment was just so neat to be a part of.”

As far as basketball is concerned, Noble has been PA announcing Maryland men’s basketball since the 2012-13 season and the atmosphere at XFINITY Center is what draws him back in.

“Maryland has such a great men’s basketball program and the environment at the XFINITY Center is probably the best in the country for college basketball,” Noble said. “It’s a great arena that has a great marketing staff that really knows how to put a game on and so the experience of basketball is just tremendous.” 

One of the most memorable games he covered as a PA announcer for Maryland men’s basketball was when the Terps beat No. 2 Duke on Feb. 16, 2013. In one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports at the time, fans stormed the court after the upset victory.

“I remember there were two campus police officers standing behind me right at the end of the game and I turned around and said, ‘What’s up?’ and they said, ‘Well, we’re here to make sure the students don’t trample over top of you because they are going to rush the floor if we win this game,’” Noble recalled. “It was kind of neat to be down there in the middle of all of that.”

Noble announced 18 games during Maryland women’s basketball’s 2005-06 National Championship winning season and he recalled that season and those players to be so special to be around.

“So many good players have come through Maryland,” he said. “I think you can almost put together a WNBA All-Star team with the players that I’ve been able to watch and it’s been a lot of fun watching Brenda Frese coach.”

Maryland’s football game against Rutgers on Dec. 12 marked his 500th career game as a PA announcer for the Terps. He expected his 500th to come with a baseball game against Nebraska back in April before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following several more football and basketball cancellations, Noble finally reached the 500-game milestone on Saturday.

The amount of games Noble has announced was not something he ever thought about until he was asked about it a few months ago.

“I was on a podcast this summer, and somebody asked me how many games I have done at Maryland and because we were locked down, I had time to go back and look through all my calendars, and I added up where I was and realized I was close to 500.”

One of Noble’s biggest mentors over the years has been the Voice of the Terrapins, Johnny Holliday. Noble interned for Holliday in 1980 and he was the reason that Noble came back to Maryland.

“He’s been somebody that’s been very helpful for me through my radio and PA career at Maryland and other places I’ve been to. You have to have really good people around you, they make you look good, and they also make the job fun to do, and it’s fun to go to work with those folks,” Noble said.

Noble grew up a Terrapins fan in Silver Spring, Maryland; graduated from the University of Maryland; and just announced his 500th game at Maryland. 

The extra attraction to his job is the fact that he’s always been a Maryland fan.

“I don’t think there’s any other job, there’s certainly no other PA job in college that I would want over Maryland,” he said. “Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen were Maryland people, who largely grew up being Maryland fans -- it’s that connection to your school that means so much. I think it really makes it that much more special and much more fun to do the games because of that.”