Legendary Nebraska Broadcaster Kent Pavelka Announces Retirement at Season's End as Huskers Beat Kansas State 88-84 in Exhibition in Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska
Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska — On the night of October 26, the University of Nebraska men's basketball team defeated Kansas State 88-84 in an exhibition game before a sellout crowd at the BigIron Events Center, but the biggest news of the night came off the court: veteran radio play-by-play broadcaster Kent Pavelka announced on the pregame show that the 2026-27 season will be his last as the voice of Nebraska men's basketball and that he will retire at the end of the season. Pavelka first called a Nebraska men's basketball game in 1974, and his current stint began in the fall of 2006. He has chronicled the program's move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten, the move from the Devaney Center to Pinnacle Bank Arena, the 2013-14 run to the NCAA Tournament, the program's first since 1998, and its return to the tournament in 2024.
In the game, Nebraska went 21-of-27 from the free-throw line. Braden Frager scored a game-high 28 points with 10 rebounds, and Pryce Sandfort added 23 points, including eight points in a run that helped the Huskers protect their lead, as Nebraska went 6-of-6 at the line in the final 30 seconds to seal the win. Nebraska opens the regular season at home against Le Moyne on November 2. Announcing his decision, Pavelka said sharing it "just about takes everything I can deep inside my soul," because the job has meant so much to him, but "it's time."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：林肯市品尼高银行体育馆（资料图）。CrunchySkies 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska (file photo). By CrunchySkies, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
