KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's 7:30 a.m. and the Chiefs don't play until noon, but the Voice of the Chiefs — Mitch Holthus — has already started his day.
"Here we go," Holthus says as he climbed into his Chiefs-red, Ford pickup truck on the morning of Oct. 13 and pointed it toward Arrowhead Stadium.
Holthus had four cameras and a couple hitchhikers for this drive in addition to his customary haul of game boards, sponsor reads and a rolling briefcase full of information about the day’s game.
The preparation and planning for the Chiefs’ week-six game versus the Texans is all done.
Now, this drive is about Holthus getting in the right mindset.
He shuffles through his phone, which is plugged into the truck's audio jack. But there will be no NFL podcasts on this drive, no stadium music, no 101.1-FM “The Fox” pregame show pumping through the speakers.
Instead, when Holthus finally pushes play on a track, it’s the soundtrack for the movie “Gettysburg.”
"It's been part of my driving experience to the stadium for as long as I can remember," Holthus says.
He's got it covered. Gettysburg debuted in 1993 and Holthus debuted as the Chiefs' play-by-play announcer in 1994.
"It's like my life flashes before my eyes on every drive to Arrowhead," Holthus says.
He admits he doesn't quite know why he's latched onto this particular pregame routine.
"There's something about it that kind of reaches the soul,” Holthus explains.
We listen to tracks with names like “Men of Honor,” “Charging up the Hill” and The First Battle.”
Anyone who's listened to a Holthus broadcast shouldn’t be surprised by such a pairing.
"I've been a Civil War historian ever since I was a little kid,” Holthus says. “It just kind of triggers in my mind and in my emotions things that kind of flash in front of me as I go to every home game."
Holthus grew up in Smith Center, Kansas, in the 1970s, when the tiny town in north-central Kansas probably boasted a population just a little over 2,000 people.
He loved sports, but had a good grasp on how far that would take him athletically and devised another plan — one that would allow him to make sports his living anyway.
Broadcasting sports was going to be his career, so in elementary school he would do mock play-by-plays of Smith Center High School basketball games into a microphone.
He already knew the team he really wanted to broadcast for — the Kansas City Chiefs.
"The team that was my boyhood team,” he says.
Holthus attended Kansas State University and was Voice of the Wildcats for 13 years. He also was a finalist for gigs with the Vikings, Falcons and Bears of the NFL.
But there was only one team and one place Holthus really wanted.
"I love the city and I love the (Chiefs) Kingdom,” he says. “Just driving by the loop and thinking how excited I was as a little kid to come to the big city."
That's what the bulk of this drive is about for Holthus: Remembering his roots and thinking of the "Smith Center farmer who's out putting up fence while listening to the broadcast,” Holthus says.
Quick-witted and ever the jokester, the drive to the stadium is a serious time for Holthus, the self-described historian who's ever-mindful of his own history.
Eventually, the drive — and the soundtrack — ends and the day becomes about football ... and fun.
"Now, it gets real for today,” Holthus says.
We turn from Manchester Trafficway onto a road that leads to the Truman Sports Complex.
Parking attendants ready to give the big, red truck a hard time quickly fix their face when they see it's Holthus passing by.
After all, Mitch has been around through seven head coaches, four general managers and two owners. He's about as constant as the smoke from a grill at Arrowhead Stadium.
There's a fan riding a custom, Chiefs-themed, zero-turn lawn mower doing donuts in the parking lot.
"This is who you're broadcasting too as well,” Holthus says.
No more solitude, being alone with your music and your thoughts. It's sensory overload from here on out.
"This is the end of the drive when the game hits, and there's a lot going on between now and when I go on the air,” Holthus says.
Pulling his rolling briefcase behind him, Holthus makes the final walk through the parking lot, up the steps and into Arrowhead Stadium.
It's 8:05 a.m.
In a few short hours, Holthus will broadcast another Chiefs football game — weaving in war analogies, plucking adjectives to describe quarterback Patrick Mahomes out of thin air — in a familiar, guttural tone all the team’s fans know.
It's what he always saw in his future.
That's why he's so thankful for his past.
