KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After all this time, it still feels like year one for Mitch Holthus.
"I know it's 30 years, three decades, but it feels like my rookie year," said Holthus, Voice of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Holthus has called a team record 492 career regular and postseason games as the "Voice of the Chiefs."
"Did I think it would be 30 years, you know I was hopeful, prayerful that it would be, but someday there will be a book," Holthus said.
He said he'll be writing a story detailing his journey from growing up on a farm, to wanting to be a lawyer, to becoming the heart of Chiefs Kingdom. Chapter one, will take place in 1991.
"I had filled in for Kevin Harlan actually for one game when he was auditioning for national television, so my audition for the Chiefs job was a Chiefs game and I'm thinking, 'man, if I don't get this, I'm done,'" Holthus said.
Holthus said he was also a candidate for the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons. The right call eventually came three years later while Holthus was in the middle of doing play-by-play for a Kansas State University baseball game.
"I remember, I'm in the press box doing a baseball game, and I got a call, and it was, 'Hey, do you want to be the Voice of the Chiefs?" Holthus recalled. "I remember the guy doing the game with me, I said, you got the rest of this game, I'm out of here. It's like the sixth inning, I go, I'm out of here. I'm going to sign this contract tonight before somebody changes their mind."
In 1994, Holthus was back in the booth at Arrowhead Stadium, never thinking he and the Chiefs would be where they are today. When dividing up his three decades of time with the organization, Holthus said he looks at the first five years, then 15, followed by the past 10.
"The first five are with Marty Schottenheimer, who was an incredible human and a great football coach, and we were close, there was the five years of being a really good team and being so disappointed," Holthus said.
From there, it was up and down seasons for the Chiefs, recording two of the worst in franchise history. It was about 10 years ago when Holthus and the rest of Chiefs Kingdom felt there was some hope.
"I was at a public gathering, and I just told them that if I get a call, I'm going to walk out of here and it was [Mark] Donovan, and he said, we got him," Holthus said. "I had tears in my eyes because I thought this could change, a 180."
The Chiefs snagged head coach Andy Reid in 2013 and never looked back. Every season was a winning season. The Chiefs won five-straight AFC Championships, won two Super Bowl Championships in four seasons and held two Championship Parades through downtown Kansas City.
"To be at the top of the NFL for so long, was never in my wildest imagination," Holthus said.
Neither was his first Super Bowl call at Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Florida, when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-20. Then came the second iconic call Holthus would make at Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, when the Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35.
"Coach [Reid] would hold it and his reflections in there, or Clark [Hunt] would hold it, and Patrick [Mahomes], I thought 'that's it.' For the second time in four years, the Lombardi trophy has a red and gold reflection, a big red reflection," Holthus said.
These iconic phrases are forever engraved in the minds of Chiefs Kingdom, and the Chiefs have a chance to do it again.
"Here we go, we don't know what's going to happen," Holthus said. "Right, we're just opening up to this new reality show episode one, 2023, and who knows, but that's why I've got a little nervousness in my stomach right now."
The Chiefs open the 2023 NFL Season on Thursday Night Football as Kansas City hosts the Detroit Lions.
