Alan Cass, probably best known as the “Voice of the Buffs,” retired Jan. 31 as director of the Coors Events/Conference Center and assistant athletic director after a 38-year career at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder.
Cass, who says he is “moving on to a different phase of university life,” will continue to announce ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ menÂ’s basketball and football games, coordinate the Boulder campusÂ’ three annual commencement ceremonies and serve as curator for the Glenn Miller Archive, to which he has devoted nearly 20 years.
“University history is very important to me. ItÂ’s in my genes,” said Cass, who is a distant cousin of the late jazz man. CassÂ’s grandmother also was one of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥Â’s earliest women graduates, earning her degree on the Boulder campus in 1891.
Cass, 57, joined the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ staff in 1959 as a sound and lighting technician and stagehand at Macky Auditorium. In 1965, he was named stage manager, and in 1967, director of Macky Auditorium.
He served as assistant director of the University Memorial Center from 1970 to 1979, and then moved over to be assistant director of the Events/Conference Center. He was named director of the Coors Events/Conference Center in July 1984, and was given the additional position of assistant athletic director in December 1996.
“Alan's relationship with the university goes beyond his personal career,” said Vice Chancellor for Administration Paul Tabolt. “He is a long-time friend and contributor to the community at large. He has given his time to serve as an announcer of high school basketball games, to establish and build the Glenn Miller collection, and to help remind all of us of the historical tradition of the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ campus.
“We've grown accustomed to his voice as the announcer for ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ football and basketball games as well as at Broncos football games that are played at home,” Tabolt said. “Alan is a warm and caring person who will always be a friend.”
Cass said the lasting friendships he has made have been the most rewarding part of being at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥. “Having the opportunity to work on a university campus is extraordinary,” he said.