Courtesy the Washington Post

(April 5, 2011) When Brandon Gaudin was hired as Butler’s radio play-by-play announcer just months after last year’s improbable run to the national championship game, everyone joked that he missed his shot to call a Final Four for the Bulldogs.

This is a dream come true for me,” the 27-year-old Butler graduate said before the Bulldog’s 53-41 loss to Connecticut on Monday night. “To just get the job at the school was always a dream for me and now to be on the grandest stage, calling the best game in college basketball, it’s almost surreal.”

Gaudin won a broadcasting contest in 2005 that included a live appearance on the CBS telecast with Greg Gumbel during the national championship game. Since then, he’s spent several years in different jobs before landing his coveted gig with Butler.

“It’s been a big whirlwind,” he said. “I think about that contest a lot because that for me was the first big time experience that I’ve had as a broadcaster. To be on that set of CBS, meeting Greg Gumbel and having him interview me and selecting my clip as the winner from all those thousands of people seemed surreal at the time.”

Gaudin has dreamed of becoming the voice of the Bulldogs since he was in high school. While in school at Butler, he did anything he could to become involved in the broadcasting department and get to know the men who called the games.

“I would do any menial task that I could just to be a part of it and listen in,” he said. “When I graduated I always thought how cool it could be if I could sit in this chair.”

He spent time in New York after graduation and found that many people he met had never heard of Butler. The Bulldogs’ recent success has changed that.

“Everyone would always ask what Butler was,” Gaudin recalled. “Was it Division II, was it Division III? Do they even have athletics?”

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