Former Bears radio voice Wayne Larrivee brings familiar sound to familiar foe

Wayne Larrivee was the radio voice of the Bears for 14 years, yet it wasn’t until he left for the rival Packers in 1999 that he understood Chicago sports fans better.

“I didn’t realize they have a passion for and follow their announcers and sportswriters,” Larrivee said. “That’s the thing that’s different about Chicago. I just thought, who cares if I leave and go to the Packers. That’s not gonna be any problem for the Bears or any of their people. And it became a problem. Some people said they were hurt by me leaving.”

Feelings aside, it was a significant loss for the Bears. Larrivee had established himself as one of the best announcers in the NFL, and he had become a modern Jack Brickhouse, also calling the Bulls (1991-2008) and Cubs (1994-99) part time on TV.

But you can’t fault a man for living out his childhood dream. Larrivee grew up a fan of the Packers and Yankees in the 1960s in Lee, Massachusetts, near the western edge of the state. He always said if he ever had the chance to broadcast one of those teams’ games, he’d be interested. The Packers came calling when Jim Irwin retired after 30 years.

“When that came up, I thought it would be an easy decision, but it was not,” Larrivee said. “It was very tough to leave Chicago when it came right down to actually doing it. We spent 14 of the best years of our lives, my wife and I and our two kids, in Chicago. It was a wonderful experience.”

On Sunday, he’ll call Bears-Packers at Lambeau Field with analyst Larry McCarren. Nostalgic Bears fans within reach of Milwaukee’s WTMJ-AM (620) signal can listen, and though the rooting interest has changed, the sound, rhythm and dialect have the same quality they had in Chicago.

Larrivee, 64, learned to broadcast as a student at Emerson College in Boston, but his biggest lessons didn’t come in the classroom. They came at Boston Garden, where Larrivee called Celtics games in the mid-1970s. How did a college student come across such a prestigious gig? With guile and style.

“I found one of these bag tags that had NBC on it and the peacock and the whole bit. It looked real official,” Larrivee said. “I put it on my typewriter case and put my tape recorder in the typewriter. I got dressed up in a coat and tie.”

The guards at the media entrance took Larrivee for a professional. He’d go upstairs into the empty hockey broadcast booths and call the action into his recorder. Larrivee became such a familiar face that when the Celtics made the playoffs, he received a postseason press pass.

“I was as big a regular as any of the writers or broadcasters,” he said. “I’d go into the press room and have a hamburger or something before the game. It was fun. Everybody thought I was working for something, and I really wasn’t. It was a great scam, and it worked. I did that for four years in college.”

Larrivee’s first announcing influence was Marv Albert. When Larrivee was in high school, he’d listen to Albert call Knicks games on the radio, and Larrivee went into college thinking he’d become a basketball announcer. It served him well during his 17-year run calling the Bulls.

But Larrivee shared Bulls games with Tom Dore, with Larrivee appearing on WGN and Dore on cable. Larrivee was the narrator for a Bears renaissance, starting with the 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. That’s another reason it was hard for many to see him go.

His first Bears-Packers game for that team up north was the game after Walter Payton died in November 1999, in which Bryan Robinson blocked Ryan Longwell’s 28-yard field-goal attempt as time expired, giving the Bears a 14-13 victory.

It snapped the Bears’ 10-game losing streak against the Packers, but it prolonged Larrivee’s woes in the series. His old broadcast team was quick to remind him of that.

“We were in the old press box [at Lambeau Field], and our booth was right next to the visiting booth,” Larrivee said. “And so Doug Colletti, whom I worked with for 14 years in Chicago — he was still doing the stats and still is on the Bears games — he slipped me a note through the window: You’ve lost 11 in a row now.”

As he finishes his 21st season in the Packers’ booth, Larrivee is entrenched in Green Bay, but it took some time. He said years after he arrived, some older Packers fans still associated him with the Bears and believed he was rooting for them.

“I remember talking to one of them,” Larrivee said, “and I said, why in the hell do you think I would have left Chicago to come here if I didn’t have a certain affinity for the Packers?”

Finally, Larrivee’s professional allegiance had aligned with his personal allegiance. Not that there ever was a trace of insincerity during his time in Chicago.

“I appreciate the rivalry, but to me, when I get set to do a Bears-Packers game, I think of all those years,” Larrivee said. “I think of how great the McCaskeys treated me. WGN Radio and TV were great to me. So whenever I think of the Bears, I think back to my years in Chicago and what a blessing it was to be able to do that.”

Remote patrol

Fox’s No. 2 crew of Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis and Pam Oliver will call its first Bears game of the season Sunday. The broadcast will go to 58 percent of the country in the noon window.

• In honor of Ken Harrelson’s winning the Ford C. Frick Award, NBC Sports Chicago will re-air its Emmy Award-winning “Hawk” documentary at 11:30 p.m. Friday and 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

• The Cubs are set to appear on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” four times in the first half of next season: March 29 at Brewers; April 12 vs. Cardinals, June 21 vs. Red Sox and June 28 at Yankees.