Gerry Sandusky, the longtime radio play-by-play voice for the Baltimore Ravens and sports director at WBAL-TV, announced his retirement Wednesday. His broadcasting career has spanned nearly 42 years, with much of it coming in Baltimore, where he grew up.

Sandusky’s final 11 p.m. newscast is set for Friday, April 17.

The Towson University graduate is the youngest son of former Baltimore Colts assistant coach John Sandusky, who spent seven seasons in the NFL as a player. Football was an ever-present fixture of Gerry Sandusky’s life — in fact, when Sandusky was born, his father was on the practice field.

June McCafferty, the wife of then-assistant coach Don McCafferty, told Sandusky’s father, the defensive line coach, the news: “You’ve got a fifth lineman.” Sandusky was the fifth child.

In a phone call with The Banner, Sandusky recalled playing football games with the rest of the coaching staff’s kids on the sidelines while the Colts practiced. “I just grew up in that environment,” Sandusky said.

Sandusky began his broadcasting career in 1984 at WSVN-TV in Miami, but he soon returned to Maryland. In 1988, Sandusky became a sports anchor at WBAL, and he was named the sports director in 1993. In 2006, he became the Ravens’ radio play-by-play voice.

That same year, Sandusky’s father died. Before his father passed, Sandusky leaned in and whispered into John Sandusky’s ear.

“I made it to the NFL, too,” Sandusky recounted.

“That’s what it meant to me,” Sandusky continued. “It was full circle. Last year at training camp, it was just an ordinary day, we’re out there covering stuff, and I remember thinking, ‘From the time I was a ball boy to today, I’ve been to 61 spring training camps.’”

Over the years, Sandusky punctuated Ravens wins with the catchphrase, “The hay is in the barn!” He said he first heard it as a member of Towson’s football team, when coach Phil Albert would utter the phrase to mark the end of practice, according to a 2023 article in TU Magazine.

In a statement, Ravens team president Sashi Brown thanked Sandusky for his years on the air as the “Voice of the Ravens.”

“While Gerry’s in-game knowledge was second to none, it was his exceptional talent to ‘illustrate with words’ that truly sparked a long-lasting connection amongst our fans,” Brown said.

Sandusky said deciding to step away was a difficult decision, but ultimately he chose to spend more time with his family. His daughter gave birth to twins in September. Sandusky’s wife was there. Sandusky wasn’t.

“I couldn’t be there with my daughter when they were born,” he said. “I had to wait a month, until the bye week, to go out to San Diego to see my grandkids for the first time. And that was when I realized, as much as I love doing this — as much as I have loved this — I can no longer live my life around this schedule. I need to be there for my family more.”

During conversations near the end of John Sandusky’s life, Gerry Sandusky said his father missed the people in football the most — not the crowds and the games and the wins.

Gerry Sandusky will feel the same way. The people made this job his life.

Still, “I can’t miss that at the expense of my grandkids and my wife and my family anymore,” Sandusky said.