‘He sees with his ears’: A blind Delaware broadcaster defies odds as radio announcer for pro basketball team

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Sitting at a courtside table in the basketball arena, head tilted downward, the slender young man wearing black sunglasses and a headset with a microphone is motionless except for fidgeting fingers.

Allan Wylie is the radio color commentator for the Delaware Blue Coats NBA G League team, waiting and listening as his play-by-play colleague describes the game’s action.

After Blue Coats guard Jaylen Martin gets fouled, the Rowan University freshman doesn’t miss a beat.

“You’re gonna really have to keep an eye on him. Jaylen Martin really shined in that Blue Coats loss to Capital City,” the announcer gushes. “Like you may have heard on the pregame — 35 points — and he really got things started for the Blue Coats offense. Was a big spark plug for that offense, for the success that they did have. Have to look at him to get a lot more touches today.”

The kid in the sunglasses rattles out his commentary without referring to a team roster or stat sheet. Not that it would have mattered. The announcer can’t see a thing — not Martin, the other players, the crowd or the bouncing ball, as Allan Wylie is blind.

Despite being blind since birth, Wylie is successfully doing live radio commentary for a professional basketball team — and becoming a media sensation in the process.

Welcome to the fascinating world of Wylie, a freshman at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, whose talents have been chronicled by national and local outlets.

Wylie, a soft-spoken, confident young man, broadcasts for 89.7 WGLS-FM, Rowan’s radio station, and makes the 30-mile trip with his broadcast team report on the Philadelphia 76ers’ G-League club.

For Wylie, it’s simply the next step in a journey that started when he was an adolescent sports nut in Ohio, listening to and announcing along with broadcasts of Cleveland Indians baseball, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball and University of Michigan football games. “My parents didn’t know I was staying up as late as I was,” he admits.

Even then, the thought of a career in broadcasting began germinating in his young mind.

“I’m like, ‘I may not be able to call play-by-play, but I can do color commentary,’” Wylie remembers thinking. “And so it really kind of snowballed from there.”

Neil Hartman, a former Philadelphia TV sports anchor who heads Rowan’s Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact, raves about Wylie.

Three years ago, Wylie attended Hartman’s play-by-play broadcasting camp in Chicago, and blew him away.

“We’ve had other kids with disabilities, but never a blind camper before,” Hartman said at a recent Blue Coats game. “I didn’t know what to think. But after the first day, I went to his dad and I said, ‘You know what, I think this young man has a future.’”

“You could tell pretty quickly he’s a very mature, very intelligent young man. Great voice and he loves sports and he listens to sports and he prepares really well. So all that information that’s in his brain, he’s able to convey it to an audience.”

‘Knows where they went to school, what coaches they played for’

So how does Wylie describe and analyze the action of a game he can’t witness with his eyes?

The answer is simple, Wylie says. He studies, memorizes, listens and listens some more.

At his dorm, Wylie has a braille computer he uses to conduct research on G League players, teams, matchups, injuries and statistics.

“Then I’ll write down notes and then I’ll read over those notes before I go to the game,” he said.

Once at the announcer’s table, “I honestly just try to use my memory.”

On a recent night, as the Blue Coats prepared to tip off against the Cleveland Charge, Wylie showed off the depth of his preparation. When asked at random about Blue Coats forward Isaiah Mobley, Wylie began riffing immediately.

“His brother Evan plays for the Cavaliers,” Wylie says in his knowing voice. “He played college basketball at USC, was a guard. He originally did play for the Cleveland Charge, who the Blue Coats are playing right now, but made the move over to Delaware just this year. So he’s one of the new guys.”

Asked why Mobley isn’t getting a lot of floor time this season, Wylie noted that the player has “had some injury issues,” and other players such as Jeff Dowtin and Judah Mintz “have stepped up.”

So what could fans expect to see from the Cleveland club that night?

“They move the ball well, but they are 27th in the G League in points per game,” he replied. “They are dealing with injuries.”

“Their really big players? I would say Emoni Bates, he went to Eastern Michigan and Memphis. He was a G League All-Star last year. Feron Hunt is another guy to watch out for. He had a foot injury against Motor City, so we’ll see if he’s playing.”

And that’s how it goes during the game. Play-by-play broadcaster Owen Colwell tells listeners about the baskets, misses, rebounds, fouls, score and more.

Then Wylie takes over, head always down, with effortless, spot-on commentary.

“I just rely on instincts,” he said. “Whenever the broadcaster pauses for a bit, I try to get a little something in there. And I’ll be analyzing plays for the 30–60 seconds timeouts. And really it’s chemistry and it’s a lot of practice.”

Colwell says he’s continually amazed by the depth of the information his partner can spout out on the spot.

“The background he knows about the players is just remarkable and that adds a lot to the broadcast,” Colwell said. “There’s so much action going on that there’s not really a lot of time [for me] to talk deeply about each player, but Allan knows where they went to school, what coaches they played for in the past, pretty much how they got to this current point. That adds a lot to the broadcast because he’s able to say it before the next play starts.”

Sam Prince, who does play-by-play when Colwell isn’t in the lineup, seconded that notion.

“Every time I listen to him, I’m like, there’s no way he can’t see what’s going on,” Prince said. “He is quite amazing. He’s going to go far in this industry.”

“People have said he’s a Google Drive. He memorizes everything. He knows the ins and outs. He listens to the sound. He listens and he just goes off what the play-by-play announcer does. He somehow knows it.”

‘He sees with his ears is the best way I can explain it’

Most fans in Wilmington’s Chase Fieldhouse have no clue one of the Blue Coats radio broadcasters cannot see, but those who know are just as impressed as Wylie’s colleagues from Rowan.

One is Cleveland assistant coach Doron Perkins, who took time before the game to chat with Wylie. He learned about Wylie while watching tape and listening to Blue Coats broadcasts while scouting his team’s G League foe.

“His enthusiasm for the game, you can feel it,” Perkins said. “He’s right on time and he paints a good picture of the game. It’s very interesting, very interesting.”

Blue Coats fan Jarret Carroll, who has floor seats next to the announcer’s table, said he noticed the college kid in sunglasses in recent weeks and was floored to learn his story.

“Just think about what he does,” Carroll said during a timeout, as behind him Wylie spoke to his radio audience. “Trying to do color, he’s got to remember so much and he can’t see anything.”

Carroll said the job must be especially hard in the G League, with its revolving roster of players who either move up to the NBA, hook up with a team overseas, get traded or get cut.

“You have so many players that are here or not here depending on a particular day or a particular week or particular month,” Carroll said. “And to know these guys as they’re coming up or going away, hats off to this young man.”

Scott Zurilla, the Charge’s radio announcer, is also a fan. He had heard clips of Wylie commenting on high school football games in Ohio and arranged for the teenager to participate in Charge broadcasts during the previous two seasons.

“It’s amazing what Allan can do,” Zurilla said. “His ability to recall is off the charts.”

When they worked together, Zurilla was astonished by how much Wylie could absorb and relate just by hearing him, the crowd and the players.

“He sees with his ears is the best way I can explain it,” Zurilla said.

‘Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I can’t do what I love’

Beyond Wylie’s announcing acumen, Zurilla said the young broadcaster is becoming an icon and inspiration for people with disabilities.

“He’s such a champion for the visually disabled,” Zurilla said. “He isn’t doing this because, ‘Hey, I can be a celebrity.’ He’s becoming a celebrity, but he’s becoming one as a by-product of really trying to let everybody know that just because you can’t hear, or can’t see, or can’t whatever, doesn’t mean that you can’t strive to be what you want to be.

“And that’s the really impressive thing about him. It’s not about him, it’s the greater good. He just happens to be the vessel right now that’s bringing it to everybody’s attention.”

Wylie appreciates the sentiment.

“Just because I’m blind and I have a quote-unquote ‘disability’ doesn’t mean I can’t do what I love,” he said.

Disability or no disability, “if you want something enough and you feel that you can put really all you have into it, you’re gonna get what you want and you’re gonna reap the rewards.”

So what’s next for this walking sports encyclopedia?

This spring he’s trying out for Rowan’s broadcast team with the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the city’s minor league baseball team.

Long-term, he plans to keep honing his craft, graduate in 2028 and get a job in the sports communications field.

Hartman said he can envision Wylie hosting his own talk show, an idea Wylie embraces.

“I would love to do any sports talk show,” Wylie said. “If somebody told me I can get paid for talking sports a couple hours a day, I’m all for it, so that’s really my end goal.”

He also envisions himself doing a podcast or even working for ESPN.

“I’d love to do just whatever I can get my hands on.”