Mick Hubert reveals spat with Jim McElwain that ended radio show

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For more than three decades, Mick Hubert served faithfully as the voice of the Gators. He is the only broadcaster in history to call national championship wins for the same school in college football (three), men’s basketball (two), and baseball (one).

Hubert, a Florida Sports Hall of Famer, worked tirelessly to be ready for the moment and his voice is intrinsically tied to some of the greatest games in UF history. Following his storied 33-year career, he announced his retirement in May and moved to Sarasota with his wife Judi.

Hubert will be back in The Swamp on Saturday for the Florida-LSU game, serving as the honorary Mr. Two Bits. Halfway through the 2022 college football season, what does Hubert miss most about being in the broadcast booth?

“I worked with, obviously, Heisman Trophy winners. But I’ve worked with Hall of Fame coaches who put their arm around me and treated me like I was just one of the gang. And Billy Donovan was the best of that,” Hubert said on the Gators Online Podcast.

“Billy would bring me into the coaches meeting and ask me questions about, ‘Should we press this team?’ He valued my opinion. So, I got treated well by all those people and that’s probably what I miss the most about everything.”

In addition to calling more than 2,500 games at Florida, Hubert also hosted the ‘Gator Hotline’ radio show and weekly TV show for the football and hoops coaches. As an employee of the University Athletic Assocation, Hubert always kept it positive about the teams he covered. He was honest but would never take digs or unnecessary shots at UF coaches or players.

Hubert was their ally. All of them recognized this, except one.

“Jim McElwain and I got into it,” Hubert said. “He was the only guy, really. I went nose-to-nose with him.”

Hubert reveals how his time on the radio show ended

Former Florida coach Jim McElwain spent two and a half years in Gainesville, far less time than Hubert. McElwain’s teams found success immediately, going to back-to-back SEC Championship games in his first two seasons. McElwain took advantage of a weak SEC East, and his teams weren’t particularly elite themselves.

In 2015, McElwain’s first season, the Gators had a thrilling 28-27 win over Tennessee, a game that was made closer due to the fact that Florida missed 26 tackles. You couldn’t hide it. McElwain bemoaned the missed tackles in his post-game press conference and again during his Monday media availability.

The topic was brought up again that Thursday during Gator Hotline, which was live from Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza at the time. Early on in the show, Hubert said a fan made a comment about Florida’s missed tackles that didn’t sit well with McElwain.

“He gets mad about it. Now I gotta deal with him. He’s upset for the next 45 minutes,” Hubert recalled. “We would tape the radio pregame show right after that (for Saturday). So, we finish and now I’m getting ready to do the pregame interview for the Ole Miss game.”

McElwain’s attitude didn’t change from the live radio show to the taping for the pregame show.

“I’m throwing softball questions,” Hubert said. “I’m not going in there like Mike Wallace was on 60 Minutes. But I said, ‘Hey, there’s a great matchup on the outside tonight. So, you got Laquon Treadwell against Vernon Hargreaves. That should be a good matchup.’

“He looked at me and he goes, ‘We don’t care anything about that. We don’t care about that. Whoever is over on that side, we’ll guard him.’ So, I’m thinking, ‘You could have given me a little better answer than that.’ These are two guys that are probably going to play at the NFL.”

Hubert was right. Both Hargreaves and Treadwell went on to play in the league and their 2015 matchup was talked and written about all week. Hubert carried on with the interview, moving to a topic that was on the minds of Gator Nation and something McElwain himself had already addressed.

It didn’t go well.

Nose-to-nose with McElwain

Hubert brought up Florida’s missed tackles, an area of concern that McElwain previously acknowledged and vowed to clean up.

“I said, ‘Coach, you mentioned last week we had a number of missed tackles. I’m sure you’re working diligently this week in practice about shoring up the tackling,” Hubert said. “And he looked at me and he gives one of these (a tongue-in-cheek gesture) and he goes, ‘Yeah, you’re just like the rest of ’em.’ Now that set me off.”

Nonetheless, Hubert remained calm and professional on air. He waited until the recording was over before responding to McElwain.

“I finish the interview and it’s like steam coming out of my ears. ‘You’re just like the rest of them’, meaning all the media,” Hubert recalled. “And so, we got done and I hit the stop button on the recorder. I stood up and he stood up. It was like, Earl Weaver with an umpire. We were this close. And I said, ‘What are you talking about? My job is to make you look good.’

“That’s all I’ve ever done. That’s all I’ve ever done for 25-plus years as the Voice of the Gators. I said, ‘You treat me like I’m a 19-year-old intern.’ And then we got into it. One of his assistants, I saw the door open and she snuck out. She got out of there. So, me and him were going at it. But that led to me no longer doing that show.”

After the heated exchange, Hubert went to former UF executive associate AD for external affairs Mike Hill (now the AD at Charlotte) and told him they had to find someone else to do the radio show with McElwain. Florida baseball broadcaster and former pitcher Jeff Cardozo took over as the host until this year, with the new Voice of the Gators Sean Kelly interviewing first-year coach Billy Napier every Monday.

“That’s the only time I ever got into it with any of the coaches,” Hubert said of the McElwain incident. “I had a great relationship with all of them, including the basketball coaches, the baseball coaches. That’s the thing, if you ask me what I miss the most, is just being around those kinds of people.”

Check out the full interview with Hubert on the latest Gators Online Podcast, where he reflects on his decision to retire, his storied broadcasting career and favorite calls.