The timing could not have worked out more perfectly for Anthony Craven.

With two degrees from Mississippi State under his belt, Craven was working as the news and public affairs director at MSU’s campus radio station in 2014 as well as a play-by-play announcer for Bulldogs soccer, volleyball and softball games. Jonathan Holmes, the public address announcer for MSU football and basketball at the time, suffered a heart attack from which he ultimately recovered, but he needed to take some time away from the microphone.

The athletic department held an open tryout for Holmes’ temporary replacement, and Craven won the job. The Bulldogs experienced unprecedented success to start the 2014 season, rising to the No. 1 ranking by mid-October, so then-athletic director Scott Stricklin told Craven he could remain the voice of Davis Wade Stadium for the rest of the season. He is still in that position today.

“A little bit at least was out of superstition. Let’s not mess anything up,” Craven said. “Everything is going so well right now. And Jonathan Holmes was fine with that. I did football only for a couple of years while Jonathan did basketball and baseball, but after a couple of years, Jonathan was ready to give everything up except for baseball.”

Craven grew up in Clinton as a Bulldog fan, making the two-hour trip to Starkville several times a year for football, basketball and baseball games. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from MSU in 2001, getting his start in broadcasting at the school’s radio station, and later received a master’s degree in secondary education and teaching in 2008.

While in graduate school, Craven made a brief job detour into education, teaching middle school mathematics in Lowndes County for two years. But in 2007, the job at the radio station opened, and Craven could not pass on the opportunity to give back to the place that had given him his first taste of the broadcasting world.

“(It was) tremendously fulfilling on two fronts,” Craven said. “I was getting to use my experience as an undergrad toward my full-time job. I was able to do something I was incredibly passionate about as my full-time job, and I was able to give back to the students and try to make their experience as student workers at the station just as good if not better than my experience was when I was their age.”

Craven spent 17 years with WMSV, first as news and public affairs director and later as the general manager, before taking on a new role last November as the project manager for the Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute, which is housed on the MSU campus. The public address gig may be just a side job, but Craven relishes the chance to engage with the fans, whether they’ve been coming to games for years or are in Starkville for the first time.

Over his 10 years as MSU’s primary PA announcer, Craven has borrowed some catchphrases from his predecessors. Longtime PA voice Hank Flick would open each basketball game at Humphrey Coliseum by saying, “Welcome to The Hump for hoops!” Craven has continued that tradition, and plans to keep doing public address at his alma mater for as long as he can.

“As someone who grew up a State fan, still am a State fan, to get to do this in the stadium and go to all the football games and all the men’s and women’s basketball games, I’m like a kid,” Craven said. “I hope they let me do it for a long time. I hope the fans enjoy the fact that I’m having fun. Most PA guys at different levels, that’s their goal. I hope the fans appreciate that I’m one of them.”