Crimson Tide sports fans know Chris Stewart’s voice; he’s been calling men’s basketball games at The University of Alabama for more than 20 years. Now, he’s picking up the microphone and stepping into a new position as the lead play-by-play announcer for Alabama football — a job he’s wanted ever since he was a kid. 
“It’s a childhood dream come true,” the Fairfield native said. “I have so many friends that have known me since childhood who are so thrilled for me. They laugh and say, ‘you literally talked about this when you were in elementary school.’”
Before donning the crimson and white in his career, Stewart wore the University of Montevallo’s purple and gold as a walk-on member of the men’s golf team. As the salutatorian of his graduating class at Central Park Christian School in Birmingham, he received a full-tuition scholarship that UM offered to valedictorians and salutatorians at any high school in the state.
It was here on the bricks that Stewart first got to try his hand at play-by-play announcing. The mass communication major poured himself into courses that provided hands-on experience, such as a news production class where students wrote, produced and did the technical work on a weekly newscast called MCS News, and a sports production class that broadcasted men’s and women’s home basketball games on a local cable channel owned by the University.
“I fell in love with doing play-by-play the very first game I got to do,” Stewart said. “I had encouragement from my professor Dr. Bill Duke, who was so good to me and had such a great impact on me. That was a real springboard for me to get started.”
Stewart also served as sports editor for the Montage and The Alabamian, sports director of the campus TV station and sports director of a small radio station about 10 minutes from campus in Calera.
“I was very grateful for the opportunities they gave me at Montevallo,” he said. “I got a lot of chances to make a lot of mistakes in front of some very small audiences before I started making all the mistakes in front of bigger audiences like I do now.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1992, Stewart’s career path took him through various radio, television and newspaper positions — one of his earliest assignments for the Over the Mountain Journal was interviewing John Forney, former voice of the Crimson Tide. Stewart expressed that he really wanted to become a play-by-play announcer and asked Forney if he could send him a tape of his work to review.
“He graciously agreed to do it, and gave me a call back a few weeks later,” Stewart said. “He told me he thought I really had a future in it and to keep working. And now I have the job that John Forney had for about 30 years.”
Stewart later landed at Birmingham-Southern College, where he spent eight years as the radio announcer for basketball. He got his start at Alabama calling baseball on Crimson Tide Sports Network radio and has served as the voice of men’s basketball since 2002. During this time, he has also served as the sideline reporter for CTSN’s radio coverage of Crimson Tide Football and the television host of “The Nick Saban Show.”
Stewart’s extensive sportscasting experience and accolades speak for themselves. In 2009, the UM National Alumni Association honored him with the Nathalie Molton Gibbons Alumni Achievement Award. Stewart was a 2021 inductee into the UM Athletics Hall of Fame and served as the keynote speaker at UM’s Fall Commencement ceremony in 2022. He has also been named Alabama Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association five times.
As announced in February, Stewart is entering this football season as the new voice of the Crimson Tide, succeeding longtime Alabama sports broadcaster Eli Gold — Stewart filled in for Gold in 2022 when he was absent due to health issues and handled road games in 2023. He is committed to carrying on the standard set by the announcers who came before him and has been grateful for the positive response and support from his community.
“You don’t accomplish anything or get any real opportunity without help in some manner from somebody,” he said. “And I know that a lot of people have impacted my life in a lot of different ways and I’m grateful to them. I’m just glad that they’re able to feel a part of this and celebrate this with me, because I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”
Having called Alabama football games before, Stewart’s excitement isn’t so much about his new title, but about the upcoming season in general. He’s looking forward to the first Alabama-Oklahoma Southeastern Conference game, the match-up against Wisconsin and the Alabama-Tennessee game at Neyland Stadium.
“That’s always a special opportunity,” he said. “And even though I’ve done several of them, you never take getting a chance to call the Iron Bowl for granted. So, there’s a lot — hopefully a couple playoff games and a national championship as well. That would be really special.”
