Phelps, Gaines and Tirico Lead an Outpouring of Love and Prayer for Dan Hicks

The tributes kept coming Thursday, and nearly all of them sounded the same note: Dan Hicks was as good a man as he was a broadcaster. A day after the death of NBC's longtime voice of golf and Olympic swimming at 64, the athletes he called, the partners who sat beside him and the colleagues he helped along the way filled social media and the airwaves with memories, and many of them with prayers.

No swimmer's career is more tied to Hicks' voice than Michael Phelps'. Speaking by phone Thursday morning, Phelps said he was in shock, and his voice cracked several times as he talked, The Daily Wire reported. He learned the news when NBC's Mike Tirico called and asked him to phone right away. Hicks called all 23 of Phelps' gold-medal races, and the two first met in 2000, when Phelps was a 15-year-old making his first Olympic team; Phelps credited Hicks with helping him grow into a polished interview. They played golf together in June and celebrated Phelps' birthday over dinner, and Phelps joined him in the booth at the Phoenix Open earlier this year. Phelps, Hicks and swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines had been looking forward to working together again at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. "I looked forward to being in the booth with him in LA," Phelps said.

Gaines, who sat beside Hicks for eight Olympics beginning in Atlanta in 1996, posted that "my heart is broken," ClutchPoints reported. He called Hicks one of his closest friends and the glue that held NBC's swimming team together at every Games, and he sent his love to Hicks' wife, ESPN's Hannah Storm, and their daughters. Gaines also said he and his wife, Judy, are keeping the family in their prayers, Awful Announcing reported.

Tirico, writing on Instagram, recalled that his very first day at NBC was The Open, working alongside Hicks and Johnny Miller, and that Hicks made him feel like family from the start. "Our entire company is gutted," Tirico wrote, adding that many people at NBC Sports cannot picture the network without him.

Golf Channel's Roger Maltbie choked up as he called Hicks a pal and described the "supper club" he shared with Hicks and Jimmy Roberts. Roberts said Hicks generously helped him when he moved into play-by-play, and Brandel Chamblee remembered him as hilarious and always encouraging to teammates. ESPN's Jay Bilas called him one of the nicest and most caring people he had ever met.

Faith ran through many of the messages. ESPN's Rece Davis asked God to bless Storm's family, and Linda Cohn and NBC's Nicole Auerbach asked for prayers, The Comeback reported. Storm wrote that she and their three daughters are heartbroken.

The PGA Tour said it was devastated by the sudden loss, noting that Hicks' voice filled living rooms through more than 25 years of NBC golf and that he was kind to everyone around him, Yahoo Sports reported. Hicks had been slated to call Saturday's Notre Dame-Boston College game; his last assignment was the Irish's win over Stanford on Oct. 10.

In a business full of big egos, it says something when the first word out of so many mouths is kind. Hicks spent 34 years at NBC Sports making other people's moments bigger than his own. The young swimmer he coached through his first interviews grew into a champion who still called him family. That is a legacy measured in people, not ratings. Our prayers are with Hannah Storm and their girls.