What is Mike Tirico’s ethnicity? Inside NBC broadcaster’s family heritage and background originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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While he has been a premier talent at NBC since 2016, Mike Tirico became one of the most prominent voices in the NFL in 2022.
Taking over as the lead play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football, Tirico stepped into a major spotlight — further cementing a legendary broadcasting career that has included hosting Triple Crown races, the Olympics, the Stanley Cup Finals, calling NBA games, and more.
The 59-year-old has become one of the most recognizable figures in sports media, leading fans to question Tirico’s background and upbringing.
Here’s everything to know about Tirico’s hometown and background, including his ethnicity.
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What is Mike Tirico’s ethnicity?
Tirico has Italian and African-American ancestry. In 2022, he said on a radio show that his father is African-American, while his mother is Italian. At the time, he was discussing his “un-Italian” habit of not eating “the extra piece of bread.”
“When we grew up — my dad’s African-American, not in my life, my mom’s Italian — and her family, my grandmother cooked a lot for us. One of the things you do is you take the extra piece of bread, and they usually take the bread plate away from you after the salad,” Tirico said, per Audacy. “In an Italian household, usually it stays around. So the one thing I do is I don’t take the extra piece of bread. I think I did that enough in my past that I need to stop doing that.”
When it comes to race, Tirico also told the New York Times in 2017 that he questioned why he should have to “check any box.” That story came years after Tirico said in a 1991 Syracuse Post-Standard story that “he wasn’t sure if he was black,” according to Awful Announcing.
“If we live in a world where we’re not supposed to judge, why should anyone care about identifying?” Tirico told the New York Times. “The race question in America is one that probably never produces a satisfactory answer for those who are asking the questions.”
Mike Tirico parents
Mike Tirico’s mother is Maria Tirico, and his father is Donald Tirico.
In the 1991 Syracuse Post-Standard story, Tirico said that his parents separated when he was about four years old, and he lost contact with his father’s side of the family afterward, per The Root.
“The only contact I had growing up was with my mom’s side of the family. And they are all as white as the refrigerator I’m standing in front of right now,” Tirico said in the story, per The Root.
In the 2022 New York Times story, Tirico acknowledged that his father is African-American, but he was “not in my life.”
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Where is Mike Tirico from?
Mike Tirico is from Queens, New York. He spent the majority of his early life in New York, graduating from Bayside High School before attending Syracuse and graduating in 1988 with degrees in political science and broadcast journalism.
Tirico also spent four years as a sports director at CBS affiliate WTVH-TV in Syracuse before he joined ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor in 1991.
