The morning after UConn Magazine visited “The Dan Patrick Show” studio for a story about associate producer and board operator Marvin Prince, the zingers begin to fly on the air.
“Marvin wants to change his name. He would like to be known as Prince Marvin instead of Marvin Prince,” says Patrick, the award-winning sportscaster who helped make ESPN’s “SportsCenter” appointment viewing. He also hosted NBC’s “Football Night in America” and now helms this nationally syndicated sports talk show played on nearly 400 radio stations and streamed on NBC’s Peacock for three hours every weekday morning.“I said OK. If you want to be known as Prince Marvin, we can do that. I thought it was a little bold on your part.”
Seton O’Connor, director of operations — and, like Prince, one of Patrick’s four on-air sidekicks, dubbed “The Danettes” by Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller — quickly chimes in: “Maybe the First Prince of Dan’s Air; like Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Just rolled that right off the top of my head.”
“It was really hard getting my head through the door this morning,” says Prince, a UConn alum and mega-fan who often wears Huskies apparel to the studio and keeps a UConn basketball jersey on the back of his chair, shown every time the camera sweeps through the studio during the televised simulcast.
Patrick snaps back: “I thought you’d come in with sunglasses on, maybe a limo.”
Prince’s wasn’t quite a from-the-mailroom rise, but close.
While performing freelance technical work for televised events in New York City and Connecticut, Prince learned about the construction of Patrick’s new studio in Milford, not far from his home in Bridgeport, where he lives with his wife Jillian (DeMasi) Prince ’07 (CLAS) and their son, Lorenzo. Having gained production experience as an ESPN intern, he was hired in 2019 to help on the build and stayed on as sound engineer, one of several “back-room guys” working on the show known for its incisive, raucous interviews with A-list figures in sports, media, and pop culture — as well as the witty banter among the on-air talent and with listeners and interviewees.
Even as he made his first on-camera appearance in the show’s video spoof of the 2021 Sports Emmy Awards, wearing a white tuxedo jacket and holding a microphone for a mock celebrity red carpet interview of Patrick, Prince didn’t anticipate becoming a Danette.
