North Carolina State University sports radio broadcaster Gary Hahn was suspended on Friday for a comment about “illegal aliens” he made on the air during the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
That event, in which the NC State Wolfpack lost to the Maryland Terrapins, was held in Charlotte, North Carolina. But during the game, Hahn gave the score of the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas: “Amongst all the illegal aliens down in El Paso, it’s UCLA 14 and Pittsburgh 6.”
After the game, Hahn’s employer, Learfield Communications, told the Fayetteville Observer that Hahn would be taken off the air indefinitely.
NC State has not commented on the incident.
The school’s website notes that Hahn has been the radio voice of Wolfpack football and basketball since the 1990-91 season, part of a career that began in 1970.
The El Paso City Council extended an emergency declaration last week as the community faces a growing number of migrants sleeping in the streets, sometimes in freezing conditions, the El Paso Times reported.
Many are in the city legally as asylum-seekers, the newspaper said.
“The people crossing come from all parts of the world to escape economic devastation and extreme crime,” the city’s website states, adding that the city is trying to provide “food and water, connectivity, transportation assistance, and temporary shelter if needed.”
As a result, the Sun Bowl Fan Fiesta was canceled as the convention center was being used as temporary housing for the migrants, KTSM reported.