Fox 59 sports anchor extraordinaire Chris Hagan started as a standup comedian. No joke.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Chris Hagan had a voice so deep and guttural as an elementary school kid, he could do spot-on impersonations of Howard Cosell and, as he got older and braver, would occasionally call himself in sick to school, smiling a sly grin on the other end of the rotary phone as the secretary thanked Mr. Hagan for letting her know about Chris' illness.

He was a high school athlete in the SEC-loving south who adored football, but was a standout baseball catcher, who soon realized his lack of size and athletic ability wouldn't quite be enough to make it big in any college sport.

He became a student at Mississippi State until he dropped out when he got hooked on the one thing he'd always been able to do brilliantly -- make people laugh.

Hagan is well known in Indianapolis as a veteran sports anchor who grabs high ratings, loyal fans and has an unmatched breadth of Indy sports history. The people of Indy and Hagan's viewers at Fox 59 and CBS 4, know all about him as a sports guy.

But few know his first career wasn't under the bright lights in a television studio reading off a prompter.

It was raw, unscripted and unfiltered on a stage, doing standup comedy.

After dropping out of college, Hagan spent three years trying to make it big like his comedy icons, David Letterman and Dennis Miller. Alas ...

"It went so well in comedy," said Hagan, "that I became a sportscaster. That's what I tell people."

"Tell us one of your jokes," IndyStar incited Hagan as he sat in his Fox 59 studio earlier this month, preparing for his Sunday evening "Sports Overtime" show after the Colts lost to the Bengals.

"No, no," he says, a tiny twang from his days growing up in the south still lingering. "That's one thing comedians never do." They don't do jokes on the spot, Hagan said, but then he did.

"What does every woman dream of in fairy tales? Tall, dark and handsome, right?" Hagan quips. "Well?" Hagan says, leaning back in his chair and pointing a finger at his chest. "This is what I got to work with. Short, pale and ginger."

Hagan's humor includes a lot of self-deprecations, centering on his red hair, short stature and middle child syndrome. It's actually kind of tough to get through an interview with him without bursting into laughter. He is really, legitimately, authentically funny.

When told that, Hagan uses humor to drown out the compliment. "Look over there," he says, pointing to IndyStar's photographer. "Jacob fell asleep two hours ago."

Hagan's background in comedy has been key to his success on live television, said Phil Nardiello, senior sports producer for Fox 59 and CBS 4.

"Chris is so great at thinking on his feet, and he's so witty. So much you do in standup comedy, you have to do in television," said Nardiello. "You are delivering the news, but you're still performing."

More often than not, a newscast doesn't go exactly as it's been scripted on paper. There are still flops and bloopers.

"Doing the standup comedy really helped me develop thick skin," said Hagan, "and not care if I look stupid or say something goofy."

That's kind of Hagan's trademark, a witty, sports-loving goof who is like a long-lost cousin, who isn't afraid to laugh at himself and happens to know a hell of a lot about Indianapolis sports.

Hagan has, after all, been covering the city since November 1999. He was here when the Pacers went to the NBA Finals in 2000 and he covered IU basketball's trip to the Final Four in 2002. He was there for the Colts' two Super Bowl appearances and there when the Fever won the WNBA title in 2012. He is in the middle of his 25th season covering the Colts.

Hagan's wit and authenticity has made him beloved by the city's best-known athletes. Andrew Luck used to tease him at training camp, telling the fair-skinned Hagan he better be lathered up with sunscreen.

And in one of the most prestigious gigs in Indy sports history, Hagan was picked to emcee the unveiling of Peyton Manning's statue outside Lucas Oil in 2017, standing at a podium cracking jokes as Manning looked up at him, smiling.

It was at that ceremony, as Hagan stared into the eyes of his comedy idol, Indiana-bred Letterman, and his Mississippi State sports idol, Peyton's father Archie Manning, that he realized just how incredibly blessed he was.

Hagan will never forget that feeling or take for granted that he has gotten to cover Indy sports for nearly a quarter of a century.

"Yeah, I do wait for somebody to tap me on the shoulder and go, 'Hey, get out of here. What are you doing? This life's too good for you,'" Hagan said. "It's been great."

'If he's holding sweet tea, he gets more southern'

Hagan is sitting at his desk in front of a round mirror outlined with lights putting on makeup before he shoots a promo for a Monday morning sportscast. He is explaining that he wears only powder and concealer, and that the makeup is not about trying to enhance his appearance as much as it is about hazards of the job.

"It's not because you're trying to look like Brad Pitt," he said. "It's because the lights are bright, and you'll look shiny and start sweating."

Hagan is so used to wearing makeup that he sometimes forgets other men are not. There have been plenty of times he's been in the restroom down in the tunnel at Lucas Oil Stadium before a Colts game putting on makeup for his pregame show.

"And these macho cops will walk in and go, 'What are you doing?'" Hagan said.

As Hagan finished dotting his concealer at his desk earlier this month, he talked about how he got to the bright lights of big city television sports via a journey rooted in the south.

Hagan was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the middle son of three boys. Growing up, his family migrated through the south as his father flipped nursing homes. The elder Hagan would go to struggling retirement centers, turn them around financially and aesthetically and then move on to the next one.

By the time Hagan was in high school, he had attended 12 schools in five states -- Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Moving around wasn't easy, but the one constant was sports.

His dad had been a track star at Mississippi State and his mom had played basketball. Sports were always a big deal in the family.

"The best way to fit in at a new school was to get on a sports team," Hagan said. "You'd have success, granted I'm like 7 or 8 years old so not headline success, but you get in, you make new friends, you play sports, and you move, and you go do it again."

Brett Bensley, who shares an office with Hagan, is pretty sure Hagan has lived in every state south of the Mason-Dixon line.

"And he gets more and more country the further south we go," said Bensley, producer and photojournalist with Fox 59 and CBS 4. "I've been with him and all of his high school buddies in Birmingham at a barbecue and it feels like I'm a zookeeper and I've been let inside the exhibit. It's unbelievable.

"And if he's holding sweet tea, he gets more southern."

In the early part of his career, Hagan tried to hide his southern roots and twang, reading sports in a monotone and using that deep voice he was blessed with, until one general manager told him to embrace his roots and just be himself.

Hagan stopped trying to hide who he was.

'Funniest person in Alabama'

As a little kid, Hagan would stay up until 1 in the morning watching Letterman's late-night show and dream of making people laugh like Letterman did.

In his first speech class in college at Mississippi State, Hagan was asked why he was majoring in communication. "One day, I want to have my own TV show like David Letterman," Hagan said boldly.

Not long after that, Hagan competed in a national college comedy competition representing Mississippi State doing standup for the first time -- and he won. Hagan was ecstatic. He had won a nationwide comedy contest.

When he transferred to Arizona (another move for his dad's job) and competed in the same contest, people in the industry began to notice Hagan and told him he could definitely make it in the world of standup comedy.

Hagan quit college and moved to Alabama to give his comedy career a try full time. For nearly three years, he did open mics shows. He was the comic who stayed up into the wee hours of the morning doing gigs at seedy bars and fancy galas, who went home and slept into the afternoon, who woke up and chugged sweet tea, ate barbecue and did it all over again.

Along the way, Hagan won all kinds of awards, including the funniest person in Alabama.

"I got to a point where I'd done everything I could in Birmingham, Alabama, and they told me I needed to move to New York or Los Angeles if I really wanted to do comedy full time," said Hagan. "I was kind of chicken and said, 'Here's what I'll do. I'll go finish college, since I was halfway through, and then I'll get back into standup.'"

Hagan finished his degree at the University of Montevallo, just south of Birmingham, got a job in television and forgot all about standup comedy.

His first job was at a small station in Meridian, Mississippi. The only thing the station had on live TV was a country music video show in the morning. One of the guys on that show also did a high school football radio show.

One thing led to another and soon Hagan's talent as a color commentator on the radio turned into a contract worth $14,000 a year in sports television market 183. After leaving Mississippi, Hagan jumped to market 181 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

And then in 1999, a sports photographer position opened up at Fox 59 in Indianapolis. Hagan had won some awards for video and photography, and he thought maybe he didn't have to actually be on TV. Maybe he could make more money shooting from the other side.

When Hagan interviewed with Fox 59, he was offered the job the same day and he accepted the job the next day. Three years later, his on-air personality had outshined his photography skills, and he was promoted to weekend anchor. In 2008, he became the main sports anchor.

"And the next thing you know, this is my 25th season covering the Colts," Hagan said.

'These are my people'

The same thing Hagan takes great pride in -- being a longtime veteran Indy sportscaster -- also sometimes makes him feel a little old. He'll be at a sports bar and a guy will come up who looks like he is 35 years old and tell Hagan he's been watching him since he was a kid.

"And I will go, 'That's impossible,'" said Hagan. "And then I'll go, 'No. That's very possible.'"

When Hagan came to Indy in 1999, Fox 59 had one evening newscast at 10 p.m. Sports was at the very end and got just four minutes, except on Sundays. Sports always had the overtime show on Sunday nights. Today, there is a 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. newscast and a 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. broadcast.

"That's the good news. When there is big-time Colts or Pacers stuff, I'll be on at 4, 5, 6,10, 11," said Hagan. "I know that people care about sports here and I think our stations have been good about caring about sports, too."

But Hagan also knows clearly what sports means to his viewers, how it fits into their lives.

"This is not a presidential debate, you know, it's sports," he said. "And that's why I try to have fun. People watch the news for 25 minutes and see miserable things they don't want to know about so that's when it gets to sports."

Hagan likes taking viewers into the locker room and giving them sound bites. As he gives them a little peek into something the average public doesn't get to see, he knows his job, his role, his responsibility. And he takes it seriously.

Hagan's longevity in a market the size of Indy is becoming more and more rare, said Nardiello.

"Years ago, you would see people on TV at the same station for a long time," he said. "Chris has a lot of strengths, a ton of strengths that have led to his longevity and it starts with his great personality and his storytelling ability and his ability to connect with the viewers and the athletes he covers."

It starts with entertaining people, building a rapport with people, just like a standup comedian does.

Hagan may be a southern boy doing Indy sports, but it doesn't feel that way to him anymore.

"These are my people," he said. "I feel like I am a Hoosier."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fox 59 sports anchor Chris Hagan started as standup comedian. No joke.