LOS ANGELES — Josh Lewin eschews the limelight. He spends his late springs and early summers surrounding himself with a handful of local newspapers, talking shop with folks while sipping on a pint of cider – during this time of year, it might be the closest Lewin gets to the back-and-forth buzz of sports talk radio.
These outings have reached small English town pubs, such as The Purple Turtle in Reading, transporting Lewin from the broadcast booth to a wooden barrel table adorned with a husk umbrella, shading him from the sun.
Lewin marked his 10th anniversary as UCLA’s football and men’s basketball radio play-by-play broadcaster during the Bruins’ 43-10 loss to Utah on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl. A decade in, he said he is still “chasing his rainbow,” one that arcs toward Europe during his UCLA offseasons as he explores the documentary space covering the lower divisions of English football for CBS Sports.
The 56-year-old has been chasing rainbows since the start of his career, learning from play-by-play greats such as Chuck Thompson in Baltimore or Ernie Harwell in Detroit, starting an escapade that has wound him through being the voice of the Texas Rangers, the New York Mets and the then-San Diego Chargers – he was the voice of the Bolts for 12 years, ending his run in 2016.
Lewin settled in Solana Beach – his “paradise” with an ocean view he now wakes up to every morning when not traveling the English countryside.
Much like his 3½-hour drive from San Diego to the Rose Bowl for game days, he has always viewed himself as the conduit of his team’s faithful, no matter the distance it takes via radio signal to the speakers in fans’ cars and homes.
“I feel like Paul Revere on the horse,” said Lewin, who once galloped via a private plane to broadcast UCLA football and basketball games in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, respectively, on the same day in 2021. “It’s such a privilege to be Paul Revere and get to say, ‘Here’s what’s happening.’”
A decade in, Lewin plans on being the Paul Revere of the Bruins for as long as his career has left.
The New York native was 6 years old and rooting for John Wooden’s last UCLA basketball team (“If my last name were Cheevers, I’d be at Oregon State,” Lewin said). So, when former UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero offered Lewin the job in 2016 as UCLA athletics’ lead broadcaster, he couldn’t turn it down.
The opportunity, the chance to place his roots permanently in Southern California, and stabilize a “dream” broadcasting gig with a team the opposite of the underdog spirit he had normalized covering, was too difficult to pass up.
“I’ve been a bit of a professional hobo, just got the handkerchief tied to the stick,” Lewin said. “I told Dan Guerrero when he was nice enough to hire me, ‘This is literally my last job.’”
So much of Lewin’s day-to-day life at his two offices – the Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavilion – is tied to the spirit of former UCLA broadcaster Chris Roberts, who called Bruins sports for 23 years, retiring in 2015. Roberts died in May 2023. Roberts’ son, David LaPeer, is Lewin’s spotter during football games. Former UCLA quarterbacks Matt Stevens (color commentator) and Wayne Cook (sideline reporter) have been along for the ride from Roberts to Lewin, with Bill Roth’s one-year stint in between.
Cook, who joined the radio broadcast in 2002, couldn’t help but smile – and then laugh – when chatting about Lewin’s broadcasting tendencies. Lewin isn’t afraid to be blunt when the pass rush isn’t getting home – much like UCLA’s disappointing season opener on Saturday – but can also quip about pop culture references, always keeping his broadcast teammates on their toes.
“He’ll throw out something from Spaceballs, and I immediately am on the sidelines listening to him in the headphones, trying to figure out what movie the phrase just came from,” said Cook, who said Lewin provides him opportunities to provide sideline insight more than any other broadcaster he’s worked with.
Cook added: “He does it so effortlessly and so within the context of what we’re doing. He’s just brilliant.”
Cook and Stevens gloated over Lewin’s dedication to his craft; they’ve seen it firsthand. Stevens said that while Lewin was juggling broadcasting both UCLA and the Chargers, his broadcast partner was attempting to decipher the fastest way to get from one game to the next with the overnight turnaround.
Lewin, in a break toward the end of a UCLA football game, was doing the math on the distance between gates depending on the flights he would have to take and the respective layovers for each. Stevens said that if Lewin took a Delta flight, he would have to walk longer to the gate, but if he decided to book on American, he could save two minutes of travel time.
“‘I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, who does that?’” Stevens said. “And he was actually measuring it – figuring out the distance between the gates and what would be quickest for him on a connecting flight. I mean, that’s Josh.”
On his San Diego to L.A. commutes, Lewin plays the memorization game, matching jersey numbers to names – a task that is more challenging in 2025 with 57 new Bruins on the field. But a few years ago, his friends and colleagues learned another side of Lewin – the man in square-lens glasses who waxes poetic about UCLA’s highs, such as Josh Rosen’s miraculous 2017 comeback against Texas A&M, and its lows, on the mic for the basketball team’s heartbreaking Final Four loss to Gonzaga in 2021.
Dressed in $1,000 shoes on his 50th birthday, Stevens said, and the nicest blazer Lewin owned, he took center stage at a Las Vegas piano bar that he took some of his closest friends to.
Lewin played approximately a dozen songs, singing and mastering the keys on the instrument in front of him. Stevens said that’s who Lewin is – “an ‘A’ personality” doing his best at everything he sets his mind to, subverting expectations of people who know him well and those who don’t.
“He just sang and, I mean, listen, I didn’t even know he played the piano, much less [that] he could sing,” Stevens said. “And so my jaw was just on the table like, ‘Oh my god, he does this too.’”
Chris Roberts and Stevens went to a San Diego Chargers game while Lewin was still calling games at Qualcomm Stadium. Stevens stood, of all places, in the men’s restroom, listening to Lewin broadcast over the radio about what could be, knowing that Roberts would eventually retire.
“‘Oh my God, if I could just work with that guy, you know, when Chris retires, I’d be a blessing,’” Stevens remembers thinking. “And I can’t believe it happened.”
Stevens still remembers Lewin’s first UCLA football game, when he red-eyed from covering the New York Mets and into College Station before the Bruins’ season opener against Texas A&M in 2016.
He landed in Houston at 5 a.m., rented a car, and arrived to campus at 7:30 a.m. – hours before the Bruins’ 2:30 p.m. kickoff against the Aggies.
“I realized there’s nothing to do [in College Station],” Lewin said.
Waiting to take the microphone for his Bruins’ play-by-play debut, Lewin found a fast-food joint that was open, feasting on tacos as he awaited UCLA’s team bus to roll through on its way to Kyle Field.
Lewin could hardly wait to cover his first UCLA game; Lewin and Bruin, what he always felt was meant to be.
Year 10 behind the mic is no different. Yes, he misses the ebbs and flows of calling a 162-game baseball season – admitting “FOMO” (fear of missing out) over the Mets’ playoff run last year – and the excitement of Sunday Night Football.
But as Lewin jostled through his notes at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, the voice of the Bruins – until he retires – is prepared to heed another year of college football, another season on top of the horse, where he is most proud to be.
The Bruins were coming.
“I just said, ‘Hey, I’m from the East Coast. I had this weird obsession with the Bruins when I was a kid, because my name rhymed. Please let me into your living room and into your car,’” Lewin said. “And basically everybody said, ‘Sure, no problem.’”
“Ten years of that vibe is really cool.”