He runs Minnesota's fourth largest city by day — and moonlights as voice of Gophers football and other sports

In his day job, Jamie Verbrugge often sits quietly to the side at Bloomington city council meetings, a municipal manager running the day-to-day work in the state's fourth largest city with a mostly soft voice and a low-key demeanor.

Residents might not recognize him on some nights and weekends.

Verbrugge, a self-described recovering introvert, deepens his voice and cranks up his volume, his baritone booming to thousands of Golden Gopher fans at stadiums and arenas as the voice of five University of Minnesota sports.

"That's another Gooolllden Gopherrr," he projects at football games before trailing off to let the crowd finish: "First down!"

Now in his 35th year announcing for the U, Verbrugge has added sports to his roster through the decades; he started with wrestling, then took the microphone for men's hockey, football and later men's basketball and baseball.

It's a busy side gig that has its own stresses, but it lets him be part of Minnesota sports teams that he's loved since he was a kid.

"It's completely different from what I do most of the day. It's a little bit of a recharger for me," he said, adding with a smile, "I get to yell at thousands of people, and nobody gets to talk back to me."

Verbrugge, 54, said he loved sports as a kid at Columbia Heights High School, but as one of the smallest kids in his class, he never got to play much. He was always looking for other ways to get involved.

On the sidelines of a basketball game one day in the ninth grade, Verbrugge said the announcer-slash-manager passed him the microphone and told him to start announcing the plays. The role came easily, he said.

Through high school, Verbrugge announced wrestling matches and tournaments — and by the time he was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, he was asked to announce Gopher wrestling. He has had that gig since 1988, despite transferring to St. Cloud State as a junior.

"It was hard on my gas mileage," he said. But he never thought of giving up his connection to the U.

He continued calling games through graduate school and his first jobs working for various Minnesota cities. He was asked to audition to announce men's hockey games in 1998, and added football a few years later.

Mills Armbruster, the U's assistant athletic director for marketing, said no other announcer does so many sports.

"I need him to find a hobby," Armbruster joked, "but then again, I need him here!"

Real excitement about the Gophers is part of what makes Verbrugge good at the job, Armbruster said.

"We've had good years, we've had bad years," Armbruster said, but Verbrugge has never been put off by a losing season. "It just comes down to his passion and his loyalty."

There are no rituals Verbrugge uses before games to jump into his announcer persona, he said. No special tea on game days to soothe his voice.

What there is, he said, is diligent preparation. He arrives to games three hours early to meet with Armbruster and the production crew, rehearsing the scripts for time-outs or breaks in the action and going over cues with DJs, video crews and the band.

From the press box, Verbrugge speaks with exaggerated intonation as he reads off players' names and announces plays.

Before every season, he said, he makes sure to practice athletes' names. With an often-mispronounced last name like Verbrugge, (pronounced ver-BRUG-gee, with a hard G sound) he knows it's irritating when someone gets it wrong, and that irritation can take away from the game.

The focus should be on the action, Verbrugge said, not the way he describes it. He's there to heighten the fans' experience, he said.

While his announcing career grew, Verbrugge was rising through the ranks in municipal governments, working as city administrator in Rosemount and Brooklyn Park, after jobs in Richfield, Eagan and Stearns County.

Since 2015, he has been the city manager of Bloomington, home of almost 90,000 residents and the Mall of America, adjacent to a major metropolitan airport. He manages a staff of more than 600 city employees and a $94 million budget.

At Monday night city council meetings, Verbrugge is a low-key presence on the edge of the dais, answering council members' questions but often deferring to other city staffers as the council spends hours talking through issues.

Verbrugge prides himself on being a numbers guy, but he has gotten good at explaining the ins and outs of municipal finance, and what the city can and cannot do to move toward the ambitious, increasingly progressive goals set by the city council.

The schedule of two busy worlds has meant Verbrugge has missed out on some things as his children, now 23, 21 and 15, grew up.

"I've missed a lot of my own kids' sporting events and school events," he said. "They've always understood I made this commitment, I've got to keep this commitment."

In a way, his wife Jennifer Verbrugge said, it makes sense that someone who is quiet in his personal life can find so much joy in announcing.

"I always thought it was so interesting this introvert would go to these games," she said, "and have this big voice in front of thousands of people."

It wasn't always easy for the family, she said, but they muddled through.

"There's enough of him to care about all of us," she said: the family, the city and the Golden Gophers.