Jim Holtsclaw (L) and Eric Ivie (R) during the 2023 ABA Final Eight. (Photo by TOPP Level Entertainment, LLC)
The defending ABA Champion Indiana Lyons are bringing even more content to their devoted Lyons Pride with a new weekly pre-game show called “The Lyons Roar” making its debut on Lyons Pride + during the last week in October, prior to the Nov. 4 season opener against the Burning River Buckets.
“The Lyons Roar” will be a weekly discussion between Eric Ivie — the Lyons’ play-by-play commentator in their game videos — and Jim Holtsclaw — the team’s color commentator — on a wide variety of topics relating to the Indiana Lyons, the American Basketball Association, and whatever else might come out of their mouths.
Eric and Jim will have a list of topics of discussion for each episode of “The Lyons Roar,” but their conversation about each topic will be entirely unscripted. Each episode will range from 15-30 minutes in length.
“This will be a great opportunity for diehard Lyons fans to gain some insight into the team, their upcoming opponents, and what’s going on around the ABA while hopefully enjoying some halfway decent entertainment,” said Eric. “Lyons Pride + separates the devoted fans from the casual fans, so it’s the perfect format for ‘The Lyons Roar.'”
Eric joined the Indiana Lyons staff as the Director of Communications in February of 2020 and has served in that role ever since. Lyons fans are familiar with his voice, commentary, emotional outbursts and antics throughout game videos over the past two seasons.
Jim came aboard late in the 2022-23 season, joining Eric in the broadcast of an intrasquad scrimmage before the Lyons traveled to St. Louis for the ABA Final Eight tournament. Jim and Eric were both in Missouri for the entire tournament that culminated in the Lyons’ ABA championship.
After their request to record and comment on the Lyons’ Final Eight games was denied by the ABA, the pair were in the stands for both of team’s games, doing their best to emulate the noise of the Lyons Pride in an empty gym. They were also in the gym on the night of the ABA Championship.
“That’s likely to be a topic of discussion in our first episode,” Eric added. “I’m often asked what happened in Missouri that night. Jim and I were there at Ground Zero for all of it, and we have stories to tell.”
Outside of basketball, Jim and Eric are good friends and coworkers at Hendricks County Parks & Recreation, so their chemistry in their videos is genuine.
To subscribe to Lyons Pride + and watch “The Lyons Roar,” click here.