Bill Hillgrove, the legendary broadcaster of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt Panthers football and men’s basketball teams, has been voted as the winner of the second Woody Durham Voice of College Sports Award by the National Sports Media Association.
NSMA members, who are play-by-play announcers, voted on the award, which will be presented at that organization’s banquet in June.
Hillgrove has been a part of Pitt broadcasts since 1969, starting out with men’s basketball games and as a part-time color broadcaster for football games. He replaced the late Ed Conway as Pitt’s primary football play-by-play announcer in 1974.
He is currently in his 50th season of calling Pitt men’s basketball games, 45th season for Pitt football games and 25th season as the radio voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Hillgrove previously won the Chris Schenkel Award for excellence in college football broadcasting in 2007. Pitt honored him with a special bobblehead that was given out during the Panthers’ home football game against Virginia Tech in November that featured Hillgrove’s call of Tony Dorsett’s 32-yard touchdown run at Navy that set that the NCAA career rushing record.
The Woody Durham Voice of College Sports Award is named for the longtime North Carolina play-by-play broadcaster, who passed away on March 7, 2018. The inaugural award was given out in 2018 to Indiana play-by-play announcer Don Fischer.
My how time flies. It has been a great time and it is well deserved.
Best ever!