Basketball broadcasters share the city, unmatched longevity
If you told Bill Hillgrove and Ray Goss nearly 50 years ago that in 2017 they still would be piloting radio broadcasts for the men’s basketball teams at Pitt and Duquesne, respectively, you would have received similar responses.
“I would have told you that’s far-fetched,” Hillgrove said. “I would have been happy with 20 years.”
“No way,” Goss said. “Of course, I never thought I would be 80 years old, but that’s what I am. You never think about those things. Now, I look at it and say, ‘This is crazy.’ “
In the years since the two assumed their current posts — Goss in 1968, Hillgrove in 1969 — their broadcasts have been a constant for those who follow the programs. Their voices carry weight and command respect, making them chroniclers of the present and custodians of the past.
Together, the two men who have built their careers an eightminute drive apart hold a noteworthy honor. With Goss in his 50th season calling Duquesne games and Hillgrove in his 49th
doing the same for the Panthers, they’re the two longest-tenured Division I play-by-play broadcasters (Chris Shovlin at Robert Morris, in his 31st season, is tied for 18th on that list).
On Friday night, as the two schools meet in the annual City Game at PPG Paints Arena, two comfortably familiar voices will once again narrate the action.
“I’ll keep doing this as long as I don’t feel a wall,” said Hillgrove, 77. “When I feel a wall, then it’s probably time, as Chuck Noll would say, to get on with your life’s work. But I’ve never felt that wall, so why not keep doing it?”
Over the years, Goss and Hillgrove have developed an understated-yet-respectful relationship. Although they’re admittedly not close friends, the annual meeting between the Dukes and Panthers gives them an opportunity to catch up and share notes before they go live, with each incorporating informational nuggets from theirchat on the broadcasts.
The link between the two, even if indirect, goes well beyonda single game a year.
Although they weren’t there at the same time, the careers of both began in earnest at Duquesne and the school’s student radio station, WDUQ, where they called the Dukes’ basketball games and local high school football. And Goss spun classical music LPs (as a teenager, Hillgrove was offered a part on “Morning, Noon and Night,” a weekly soap opera that aired on WDUQand WMCK).
Upon graduation, their career paths diverged slightly. In 1969, while working as a disc jockey, Hillgrove was asked whether he was interested in play-by-play for Pitt basketball, as the station had just acquired rights to the Panthers’ games. He began that year and, following the death of his mentor, Ed Conway, in 1974, he took over football broadcasts.
Goss’ route was slightly more winding. As Duquesne, a national powerhouse in the 1950s when Goss was a student, saw its fortunes dwindle in the 1960s, its games briefly went off the airwaves.
Whenthe Dukes made the National Invitation Tournament in 1968, Goss pleaded for a chance to call it. He ultimately got that, doing playbyalongside Steelers broadcaster Joe Tucker. The following season, when WJAS, then an all-news station, began broadcasting Duquesne games, Goss utilized the connections he developed over the years and madehis pitch.
“I kind of hustled it,” he said with a laugh.
Longevity is often elusive in a field where one word or on-air misstep can mar a career. It is, as Goss believes, not purely a matter of professional competence. Sometimes, it’s plain luck. In 1978, he nearly signed a deal to do play-byplay on the regional NBA broadcasts on CBS, only for the league to scrap the plan after low ratings for the NBA Finals the previous year. Goss still has a copy of that unexecuted contract. For Hillgrove, who has also been the Steelers’ lead radio broadcaster since 1994, the key to a lengthy careerplay is energy — as well as something even more important than that. “I think you’ve got to have fun with it because sports is fun,” Hillgrove said. “A lot of times, I would say to people, ‘Give me my toys and let me alone.’ I don’t feel like dealing with the real world. I don’t think I’d be a very good newscaster because so much of the news is very negative and dark. As long as it’s fun, I’ll keep doing it.”
As their careers hit five decades, questions of retirement naturally arise. Neither has any set plans, but when the time comes, they’ll know.
Hillgrove has a grandson who is studying communications at Waynesburg University and hopes to get into broadcasting one day.
“Maybe by the time I’m ready to give it up, he’ll be ready to jump into the seat,” he said.
“Being in sports is like dessert: If you don’t have it, you’re not going to starve, but it’s a nice topping to a meal,” Goss said. “People ask what I do and I say, ‘I’m basically retired. I do some sports.’ It’s just like having dessert all the time. It’s a lot of fun.”