Up Close with PSR
Bill Hillgrove?

This fall, Bill Hillgrove will be the Voice of Pitt Panthers football for the 34th consecutive year. He also begins his 13th season as the play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and this winter he'll take the microphone for Pitt basketball broadcasts, a job he has held since 1969. A long time broadcaster for WTAE-TV, Hillgrove still serves as the station's Steeler Insider. Born in Lawrenceville and raised in Garfield, Hillgrove attended Duquesne University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962. This past summer, Hillgrove was named the 2007 recipient of the prestigious Chris Schenkel Award for excellence in college football broadcasting. PSR Editor Tony DeFazio chatted with Hillgrove shortly before the current football season kicked off.

PSR: There's not much on your schedule between April and September, but then it gets out of control, particularly when basketball season gets here and you're juggling three jobs.

Hillgrove: I'd like to spread it out over 12 months, but I don't have that luxury. As you well know Tony, we're all slaves to the seasons. When they happen, they happen. The toughest month is November, when I have three balls in the air at one time. That is really a tough month because the rhythm is disturbed.

The rhythm in football season is pretty easy. Weekdays you don't have anything but preparation; weekends it's execution. But when basketball starts, you can have games on any day of the week, and it becomes a problem, it really does. Things get squeezed together. In November, once December gets here it's almost like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer - once you stop it feels good.

PSR: Where do the jobs of "journalist" and "member of the team" meet when you are a team's play-by-play man?

BH: Well, Mr. Rooney - Dan Rooney - said this years ago to me: "Billy, you've got to be fair. Naturally you're going to root for the home team, but still there are two teams playing the game. And when credit must be given to the other team for doing something good, you have to point that out."

I kind of figured that out a long time ago, but he reaffirmed it. And he also was telling me, "We like it when you pull for the Steelers but when we're bad, we're bad. So be fair."

And that's what I try to do.

PSR: You've called some pretty significant events in your career. Can you rank your best moments in the booth?

BH: Yes. Dorsett breaking the record was probably as emotional as I've been on the air and I lost it. So I looked over at Johnny Sauer hoping he'd be able to jump into the breach. And he had tears streaming down his face. The realization was that you're looking at a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, and that hit us pretty hard.

The Super Bowl victory was rewarding, but it wasn't one moment. It was one game but it was really more about the run - the eight-game run at the end of the year. And when you have to win every weekend for eight weekends-and that team did-it was pretty special.

PSR: You've worked with some pretty impressive athletes as color guys. How much do they color your job as well as the listeners?

BH: Well my job is to stay out of their way. My job is to give you the nuts and bolts and then those guys take over and throw their expertise into the equation, their years of playing and things that they see that even veteran broadcasters aren't going to see.

I learned from Ray Scott - say a lot with few words. And that's a good lesson, especially for television which I don't do much of, but for radio too because it gives those guys more room to do their thing.

I see Dick Groat, who played two games at a very high level, be as fair as he is, and for that to be as important as it is to him. And also how much guys like Groat and Bill Fralic, who were true superstars in their sports, to see how much the game they played means to them. That gives me an appreciation of the game I'm watching and how it's not easy-even for guys who were truly great-to be competitive at that high level.

If I can factor in Johnny Sauer, who was my partner for 18 years - nobody knew football better than Johnny Sauer. Nobody. Lindsay Nelson said in his book "Hello, I'm Lindsay Nelson" that nobody saw more from the press box than John Sauer.

PSR: Have you recognized the impact you've had on a generation of fans in the city of Pittsburgh?

BH: I never thought of it much until people started to say things like that to me recently. While it was happening I was not thinking of that at all, I was just trying to do my job…and at the same time trying to have a lot of fun, which I certainly have had. And maybe now it has started to kick in a little bit, when I see someone your age say to a younger kid that they've grown up with me. That's very rewarding. Especially since I was able to put this body of work together in my own hometown - not a lot of guys get that opportunity.

PSR: Talk about what it meant to receive the Chris Schenkel Award.

BH: It floored me. When I got the call from the Football Foundation I just couldn't believe it. What hit me was I had a chance to meet to the guy whose name is on the award, Chris Schenkel. I just spent 15 minutes with him We covering the Renaldo Snipes-Larry Holmes fight; he for ABC and me for Channel 4. We were waiting outside of central medical, because if you remember, Snipes actually knocked Holmes down before losing the fight, but then he got scissors stuck into his arm in the post-fight melee. And here he is, this giant in the industry, and it was just like talking to the guy next door. He was so nice and professional, and just had no airs about him, and that's what hit me when they told me about the award.

PSR: Beano Cook once said about Bobby Layne that if you had one week to live, that was the guy to live it with. Who does Bill Hillgrove pick?

BH: Artie Shaw. I was always struck by the fact that he was married to seven different ladies who were all gorgeous - that was certainly part of the allure. But also here was a guy who was at the top of his game and was the best clarinetist in the world - sorry Benny Goodman - and then all of a sudden one day he just got so sick of the industry and how it governed artistry, and he felt it should be the other way around. So he just put the clarinet down and never picked it up again. I think that took a lot of courage and I always admired him for that.

PSR: Where's the best place to listen to jazz?

BH: It's always very rewarding to be in New York City…and to be on a first name basis with the bartenders. And you have to remember, Dick Groat is very revered in New York because he was on two teams who beat the Yankees in the early 60's. A Cardinals team and of course the 1960 Pirates.

I remember one night, a guy says "I have one of your bats, would you sign it?" So Groat says, "Sure, where is it? In your car?"

The guy says, "No I live in Long Island so I'll be back in a couple hours."

So of course we were in the same seats in the bar when he returned and both of us are probably speaking Portuguese by that point in the evening, but the guy came back and got that bat signed.