Bill Hillgrove

Last updated

William Thomas Hillgrove (born November 20, 1940) is an American sports broadcaster, radio personality, and sports journalist.

Contents

Hillgrove is a notable broadcaster in his hometown of Pittsburgh, and has worked exclusively in that market. He served as the lead play-by-play broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Steelers football network (102.5 FM WDVE) from 1994 to 2024. He is also the lead broadcaster for the University of Pittsburgh sports network (93.7 FM The Fan), calling Pitt football games with former Pitt quarterback Pat Bostick and Pitt basketball games with former Pitt guard Curtis Aiken.

Early life

Born William Thomas Hillgrove in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, he grew up in nearby Garfield. He attended Central Catholic High School and Duquesne University. He worked as a student sports broadcaster for Duquesne basketball games while in college. Hillgrove graduated from Duquesne in 1962 with a degree in journalism.

Early career

Hillgrove's first job was as a disk jockey with WKJF (now KDKA-FM, known as "93.7 The Fan"), and in 1968, he joined WTAE-TV as the station's booth announcer. A year later, he swapped jobs with WTAE Radio announcer Del Taylor, wishing to get back into radio. In the mid-1960s, he served for a short period of time as "proprietor" (the name given to the host) of "The Place", a television show on WQED (Channel 13) that was a coffee-house style format.

In 1969, he was hired as a road game broadcaster for the Pitt Panthers basketball team. The following year, he became the regular color commentator for Pitt football alongside lead play-by-play announcer Ed Conway. Following Conway's death in 1974, Hillgrove assumed play-by-play announcer duties.

Hillgrove was named the sports director for WTAE-TV in 1978 and acted as sports anchor for WTAE News.

Pittsburgh Steelers

In 1994, Hillgrove was handpicked by Steelers owner Dan Rooney to succeed the retiring Jack Fleming as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After working for many years alongside famous color broadcaster Myron Cope, his Steeler broadcast partners now include former Steelers players like Merrill Hoge (former color), Tunch Ilkin (former color), Craig Wolfley (color), and Max Starks (sideline).

Pittsburgh Panthers

Hillgrove has also been a commentator for Pitt football and basketball games. Former Pittsburgh Pirate Dick Groat (who had been an All-America guard at Duke in the early 1950s following schoolboy stardom in nearby Swissvale) served as Hillgrove's broadcast partner for basketball until the 2018–2019 season; former Pitt player Curtis Aiken is now his broadcast partner. His partners for football have been Johnny Sauer (1974–1994), Bill Osborn (1995–2003, 2015–2017), Bill Fralic (2004–2010), and Pat Bostick (2010–2015, 2018–present).

Awards and recognition

He was the 2007 winner of the Chris Schenkel Award, presented by the National Football Foundation, for his work as Pitt's football broadcaster. [1]

In July 2012, Hillgrove began hosting a Saturday jazz program presented by the online Pittsburgh Jazz Channel.

Personal life

Hillgrove married Rosette Sapienza, a vocal music teacher, in 1965. They live in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. The couple have two children and two grandchildren.

On June 19, 2020, Hillgrove was charged with driving under the influence for an incident four days earlier. Hillgrove drove a vehicle into the front of a Murrysville grocery store, breaking two windows, and then went inside to fill a prescription. He then returned to the car and drove home, where police later arrived and conducted a breathalyzer test. His blood alcohol content was found to be 0.16, twice the legal limit in Pennsylvania. Hillgrove told officers he "had a couple beers" and that the "car just got away from [him]". [2] He subsequently received a two-game suspension from both Steelers and Pitt football broadcasts. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myron Cope</span> American sports journalist (1929–2008)

Myron Sidney Kopelman, known professionally as Myron Cope, was an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster. He is best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Scott (sportscaster)</span> American sportscaster

Ray Eugene Scott was an American sportscaster, best known for his broadcasts for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). His brother Hal Scott was also a sportscaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Schenkel</span> American sportscaster (1923–2005)

Christopher Eugene Schenkel was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBGG (AM)</span> Fox Sports Radio affiliate in Pittsburgh

WBGG is a commercial radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It carries a sports radio format as the Pittsburgh market affiliate of Fox Sports Radio and a co-flagship of the Pittsburgh Steelers Radio Network. Owned by iHeartMedia, WBGG's studios are located in Green Tree, while the station transmitter resides in Ross Township. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WBGG is relayed full-time over the second HD subchannel of WPGB and is available online via iHeartRadio.

Max Falkenstien was an American radio sports announcer. In his 60-year career at the University of Kansas (1946–2006), Falkenstien covered more than 1,750 men's basketball games and 650 football games, a span that included every game played in Allen Fieldhouse until his retirement, and was one of the longest announcing tenures in sports. By comparison, Vin Scully's 67 seasons with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers is the record for longest broadcasting tenure with a single franchise in all of professional sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark May</span> American football player and broadcaster (born 1959)

Mark Eric May is an American former professional football player who was a guard for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. May played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers and earned unanimous All-American honors. He was selected in the first round of the 1981 NFL draft, and played professionally for the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers, and Arizona Cardinals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in Pittsburgh</span>

Sports in Pittsburgh have been played dating back to the American Civil War. Baseball, hockey, and the first professional American football game had been played in the city by 1892. Pittsburgh was first known as the "City of Champions" when the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Panthers football team, and Pittsburgh Steelers won multiple championships in the 1970s. Today, the city has three major professional sports franchises, the Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins; while the University of Pittsburgh Panthers compete in a Division I Power Five conference, the highest level of collegiate athletics in the United States, in both football and basketball. Local universities Duquesne and Robert Morris also field Division I teams in men's and women's basketball and Division I FCS teams in football. Robert Morris also fields Division I men's and women's ice hockey teams.

Greg Brown is an American sportscaster, born in Washington, D.C., who has worked as a play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates on SportsNet Pittsburgh and KDKA-FM since 1994. He works with Bob Walk, Neil Walker, Matt Capps, Kevin Young, and John Wehner. Originally, Brown called games with Lanny Frattare until Frattare retired after the 2008 season.

SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) is an American regional sports network serving Greater Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. Jointly owned by Fenway Sports Group and Robert Nutting via the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates, respectively. It serves as the main broadcaster of both teams. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with some of its operations handled from the facilities of sister network NESN in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Leo W. "Jack" Fleming Jr. was an American sports announcer for the National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls in professional sports, and also the West Virginia Mountaineers football and basketball teams. One of his most famous calls was for the Steelers in 1972, on the "Immaculate Reception".

Kevin Kugler is an American sportscaster who primarily works in radio broadcasting. Kugler is currently employed by Westwood One as its lead college basketball voice as well as one of its Sunday NFL voices, and by the Big Ten Network as a play-by-play man for college football and college basketball. Kugler is based out of Omaha, Nebraska, where he hosted a daily sports talk show on KOZN until 2012 when he left to focus on his other duties. He won the Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year award nine times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Rice (basketball)</span>

Michael Thomas Rice Sr. is a former National Basketball Association color commentator, one half of the Portland Trail Blazers' television broadcasting team. A former player and coach, he is the only broadcaster ejected from an NBA game.

John Joseph Block is a radio and TV play-by-play announcer who calls games for the Pittsburgh Pirates on SportsNet Pittsburgh, KDKA-AM, and KDKA-FM, joining the team in 2016 after four years with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Steven Kenneth Zabriskie is an American former television sports announcer who is best known for calling Major League Baseball and college football.

John Steigerwald is a Pittsburgh-based sports reporter, commentator, and former sports anchor and second oldest member of the Steigerwald media family that includes his older brother Bill and younger brothers Paul Steigerwald and rock guitarist Dan Steigerwald. John worked on the sports anchor team at WTAE-TV (ABC), along with other Pittsburgh notables such as Myron Cope and Bill Hillgrove. He later moved to KDKA-TV (CBS) in 1985 and was an anchor and primary Pittsburgh Steelers reporter for 30 years. KDKA chose not to renew his contract in 2007. Until 2015 he was a "Sports Talk" host on the radio website of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He writes a weekly column for The Daily Caller and his web site is JustWatchtheGame.com. John's brother Bill Steigerwald is an ex-newspaperman and book author who worked at the Los Angeles Times in the 1980s, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the 1990s and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in the 2000s. Paul Steigerwald, also a former KDKA-TV sports reporter, held the position of Pittsburgh Penguins' television play-by-play announcer from 2006 until 2017.

Bill Osborn is a former American football player who attended the University of Pittsburgh and played in the National Football League, World League and the Arena Football League. Osborn has also worked as an NFL scout, a color analyst and an executive in the medical device industry.

The NFL, along with boxing and professional wrestling, was a pioneer of sports broadcasting during a time when baseball and college football were more popular than professional football. Due to the NFL understanding television at an earlier time, they were able to surpass Major League Baseball in the 1960s as the most popular sport in the United States.

Curtis Aiken Sr. is an American former college basketball player who is a radio analyst for Pitt Panthers men's basketball team. He was a two-time captain at Pitt who scored 1,200 points for the team and held the school single-season field goal percentage record from 1986 to 1989.

References

  1. ↑ Smizik, Bob (May 17, 2007). "Bill Hillgrove winner of Schenkel Award". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, PA. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
  2. ↑ Tomasic, Megan (June 19, 2020). "Steelers, Pitt sports radio broadcaster Bill Hillgrove charged with DUI in Murrysville". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ Rutter, Joe (September 2, 2020). "Bill Hillgrove faces 2-game suspension from Steelers, Pitt broadcasts for DUI charge". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . Retrieved September 7, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.