Jim Hawthorne (sportscaster)

Jim Hawthorne
Jim Hawthorne
	Hawthorne in 2023
Born	Anacoco, Louisiana, USA
Alma mater	Northwestern State University
Occupation	Sports announcer

Last updated May 17, 2025

Jim Hawthorne is a former radio sportscaster. He is best known for having called radio play-by-play for the LSU Tigers sports teams of Louisiana State University for over 36 years, from 1979 to 2016, earning the nickname, "Voice of the Tigers".^[1] Before LSU, he called radio play-by-play for his alma-mater Northwestern State and Centenary College, as well as Texas League baseball and in the short-lived World Football League (WFL).^[2]

Hawthorne began calling LSU basketball games during the 1979–80 season. He began calling LSU football games in 1983 and LSU baseball in 1984 taking over for John Ferguson.^[3]^[4] Overall, he was LSU's radio play-by-play announcer for two BCS National Championship titles in football, its first six of its College World Series championships in baseball, and three Final Four appearances in basketball.^[5]

His final season at LSU was the 2015 football season and 2015–16 men's basketball season. His final baseball season was the 2015 baseball season with Chris Blair taking over for the 2016 baseball season.^[5]^[6]

After retiring from LSU sports, from 2016 until 2019, he hosted a Sunday night classic country show on WTGE.

Notable calls

The "Earthquake Game" on October 8, 1988, in which the Tiger Stadium crowd's reaction to LSU's game-winning touchdown pass against Auburn is reported to have registered on a seismograph on campus.^[7]
Warren Morris' walk-off home run for LSU in the 9th inning of 1996 College World Series, which Hawthorne singles out as his favorite call.^[5]^[8]
The "Bluegrass Miracle" on November 9, 2002, a football game won by LSU against Kentucky with a last-second touchdown pass. The call is notable in part due to Hawthorne erroneously identifying the touchdown receiver as Jack Hunt, when it was actually Devery Henderson. Hunt was a defensive back and was not on the field. Hawthorne acknowledged it was Henderson later in the broadcast. The mistake was later deleted from archived versions of the broadcast.^[9]^[10]
The 2011 "Game of the Century", a highly anticipated football game between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama on November 5, 2011, which LSU won in overtime, 9–6.^[2]

Awards and recognition

In 2015, Hawthorne was honored by the National Football Foundation with the Chris Schenkel Award as an individual with a "long, distinguished career in broadcasting with direct ties to a specific university."^[11] In 2016, he was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame,^[12] and also received the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.^[13]

References

↑ Lowe, C. Kent (June 18, 2016). "Generations knew only Jim Hawthorne as Voice of the Tigers". The Advocate. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
1 2 "Voice of LSU Jim Hawthorne to retire". USA Today. February 11, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ "Voice of LSU Jim Hawthorne to retire". shreveporttimes.com. February 11, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
↑ "In focus: Legendary Voices". lsusports.net. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
1 2 3 Ching, David (December 28, 2015). "Retiring LSU radio man Jim Hawthorne: 'I've had more thrills than I deserve'". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ "It's the last home roundup for Jim Hawthorne, the voice of the Tigers". nola.com. March 2, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
↑ Kleinpeter, Jim (January 1, 2016). "Watch end of LSU radio voice Jim Hawthorne's final football broadcast". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ Kleinpeter, Jim (February 11, 2015). "LSU broadcaster Jim Hawthorne's greatest call: Warren Morris' home run to win 1996 College World Series". The Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on March 18, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ Kleinpeter, Jim (November 9, 2012). "Remembering LSU's Bluegrass Miracle on the 10th anniversary". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ Watson, Graham (March 20, 2013). "Doc Five: Best College Football Buzzer Beaters – No. 3, Bluegrass Miracle". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ "LSU's Jim Hawthorne to receive Schenkel Award". USA Today. May 27, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
↑ Thompson, Luke (June 24, 2016). "High character defines Hall of Fame class". Shreveport Times. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
↑ Kleinpeter, Jim (February 17, 2016). "LSU's Jim Hawthorne to receive Distinguished Service Award from LSWA". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

External links

LSU Tigers bio Archived 2019-03-26 at the Wayback Machine

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.

[Lowe-1] Lowe, C. Kent (June 18, 2016). "Generations knew only Jim Hawthorne as Voice of the Tigers". The Advocate. Retrieved June 18, 2017.

[USAT-2] 1 2 "Voice of LSU Jim Hawthorne to retire". USA Today. February 11, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[3] "Voice of LSU Jim Hawthorne to retire". shreveporttimes.com. February 11, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

[4] "In focus: Legendary Voices". lsusports.net. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

[Ching-5] 1 2 3 Ching, David (December 28, 2015). "Retiring LSU radio man Jim Hawthorne: 'I've had more thrills than I deserve'". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[6] "It's the last home roundup for Jim Hawthorne, the voice of the Tigers". nola.com. March 2, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2018.

[7] Kleinpeter, Jim (January 1, 2016). "Watch end of LSU radio voice Jim Hawthorne's final football broadcast". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[8] Kleinpeter, Jim (February 11, 2015). "LSU broadcaster Jim Hawthorne's greatest call: Warren Morris' home run to win 1996 College World Series". The Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on March 18, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

[9] Kleinpeter, Jim (November 9, 2012). "Remembering LSU's Bluegrass Miracle on the 10th anniversary". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[10] Watson, Graham (March 20, 2013). "Doc Five: Best College Football Buzzer Beaters – No. 3, Bluegrass Miracle". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[11] "LSU's Jim Hawthorne to receive Schenkel Award". USA Today. May 27, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2017.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[12] Thompson, Luke (June 24, 2016). "High character defines Hall of Fame class". Shreveport Times. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[13] Kleinpeter, Jim (February 17, 2016). "LSU's Jim Hawthorne to receive Distinguished Service Award from LSWA". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved June 26, 2017.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

v t e LSU Tigers baseball
Venues	State Field (1893–1924) First LSU Diamond (1929–1935) Second LSU Diamond (1936–1937) Alex Box Stadium (1938–2008) Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field (2009–present) Worley Family Batting Cage Pavilion LSU Baseball Training Facility Martin J. Broussard Center for Athletic Training LSU Academic Center for Student-Athletes
Culture & lore	Championships History Traditions
People	Head coaches College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees All-Americans Player awards Coaches awards
Seasons	1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
National Championships in bold; College World Series appearances in italics

v t e LSU Tigers men's basketball
Venues	State Field (1908–1924) Gym/Armory (1930–1937) John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum (1937–1971) Pete Maravich Assembly Center (1972–present) LSU Basketball Practice Facility LSU Strength and Conditioning facility Martin J. Broussard Center for Athletic Training LSU Academic Center for Student-Athletes
Culture & lore	Traditions Mike the Tiger Bengal Brass One & Done
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

v t e LSU Tigers football
Venues	State Field (1893–1924) Tiger Stadium (1924–present) Charles McClendon Practice Facility LSU Football Operations Center LSU Indoor Practice Facility Martin J. Broussard Center for Athletic Training LSU Academic Center for Student-Athletes
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Mississippi State Ole Miss: Magnolia Bowl Texas A&M Tulane: Battle for the Rag
Culture & lore	History Mike the Tiger LSU Tiger Marching Band Songs of LSU Golden Girls and Colorguard LSU Cheerleaders Jersey No. 18 Chinese Bandits Cannon's Halloween run Earthquake Game Bluegrass Miracle 2011 "Game of the Century" Highest scoring Division I game 2019 "Game of the Century" Bengal Punch
People	Head coaches All-Americans LSU Hall of Fame inductees College Football Hall of Fame inductees NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
National championship seasons in bold

Jim Hawthorne (sportscaster)

Contents

Notable calls

Awards and recognition

See also

References

External links