The year was 1994, the phone rang, and Bill Hillgrove picked it up—literally and figuratively—as he had done throughout his career.
Tony Quatrini was WTAE radio’s sales manager at the time. “I got a call from him saying, ‘Mr. (Dan) Rooney keeps asking for your (audition) tape,'” Hillgrove recalled the exchange. “I told Tony that I had never sent in one. “Well, he’s using a tape of you to compare you to the other applicants,” he remained.
The Steelers were looking for a replacement for play-by-play announcer Jack Fleming, who had retired from the NFL following the 1993 season after many years as the team’s anchor. Indeed, there was a position available, but Bill Hillgrove was employed elsewhere. Actually, multiple jobs.
“After about a week and a half, I received a call from Tom Donahoe, the director of football operations for the Steelers, informing me that everything was going well for you during our meeting last night. And I thought, oh my gosh, I’m in the running for a job that I never applied for. It seems that Dan Rooney decided to go with Hillgrove after hearing a few tapes. We know him. He’s the guy. At the Duquesne Club, we got together.”
That evening at the Duquesne Club in Downtown Pittsburgh were Joe Gordon, the PR director for the Steelers, Jim Carter, the VP of Sales at WTAE, Dan Rooney, Art Rooney II, and Bill Hillgrove, who was about to add play-by-play announcing for the Steelers radio to an already extensive resume that included play-by-play duties for Pitt basketball and football in addition to more than occasional work for WTAE-TV.
Bill Hillgrove made his retirement official today, capping 30 years in that role and 30 NFL seasons in which he witnessed a great deal of thrilling and fascinating moments in the team’s history and promptly relayed them to Steelers fans worldwide.
“Bill Hillgrove’s contributions to both the Steelers Radio Network and the Steelers organisation have spanned nearly three decades that included him serving as our play-by-play announcer for four Super Bowl appearances and countless other memorable games during his tenure,” said Art Rooney II, the president. Since he started collaborating with the legendary Myron Cope on our radio network, he has been an integral part of reaching out to our incredible fans. However, he has also made time to participate in a great number of special events.
DEEP ROOTS IN THE BUSINESS.
Forever and ever, Bill Hillgrove has been a “Pittsburgh guy.” He was born and raised in the Garfield neighbourhood of the city, and after graduating from Central Catholic High School—where he is inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame—he went on to study sports broadcasting at Duquesne University.
Hillgrove quickly became involved in Duquesne’s on-campus radio station, WDUQ, as “I knew I could get the hands-on experience that you need in our end of the business.” The experience involved working closely with the university’s basketball team and playing a little high school football, as WDUQ had a connection at South Stadium, located in the South Side neighbourhood of the city, not far from campus.
Soon after Hillgrove joined WTAE following his graduation from Duquesne, he learned that the station was preparing to relocate the Pitt football and basketball broadcasts from WWSW. That was an easy transition for him because of his basketball experience at WDUQ. In 1970, Hillgrove was assigned to assist Pitt football play-by-play announcer Ed Conway with colour commentary since Conway couldn’t travel to away games due to his work as a TV anchor. “That’s when I got to put my sports hat on,” said the man.
When Hillgrove was first assigned to call football plays during Pitt vs. Florida State in Tallahassee in 1974, Myron would be seated in the chair next to Hillgrove because Johnny Sauer, the new colour commentator, had a CBS commitment that day.
Towards the end of the show, Cope made sure to inform the listeners about a problem that he had come to associate with “love bugs,” which were gnat-like insects that had taken over the radio booth. “It was unpleasant and drove Myron insane, but I don’t know what they were,” Hillgrove remembered. “They were bugs that broke into the booth.”
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIGGER STAGE.
The collaboration between Hillgrove and Cope was suspended as Sauer returned to providing colour commentary in the Pitt booth, while Cope reunited with Fleming in the Three Rivers Stadium booth, calling games for a Steelers team that would win four Super Bowls in a span of six seasons in the 1970s.
It was a period in Bill Hillgrove’s career when he was regarded as a “wild-card guy.”
In fact, one week I filled in for Jack Fleming on the 6 and 11 o’clock sports, and I did Myron’s talk show and his radio commentaries, as well as the all-night disc-jockeying,” Hillgrove said in elaborating on his job description. I completed everything in a single week. I’m not sure how I accomplished it. I made it through. However, at that point in time, I was somewhat of a wild card—part TV, part radio. They also gave me the play-by-play for Pitt basketball and football after Ed Conway passed away. And for a few years, I had a clear role.”
With him, Myron Cope, and Stan Savran at WTAE, as well as the station’s news department, Hillgrove was a member of the market’s best TV sports team at the time because of that defined role.
It held special significance. Regarding that time, Hillgrove remarked, “We had it going, we knew we had it going.” We were aware of our superiority. Each of us was aware of the other’s abilities and limitations. Respect for one another was shared by all. It was a wonderful moment. Television back then was a terrific experience. At 400 Ardmore Boulevard, the location of WTAE’s radio and television studios, I used to look forward to entering because of Paul Long and Joe DeNardo, and their antics and jokes. Along with Sally Wiggin, these individuals were professionals who understood their obligation to work when it was necessary and displayed professionalism in doing so.
“After that, I was able to leave the television industry when the Steelers called,” Hillgrove went on. The way the local TV sports segments have been going, I felt like Mr Rooney had saved me from a burning building. Some large market stations have completely abandoned their sports departments. Since they believe ESPN will draw in all sports fans, they only provide news and the weather.”
Bill Hillgrove was an integral part of the history of the Steelers, perhaps outside of the television industry, having contributed voice to a great deal of the team’s history from 1994 until the 2023 NFL season.
“Playing NFL football is, “first of all, a bigger stage,” according to Hillgrove. “You’re one of only 32 …”It’s a larger field, but to quote Coach Norman Dale from the film ‘Hoosiers’, the field measures 100 yards long by 53.3 yards wide and has four downs. There were a lot of parallels to what I had been doing, and I allowed that idea to calm me. Having Myron as the colour man, who I had worked with during a season at Pitt in 1983 when Johnny Sauer was unable to work due to heart issues, made the process much easier.”
Hillgrove was forced to board a moving train. In the AFC Championship Game against San Diego, where they were overwhelming favourites, the 1994 season came to an abrupt end. Again in the AFC Championship Game, a last-second Hail Mary pass against Indianapolis nearly brought the 1995 season to an end. Then there are the moments. The Steelers’ five-time Super Bowl winners include Ben Roethlisberger’s tackle of Nick Harper in the 2005 AFC Divisional Round, Willie Parker’s 75-yard touchdown run in Super Bowl XL, Troy Polamalu’s pick-6 in the fourth quarter of the 2008 victory over the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, and Santonio Holmes’s catch in that Super Bowl to bring Pittsburgh its sixth Lombardi Trophy.
“That’s the only time I remember the press box shaking was when Troy intercepted that pass against the Ravens and took it back to the house,” said Hillgrove. “That’s the only time I actually feared that the building might fall down. But overall, the plays I was the most proud of were the ones where I waited.”
Out of those, there were two noteworthy instances of waiting, and those occurred at two crucial times.
“I was always told to “watch the official” by Ed Conway. Keep an eye on the official,” Hillgrove said. “There’s a huge scrum when (Colts quarterback) Jim Harbaugh throws the ball down the field and into the end zone during the 1995 AFC Championship Game. I know that at the time, the Colts announcer and the NBC-TV announcer both referred to it as a touchdown.
Merril Hoge, who was the third man in the radio booth at the time, was observing the official. When he saw the official point to the ground, he said, “incomplete,” and that’s why I waited. Given how incredible the moment was, I was proud that I refrained from declaring it a touchdown. You’re misguiding a lot of people into doing the wrong thing if you call touchdown. My patience paid off.
“And also in Super Bowl XLIII, I watched the official (on Santonio Holmes’ catch), because I couldn’t see where Santonio was. Our booth was at the other end of the field and on the opposite side of the field. So I’m looking at the official, and when I saw his hands come up to his waist, then I called it a touchdown, because I know at that point the official is coming up over his head to signal a touchdown. So I was kind of proud of that call, too.”
Retiring from the NFL grind is more of a step back than an end, and there is much about Hillgrove’s broadcasting career to appreciate and respect. Although Steelers supporters associate Bill Hillgrove with the soundtrack of their most treasured moments, his career defines him as a broadcasting Renaissance Man. He performed opera on the radio. He worked as a television announcer in a booth. an individual who plays records. the radio host for overnight sports who, on a daily basis, broke down the scores and highlights. WTAE-TV’s Sports Director. He has a great taste in jazz.
“As to the next chapter of my life, I’ll do Pitt football, and I’ll do Pitt basketball because my brother is the engineer, and we room together on the road,” Hillgrove said. “This bedroom is ours to share, just like the ones we had growing up in Garfield, only it’s bigger. I now have almost all of August and all of July to myself. I was never able to get on a boat and enjoy the autumn foliage at Conneaut Lake until recently, when the Steelers weren’t playing on Sunday. In that sense, everything is really positive. To be honest, my spouse, Rosette, is struggling with depression and may require my presence at home more than previously.
