Speaker 1: For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to
Speaker 1: be a sports broadcaster, and that's in large part because
Speaker 1: of this man. My name is Jack Hill Growth, I'm
Speaker 1: twenty five years old, and for my entire life, my
Speaker 1: grandfather has been the voice of my favorite football team,
Speaker 1: which has been pretty darn cool. Pittsburgh Stealers. Pick it
Speaker 1: to Pickens, and you have to be here now. I
Speaker 1: couldn't be more blessed to be able to sit down
Speaker 1: with him and reflect on his incredible tenure as the
Speaker 1: voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 2: Hi pap Hi, Jack, fancy meeting you here?
Speaker 1: It is It's definitely a treat. The last thirty years
Speaker 1: for you have also been a treat, a.
Speaker 2: Treat, a good run, a blessing. To work for the
Speaker 2: Rooneyes is a privilege. The fact that they gave me
Speaker 2: the opportunity to be one of thirty two announcers on
Speaker 2: the big stage is certainly a big thing and has
Speaker 2: made my career. But you know, it's it's gone by fast.
Speaker 2: But the fact that I did four Super Bowls, a
Speaker 2: lot of guys in my position don't get that chance,
Speaker 2: and I'm grateful for that. The only regret I have
Speaker 2: is that I'm two and two in Super Bowls, Myron
Speaker 2: was four and one and Jack Fleming was four and
Speaker 2: oh so I had some catching up to do, but
Speaker 2: unfortunately it'll be up to somebody else.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to your formative years growing up in Garfield,
Speaker 1: growing up a Pittsburgh kid. When did you start to
Speaker 1: realize that you had a love for football in this organization?
Speaker 2: You know, through my uncles we'd go to family gatherings
Speaker 2: and talking about the Steelers and Joe Gary and Jack
Speaker 2: Butler and Ray Matthews and that peaud my interest. You know,
Speaker 2: I always love football anyhow, but you know, as a
Speaker 2: kid who's ten or eleven years old, when your uncles
Speaker 2: are talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers and talking about them
Speaker 2: with passion, it's infectious. And it poured over me. And
Speaker 2: I was very lucky to be able to do games
Speaker 2: for a franchise I grew up rooting for.
Speaker 1: You did games for University of Pittsburgh as well for
Speaker 1: close to two decades before the Steelers came a calling.
Speaker 1: Do you recall the first conversation, the first inclination that
Speaker 1: you had that, oh, my goodness, I might be you know,
Speaker 1: in the running to replace the great Jack Fleming.
Speaker 2: Tony Quatrini, who's retired from the Steelers, was the sales
Speaker 2: manager at w TAE Radio. He called me and he said, Billy,
Speaker 2: I just want you to know mister Rooney keeps asking
Speaker 2: for your tape. And I said, what tape. I didn't
Speaker 2: submit a tape, and he said, well, they have a
Speaker 2: tape and they're using it to compare other tapes, and
Speaker 2: the more he hears yours, the more he likes it.
Speaker 2: And that was the first angling I said, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: I'm a candidate for a job that I really am
Speaker 2: not seeking. But you know, the more I thought about it,
Speaker 2: the more it made sense to become a full time
Speaker 2: play by play guy. You know, for a kid from
Speaker 2: Garfield to be able to say that, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And you had a ton of experience calling football games
Speaker 1: before at Pitt. But do you recall any nerves.
Speaker 2: I did the Gene Hackman approach. Remember Hoosiers. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: baskets ten feet, the lane is fifteen, the football field
Speaker 2: is one hundred yards fifty three and change wide four downs.
Speaker 2: There wasn't a whole lot of difference, and I took
Speaker 2: that approach once I had that sudden jolt of my gosh,
Speaker 2: you're the voice for the Pittsburgh Steelers that went away
Speaker 2: long before the season started, and to be paired with Myron,
Speaker 2: who I knew from previous experience, that was a blessing too.
Speaker 1: That was exactly where I was going with my next question.
Speaker 1: Myron Cope, that was a suddle past Beard to me.
Speaker 2: You know, he took it to the old col throw
Speaker 2: the coal.
Speaker 1: It could have been their business. God, what was it
Speaker 1: like working with him? You obviously had a personal relationship
Speaker 1: prior to you stepping into the stea dealer's booth. Did
Speaker 1: that make it maybe easier for you to transition on Sundays?
Speaker 2: Yes, it did. I had a preview with Myron. First
Speaker 2: of all, the very first game I did for pitt
Speaker 2: after Ed Conway passed away, Johnny Sower was supposed to
Speaker 2: be the color man, but he had CBS commitments and
Speaker 2: so they said, well, Myron can do the game with you.
Speaker 2: And that was nineteen seventy four, So I had a
Speaker 2: little bit of an inkling in seventy four what to expect.
Speaker 2: And then in eighty three Johnny Sower had heart problems
Speaker 2: and he was not given the go by the doctors,
Speaker 2: so they put Cope in the booth with me for
Speaker 2: that whole year and it was fun. He's unique. I've
Speaker 2: always said, you do three important things in life. You
Speaker 2: get married, you have a first son, and you meet
Speaker 2: Myron Cope. And I was blessed to be in all
Speaker 2: those positions.
Speaker 1: I remember the time I met Myron Cope. It's clears day.
Speaker 1: I was like five years old. He looked down at me,
Speaker 1: made a wise crack about how I had hair and
Speaker 1: he didn't, and he tried to rub his head on
Speaker 1: my head. Did any hair go up with there? And
Speaker 1: I'm just like no, and then he walked away. But yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely a unique character. Indeed, you got to work with
Speaker 1: tun Chilk in the late great Touns Chilkin for a
Speaker 1: long time too. What was that experience like, Well, he.
Speaker 2: Saw the game from an offensive lineman's perspective, as does
Speaker 2: Craig wolf Lee. They played the game at a high
Speaker 2: level for a long period of time, and they made
Speaker 2: me understand that the wins and losses are just about
Speaker 2: a direct result in football of what's going on up
Speaker 2: front and whoever wins that battle at the line of
Speaker 2: scrimmage's chances are, I don't care how many skilled people
Speaker 2: you have, how accurate your quarterback is, sooner or later,
Speaker 2: you win a football game. Up front, And they taught
Speaker 2: me that.
Speaker 1: You talked a little bit earlier too, about the fact
Speaker 1: that you got to call four Super Bowls. Did they
Speaker 1: feel any different than maybe previous ones or is it
Speaker 1: just one of those things where it just kind of
Speaker 1: has the same feeling going into it, a big game
Speaker 1: kind of feeling.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess I talked myself into that, you know
Speaker 2: the fact that now that the stage is bigger, don't
Speaker 2: let it bother you, don't let it be become an impediment,
Speaker 2: don't let it be in your way. And you know
Speaker 2: that certainly was it, you know, the first four Super
Speaker 2: Bowls when the Steelers had, to me the greatest dynasty
Speaker 2: in the history of sports. I was always left back
Speaker 2: at the station, and so the other guys would get
Speaker 2: to go cover the Steelers in Miami or Pasadena or
Speaker 2: whatever they played. So I had to stay back and
Speaker 2: I missed those, And so I guess the Lord stepped
Speaker 2: in and said, Okay, we're going to make that up
Speaker 2: for you, and you're going to get to do them yourselves.
Speaker 2: And it started with Super Bowl thirty in sun Devil Stadium.
Speaker 2: Cope and I took a cab to the stadium and
Speaker 2: as we get out of the cab, a voice behind
Speaker 2: us yelled, they'll let anybody in this place. And we
Speaker 2: turn around and it's Chuck Nole and that memory the
Speaker 2: fact that they wouldn't let us in the booth until
Speaker 2: later in the week. And when we got to the booth,
Speaker 2: it was hermetically sealed. It was all encased in glass,
Speaker 2: and Myron objected. He complained to Joe Brown of the
Speaker 2: league office, and I thought to myself, you know, of
Speaker 2: the leagues one hundred and twenty five priorities, you're number
Speaker 2: one twenty six. But sure enough, we walk into the
Speaker 2: booth game day and they have half of the glass removed. Well,
Speaker 2: it turns out it was my half and not his,
Speaker 2: and we got a chuckle over that. But right before
Speaker 2: the game started, I heard a voice behind us, mister Cope,
Speaker 2: is everything in this booth to your liking? And I
Speaker 2: turned around and it's the commissioner of the National Football League,
Speaker 2: Paul taglia booth. And I said to myself, Cope swings
Speaker 2: a heavy stick and he got the league's attention, but
Speaker 2: it just didn't work out for his benefit. It worked
Speaker 2: out for mine.
Speaker 1: Well. You remember about the two Super Bowls that the
Speaker 1: Steelers won in Detroit and in Super Bowl forty in
Speaker 1: Super Bowl forty three as well.
Speaker 2: Detroit. Great memory for the week up there. We spent
Speaker 2: in Pontiac and going back and forth to Detroit. I
Speaker 2: saw one Seahawks shirt the whole week. That was impressive.
Speaker 2: And then coming back after the game, the line at
Speaker 2: the Ohio Turnpike and the toll booth operators looking like,
Speaker 2: my god, I've never seen anything like this. And I
Speaker 2: think a lot of Steeler fans, even though they didn't
Speaker 2: have tickets to the game, went to Detroit just to
Speaker 2: be part of the Steelers nation. And of course the
Speaker 2: Jerome Bettis angle, the fact that they'd go to run
Speaker 2: on the field and Jerome's running out there and he
Speaker 2: realizes he's by himself. You see Joey Porter holding back
Speaker 2: all the teammates. That was pretty special. The special thing
Speaker 2: about Super Bowl forty three was Ben and how he
Speaker 2: responded to the fact that the Cardinals had gone ahead
Speaker 2: two minutes and change. There was a holding call and
Speaker 2: every pass he threw on that series was on the
Speaker 2: Steeler player's hands, and the one that should have been
Speaker 2: cut was on the left side of the end zone,
Speaker 2: and he went right back to Santonio in the right
Speaker 2: side of the end zone. And to me, that was
Speaker 2: a pretty special moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a call that's gonna live in the annals
Speaker 1: of Steeler's history, probably for the rest of time. Talk
Speaker 1: about that play, how you saw it, and ultimately you know,
Speaker 1: giving us the call that Steelers fans everywhere know and
Speaker 1: have known for a long time.
Speaker 2: One of my mentors, Ed Conway, always told me, watch
Speaker 2: the official. I'm at Raymond James. I'm at the other
Speaker 2: end of the field and on the other side of
Speaker 2: the field. I couldn't even see at Santonio, let alone
Speaker 2: his feet. But when I saw that official bring those
Speaker 2: hands up to his waist, I knew they were going
Speaker 2: up here, and I called touchdown. And I was very
Speaker 2: fortunate to trust my instincts in that regard. But that
Speaker 2: to me was a great play, one of the greatest
Speaker 2: in Steeler's history. But the fact that I was even
Speaker 2: an indirect part of it was also a thrill. He
Speaker 2: scrambles around, throws it back corner of the end zone.
Speaker 2: Santonio with a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Santonio, I don't know how.
Speaker 2: We did it.
Speaker 1: You think, are there any other moments from games that
Speaker 1: maybe not have been in the Super Bowl that stick
Speaker 1: out to you as you know, memorable moments for you
Speaker 1: in your career.
Speaker 2: Ah gosh. Away from the football field, I secretly put
Speaker 2: a ball in my bag to bring to the game
Speaker 2: where the bus ran over Brian Erlacker, and after the game,
Speaker 2: I want to get him to sign it, but they
Speaker 2: don't like us to approach the athletes directly. They like
Speaker 2: us to go through the channels. I needed to get
Speaker 2: this ball signed, and so I kind of stood in
Speaker 2: front of the bus and my bag and I got
Speaker 2: the ball out. He saw me pull that ball out.
Speaker 2: He pushed me aside. He said, hey, we're family, give
Speaker 2: me a pen out sign that you know, and those
Speaker 2: special moments are really easily recalled and enjoyable to this day.
Speaker 1: Speaking of family, you've got to share a lot of
Speaker 1: moments in the press box with my dad, your son
Speaker 1: with me as I grew up, us helping you out, spotting,
Speaker 1: you know, do whatever we need to do to make
Speaker 1: sure that you get the call right. What was that
Speaker 1: like for you?
Speaker 2: It begs the question is the world ready for three
Speaker 2: generations of hill growth? And I'm not sure about that,
Speaker 2: but there is so much fun. You know. You started
Speaker 2: when you were eight years old. You were assistant spotter,
Speaker 2: and then you of course grew into the main role.
Speaker 2: But I remember, and I was so pleased when you,
Speaker 2: at the age of fourteen, said hey, Pat, I think
Speaker 2: I want to do what you do. And that made
Speaker 2: me very very happy. And you make me happy.
Speaker 1: You make me happy. Here we are, Hey, all these
Speaker 1: years later, what did the fans add to your experience
Speaker 1: as the voice of the Steelers? I mean everybody you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm in this camp too. I think they're the
Speaker 1: best fans in all sports.
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit like the players. I feed off
Speaker 2: the fans, you know, as the play by play guy.
Speaker 2: They are unique. The most unique NFL franchise, Steelers Nation
Speaker 2: is it's the It's almost hard to find, but we
Speaker 2: see it when we travel because we go to a
Speaker 2: hotel and whether it's on the West Coast or in Florida,
Speaker 2: and they have to put stanchions up and have security
Speaker 2: people to keep the fans away from the players so
Speaker 2: they can get on the elevators to go up to
Speaker 2: their rooms. There's nothing like it elsewhere in the National
Speaker 2: Football League, but most of it is very, very pleasant
Speaker 2: and very rewarding.
Speaker 1: Do you have a final message to the fans, the organization,
Speaker 1: the Rooney family for the last three decades.
Speaker 2: Two words, thank you.