Bill Hillgrove took a sip of Miller Lite.
It was Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before Pitt played Ohio. No one at Dad’s Pub & Grub in Braddock Hills knew the Panthers would oust the Bobcats, and at the time, no one cared. Not in the moment, at least. Everyone sitting at the bar — from Hillgrove, the voice of the Panthers, to the workers on lunch break — had their eyes peeled to SportsCenter as Antonio Brown’s ongoing antics were dissected.
Thank God we traded him.
Not our problem anymore.
Hillgrove couldn’t help but crack a smile. The 78-year-old thought he had seen it all.
Of course, he has seen a lot. Pitt’s play-by-play radio broadcaster has called Panther football games since 1974 — his voice describing more than 500 games, 27 bowls and a national title included.
The broadcaster’s career isn’t ending anytime soon. That’s not where this story is going. Hillgrove said he’ll keep calling games “as long as it’s fun.” “Why would I not?” he asked. “I’m like a golf pro. What do I retire to?”
However, a chapter of Hillgrove’s life is coming to a close: He has accepted that next Saturday’s Pitt-Penn State game will likely be his last from the booth.
The 100th meeting between Pitt and Penn State is the schools’ final matchup for the foreseeable future. After a 16-year hiatus, a brief four-game renewal served as a reminder for one of college football’s historic rivalries. But beyond 2019, there’s no return in sight. Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke has expressed interest in continuing the series. But Penn State, as of athletic director Sandy Barbour’s comments in 2016, can’t make it work schedule-wise until at least 2030.
Hillgrove, frankly, isn’t even optimistic it’ll be that soon. The longtime Pitt figure believes it would take a drastic change in conference alignment to reunite Pitt and Penn State on the field.
“In my opinion — in your lifetime, not mine — there will be one more earthquake in the NCAA landscape,” Hillgrove said. “Notre Dame will get caught up in it, and I’m hoping Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia all end up in the same geographic conference or division. I think that’s going to happen.”
Hillgrove, after suggesting significant alterations to Power 5 football (or Power 4 football?), took a bite of his mac and cheese and sat in silence. He let the idea float around the bar for a minute or two as The Beatles’ “Come Together” played over the speakers, irony at an all-time high.
“I don’t know what’s going to create it,” Hillgrove later admitted. “But a fault, in terms of earthquakes, would be the Big 12. They’re the most strung out geographically, and from a power position, they’re the weakest of the others. If they came apart and went to other conferences, you can see that earthquake happening.”
As it stands, college football’s major conferences are stable. So are their TV contracts.
The ACC and ESPN — which recently launched the ACC Network — agreed to a 20-year rights extension in 2016. The same year, the Big Ten inked a six-year deal with ESPN and FOX. The Big 12 cut a deal with ESPN (and, by extension, ESPN+) in April. You get the idea. “Conference shifts and people moving have been happening since the dawn of time. That’s nothing new,” Texas AD Chris Del Conte told the Sports Business Journal in December. “But right now, it’s very calm. I don’t see any movement right now.”
Maybe that changes in the distant future. Or as Hillgrove put it, in a younger person’s lifetime. Perhaps, someday, Joe Paterno’s old plan for an eastern conference catches a second wind.
It’s well-known that in 1981, Paterno — then serving as Penn State’s athletic director, as well as its head football coach — pitched a conference for East Coast programs. It would have included Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College, Rutgers, Temple and Maryland, at least. But the league never came to be. Pitt basketball joined Syracuse and Boston College in the Big East in ‘82, and the conference started football in ‘91, adding West Virginia, Temple and Rutgers to the picture.
Paterno’s dream disintegrated. But linking up with those schools wasn’t out of the question. Former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese told The New York Times in 2009 that the Big East had an opportunity to bring Nittany Lion basketball into the fold in ‘82, back when founder Dave Gavitt still ran the league. “Dave wanted to go to Penn State and extend the invitation,” Tranghese said. “But he couldn’t if we didn’t have the votes. And we had eight teams and needed six votes and it was a 5-3 vote.”
Hillgrove said he heard Paterno was interested years ago.
“From Dave Gavitt’s mouth to my ears, not once but twice: Joe Paterno tried to get into the Big East. Twice. And twice he was turned down because he didn’t bring a basketball market with him,” Hillgrove said, wagging his finger. “Paterno likes everyone to think that Pitt scuttled the eastern conference plans, but that wasn’t the case.”
If Penn State basketball was welcomed into the Big East, Tranghese said, Penn State, Pitt, Boston College and Syracuse football “probably would have agreed to play and continue as independents.” If that happens, does Pitt-Penn State take a crippling break from 2001 through 2015? Does the rivalry continue past 2019? Who knows?
What’s for certain is, Hillgrove will remember Pitt-Penn State for what it was. He’ll remember the Panthers’ heartbreaking loss in ‘75, a 7-6 defeat due to a blocked extra point and three missed field goals. He’ll remember Pitt’s 24-7 win in ‘76, when Johnny Majors’ side “arrived as a major power” and later won the national title.
Hillgrove will enjoy Pitt-Penn State while he still has it, believing he doesn’t have it for much longer.
“It’s like someone stole Mother’s Day,” Hillgrove said of the series’ hiatus and dreary future. “It used to be the best rivalry, the highest-rated rivalry. ABC loved it. End of the year, bragging rights for the whole offseason. ... I look forward to get up there (to Penn State next weekend). Have a lot of good memories. Some bad ones, too.”
Hillgrove took another sip of Miller Lite and shrugged.
John McGonigal: jmcgonigal@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jmcgonigal9
First Published: September 8, 2019, 2:16 p.m.
