By Will Vandervort

For nearly 25 years Clemson sports information director Tim Bourret worked alongside Jim Phillips and the thing that stands out the most about the guy who is still known as “The Voice the Tigers” was his professionalism.

“He was not a homer,” Bourret said. “He was big on creditability. He always told me, he wanted the Clemson fans to know when things were going well, and when they weren’t going so well. He was not a sugarcoat it kind of guy, yet he had this popularity with the Clemson fan base. I always thought that creditability had a lot to do with it.”

That’s why Phillips served more than two generations of Clemson fans as he called mostly Clemson football, men’s basketball and baseball games during his 36 years as “The Voice of the Tigers.” Now his legacy will live on for many years to come as the home radio booth at Clemson Memorial Stadium will be named in honor of Jim Phillips at a home football game this fall.

Bourret spent seven football seasons in the radio booth with Phillips as he witnessed the legendary voice call four Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and 59 victories from 1982-’88.

One of the more memorable moments, and an example of Phillips professionalism, came during the call of the 1987 South Carolina game in Columbia. At the time, Bourret was the statistician and Clyde Wren, who worked for the football program, was the color analyst.

So there was not any confusion in the booth and so the three would not talk on top of each other during the broadcast, Phillips would simply just call on Bourret or Wren if he needed a statistic or needed a play broken down. But in Columbia, there was not enough room for all three men to sit on the same row in the radio booth so Wren sat behind Phillips and Bourret.

Midway through the third quarter, the Gamecocks were driving the football so Phillips asked Wren, “Clyde, What do the Tigers have to do to slow the Gamecocks down?”

There was no response and when Phillips turned around to see why Wren was not answering, he noticed the former football coach left the booth.

“It’s funny to remember the look on his face after he asked Clyde this thought provoking question and Clyde was not there,” Bourret said while laughing.

But to Phillips credit, again, he was very professional.

“He said, ‘Well, I guess Clyde has stepped out for the moment,’” Bourret said. “He didn’t miss a beat.”

That’s why Phillips’ career behind the microphone spanned eight Clemson football coaches and six Clemson basketball coaches. He broadcast 401 Clemson football games and over 1,000 men’s basketball games in his career.

He missed just one game in Littlejohn Coliseum over his 36 seasons behind the microphone. Combined with his work with baseball and women’s basketball, he broadcast over 2,000 Clemson sporting events. During the 1998-99 academic year he handled broadcasts for football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball, the only ACC broadcaster to cover four sports at the same time.

“He really was into following all the sports,” Bourret said. “He wasn’t just into football and basketball.”

This will be the second honor Clemson has bestowed to Phillips for his hard work and dedication to Clemson athletics. The Youngstown, OH native was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.

Phillips’ last broadcast was ironically in the home radio booth at Clemson Memorial Stadium on September 6, 2003, when he called the Tigers’ 28-17 victory over Furman. Two days later he passed away. And though he may be gone, he will never be forgotten. Especially now that home radio booth is named in his honor.