Tom Dillon collapsed at home last night and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. 

Tom Dillon recently was working for the Sports USA Radio Network since 2005 as a play-by-play announcer. Voted by his peers as “Arizona Sportscaster of the Year” for eighteen years, Dillon was the former radio voice of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, a position he held for 11 years. Dillon called hundreds of Arizona State Sun Devil football, basketball and baseball games on radio in additional to later serving as TV play-by-play announcer of Arizona State University games on Fox Sports Net Arizona. Dillon had been the recipient of numerous awards for broadcasting from such organizations as the Associated Press and United Press International.

is with deep sorrow that the Arizona State University Athletic Department announces the loss of a Sun Devil great. Tom Dillon, the long-time radio Voice of the Sun Devils, passed away Monday (December 1) night at his home due to an apparent heart attack. He was 65.

Today on the program Roc and Manuch will play different play by play sound from Tom coming back from every break.  I know it’s not much, but it’s just a small appreciation for his incredible ability to call games and his longtime friendship with Manuch and I.

He will truly be missed.  He was 65.

Here is a great story from ASU State Press back in 1997: Special from the State Press by Lisa Eskey

Even after 34 years in the business and more than 3,000 games, Tom Dillon can lure his listeners into a stadium with his smooth and conversational voice.

“He makes the catch! He juggles it! He breaks a tackle! He’s down the sideline! He’s at midfield! He’s at the 40! He’s knocked down at the Arizona State 37!”

Through these words and voice inflections, Dillon transported his listeners from Arizona to Washington. They enjoyed the same views as he did, yet he was the one sitting in a cramped booth high above the field at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

Every weekend, for five months of the year, Dillon’s job is to make Valley fans listening to a football game feel as if they were in the stadium themselves, screaming wildly at spectacular plays, feeling somber after a lost battle. When he’s not calling the play-by-play for ASU and Arizona Cardinals games, he is sportscasting weekday mornings on KTAR (620 AM) and KMVP (860 AM).

Dillon arrived in gloomy, rainy Seattle at 10 a.m., about 5 1/2 hours before the ASU-Washington game began. He had breakfast with his producer, went to the team’s hotel, arrived at the stadium at noon and was on the air by 12:30.

Dillon, producer Mitch Otto, color analyst Jeff Van Raaphorst, two engineers, a statistician and a spotter crammed into the 10 by 10-foot cubicle for the next six hours.

His game equipment includes reading glasses, a pair of binoculars, a cup of coffee, some bottled water and, most important, his depth charts, to which he adds hometowns and career stats of the players on each team.

“He steps up … winds up … throws deep … to the far side of the field … it’s incomplete.”

Dillon spoke to his listeners as if he were a fan enjoying the game, even though he had three people constantly pointing and passing him statistical information and tidbits.

As he called the play, he read depth charts, watched replays on television monitors and interpreted hand motions from his producer. “It’s a team effort,” Dillon said.

Van Raaphorst also got into the action, waving at Dillon when he needed to mention something. Otto pretended to break a pencil with his hands to cue Dillon to go to commercial. He made a circle motion with his finger to prompt Dillon to wrap up the show.

“This one’s over in Seattle. Darkness falls on Husky Stadium. The end of the ball game with the final, Washington 26, Arizona State 14. We’re back to recap this one right after this.”

After the game, Dillon returned to his hotel for dinner, watching a college football game for awhile. He then retired to his room, going over some Minnesota Viking notes on the Cardinals opponent the next day. He was in bed by 10:30 and awake by 4:45 the next morning. At 6:45 he was on a plane, on his way back to Phoenix.

Within three hours, Dillon returned to the sizzling heat of Phoenix. Once on the ground at 9:30, he went home for a quick suit change and lunch. He was at Sun Devil Stadium by noon and was on the air at 12:30. The two-level broadcast booth he was in is at least three times larger than Saturday’s cramped quarters in Seattle.

Dillon doesn’t deny that his weekends are tough but said it’s all in his mind on how well he handles them. This particular one was a light travel weekend for him. He was in Seattle for the ASU game on Saturday and back to the Valley to call the Cardinals contest on Sunday. “I get to sleep in a bed tonight, I slept in one last night and I get to sleep in one tomorrow night,” he said.

Most of his weekend slumbers are spent in an airplane seat. “I can sleep at anyplace, any time of the day,” he added. “I learned that a long time ago.”

“HE SCOOOOOOOORES!”

His Cardinal Radio Network producer, Doug Cannon, has never seen a travel-weary, moody Dillon. “He’s really loose and follows instructions,” he said. “He’s very easy to work with.”

Van Raaphorst said, “When he yells, his face turns beat red. Half the time, I’m waiting for him to have a heart attack.”

Dillon’s excited for every score. Others have noticed his fairness. “In his voice you can hear he’s a true Sun Devil, yet he’s fair,” ASU head football coach Bruce Snyder said. “I’m sure I’ve screwed up a few times and he’s said that about me, and that’s fair.”

Dillon knows the jargon and uses different words to describe the same situations throughout a game. He calls the play and then as the teams are in transition for the next down, he goes into greater detail. He’s creative, painting a picture for his fans. To explain which direction the team is going, he might say the Sun Devils are “moving right to left across your radio dial.”

Running backs peddle, dance, surge, and squirt; players get drilled, wrestled, crushed, rocked and busted; plays are squandered and defenses are stifled.

Sometimes, his words are simpler. “It’s caught!” he yelled about a 24-yard catch.

As the speed and intensity of the play increases, so does the rate of Dillon’s words. If he’s sitting down, his hands grip his legs as if they were trying to hold them down.

Van Raaphorst said he learned from Dillon how to create excitement. “I try to feed off of him,” the former ASU quarterback said. “It’s important that we’re both on the same emotional pitch.”

Dillon adds to his commentary with phrases such as, “I don’t believe that call,” “Third down and a mile” and “That pass was so high, he needed a step ladder to get it.”

He tries to add humor, teasing referees and making light of player scuffles.

When ASU played USC, Van Raaphorst’s younger brother, Mike, entered the game for the Trojans. On the air, Dillon noted that their mother was in the booth. “So if you hear someone squeal,” he quipped, “It’s probably Jeff.”

If he says something inaccurate, he corrects himself. At times, he apologizes, saying he simply calls them as he sees them.

Otto has been producing the ASU game shows for the past seven seasons. “I’ve learned more about football being able to listen to him and see the game at the same time,” he said of Dillon’s work. “He’s been doing this for so many years.”

Van Raaphorst, in only his second year at Dillon’s side, said he was able to connect and develop a pattern of working with Dillon by their third game. “It took a couple of games for me to earn Tom’s trust,” he said. “I just sit back in awe. He’s so good, he could call the whole game by himself.”

“It’s eight minutes before 6 …”

Dillon, 54, makes the half-hour commute from his Ahwatukee home to downtown Phoenix four days a week. He telecommutes from home on Tuesdays and does his sportscasts by phone. “That lets me sleep in an hour later, kick back and veg,” he said. “It’s my time to charge my battery.”

Dillon follows the same routine each weekday. From 5:50-10 a.m., he does a sports segment at the bottom of every hour on KMVP. He does the same on KTAR at 15 minutes and 45 minutes after the hour. When he arrives at work, Dillon filters through wire stories at his desk, rips the stories he wants and heads toward the news studio.

His sportscasts range from 90 seconds to three minutes throughout the morning. Early broadcasts focus on what happened the night before and later ones concentrate on upcoming games. Dillon sprinkles news of games from professional, college and high school ranks as well as athletes making news off the playing field. Sometimes he’ll add commentary.

Dillon said he “visually edits” each story while he’s on the air. “The problem is sometimes I get stuff wrong that way,” he said with a smile.

He likes to mix things up, switching leads, to make each broadcast different. His young-sounding voice might give listeners an image of a youthful appearance, but his wisdom reflects his four-decade career. He looks more like a grandfather, with snow-white hair. While others in the press box dress casually, Dillon usually wears a shirt and tie.

Being such a recognized voice in the Valley, he frequently opens and closes his sportscasts by reading commercial advertisements for sponsors.

Dillon’s alter-ego, “The Fearless Predictor,” replaces him for two segments on KTAR and one segment on KMVP on Fridays when he attempts to predict the outcome of Pac-10 football and NFL games for the weekend.

“I have fun with it,” Dillon said. “People expect you to get them right, but it’s more fun when you screw up. People give you grief. Once in a while, I’ll take an upset to be different. If I’m wrong, I’ll go into the studio on Monday and moan’ n’ groan. I’ll say, ‘I tore a rotator cuff in my shoulder patting myself on the back from the week before.’ It’s all fun.”

Fearless’ record as of Nov. 21 is .760 for Pac-10 and .621 for pro games.

Dillon works about 25 hours a week at the station, but said he’s “much more productive outside the station.” As the “Voice of the Sun Devils” since 1979, he calls ASU football, men’s basketball and baseball games on KMVP. He also calls Cardinals games on KGLQ (96.9 FM).

Dillon called Cardinals games on KTAR since the team moved to the Valley in 1988 until it left for KSEZ (99.9 FM) in 1994. When the Cardinals changed to KGLQ after the 1995 season, Dillon renegotiated his contract to be able to call games on a competing station.

As he spoke the final few words of his last broadcast for the morning, the speed of his reading slowed down. “Have a good weekend everybody. I’m Tom Dillon and that’s KTAR sports.”

“He’ll do just about everything we ask.”

Susan Clouse-Dolbert, executive director of the ASU Alumni Association, said Dillon “bends over backward to help us, and he’s never asked for anything.”

Dillon serves as host for football luncheons. He also spends time with various charities across the city. “I’m more than happy to do it,” he said about the one or two events he does each week. “It gives me a chance to meet people who listen to the station.”

The Alumni/Sun Angel Foundation luncheon before the ASU-BYU game was held at the BankOne Center in dowtown Phoenix. Dillon sat at the coach’s table, with Snyder, Snyder’s wife and daughter. Two football players, Michael Martin and Paul Reynolds, were also there.

Dillon didn’t spend much time eating the chicken lunch. He talked to Martin and Reynolds, getting to know them before he interviewed them in front of the crowd of about 200 people. He worked the crowd throughout his introductions and interviews, getting people involved and laughing.

Long after the room had cleared of the well-known names, Dillon was still socializing, telling stories and catching up with others’ lives. He’s never rushed.

Al Molina, a Valley jeweler, was one of the many who wanted to shake Dillon’s hand. “You’re the man,” he said. “I could listen to you forever; It’s intoxicating.”

Dillon quipped about the “forever” remark, recalling how, when Snyder introduced Reynolds at lunch minutes earlier, the athlete said to Dillon, “I’ve been listening to you since I was a little kid. I associate ASU football with your voice.” The sportscaster added, “That’s when you feel like you’ve been around forever.”

Bruce Hill, who played in ASU’s 1987 Rose Bowl victory and now works for the Alumni Association, also approached Dillon. “You’re the man,” he said. “You bounce off of everybody and know where to go with the crowd. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

Snyder has briefly heard Dillon working a Cardinals game, but has never heard him call an ASU game and said he probably won’t for awhile. “When I do, I’ll be retired, sitting on my back porch, listening to Tom,” he said.

If ASU or the Cardinals has a bye-week, Dillon has a rare day off. He does his best to get away from sports, spending time with other interests, such as his tabby cat, Sydney, named for one of his favorite cities.

“Sydney (the city) is a throwback to the United States I remember growing up in the Midwest,” he said, recalling his childhood in Kansas City and Sedalia, Mo. “It was simpler, slower-paced.”

He also loves to travel. Last summer, he took a three-week cruise to Italy and Greece. He said he enjoys each place’s unique history and geography. He still wants to visit New Zealand, Germany, the former Soviet Bloc countries and South America.

Dillon said he likes traveling to games, but never gets to stay anywhere long enough. “I see the airport, hotel, shower, taxicab and stadium,” he said.

“Seattle is my favorite city; I love it,” he said. He added that he enjoys trips to Dallas and San Diego, as well as “all the great places to eat in Philadelphia.”

Dillon also sings in the Corpus Christi Catholic Church choir and occasionally reads scriptures. He said he could rent and watch movies all day. Harrison Ford is his favorite actor, but added he likes all kinds of movies.

He regularly phones and e-mails his two daughters, Lisa Dillon-Orthman, 26, who works for Circle K Corp. in the Valley, and Jennifer Dillon, 24, a Navy officer stationed in Virginia. Dillon also has two stepchildren with his wife Bonnie: Carmen Meyers, 30, an actress, and Edward Meyers, 27, an attorney. He also has an 8-year-old granddaugher, Chantel, whom he sees weekly.

Bonnie said her husband keeps a variety of musical intruments around the house and when he and his granddaughter get together, the house starts rocking. “If you ever want to get Tom going, put on some Jimmy Buffett,” she said. “He gets out his conga drums and guitar and he and Chantel have so much fun.”

Dillon’s real passion is his plane. “If I can get away, I fly,” he said.

He had the desire to fly since his early 20s. “I wanted to be a commercial pilot but everybody always told me you had to be in the military, so I went into the service,” he said.

Marriage, children and money kept him away from flying for 30 years. “One year I got a nice tax return and gave it to the people in Chandler and said to them, ‘I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly.’”

He earned his license from the Chandler Air Service the year he turned 50. “There’s just something about being up there all alone,” he said. “I go every chance I get; it’s so serene.”

“This beats working for a living”

Dillon wears a large Rose Bowl ring from ASU’s 1987 victory on his right ring finger. Its bright ruby jewel constantly catches the light. “I’d like a Super Bowl ring with the Cardinals, but I might have to live to 100 to do that,” he said.

His decision to call games for two football teams simultaneously requires him to take red-eye or early-morning flights to go from wherever ASU plays on Saturday to catch up with the Cardinals by Sunday afternoon. Most flights work out and Dillon has missed only two games in his entire career: one due to sickness and another due to a plane’s mechanical difficulties.

Two football games in 24 hours has caused other problems. Dillon has mixed jersey numbers and names.

Dillon recalled a preseason game between the Cardinals and Oakland. “It’s the fourth quarter and Oakland was leading. Then I said, ‘Jake Plummer has driven the Sun Devils in a position to score.’ Once someone told me what I had said I replied that ‘hey, I’m entitled to one of those.’ How many times over the past 3 1/2 years have we seen Jake do that at this same stadium?”

Dillon’s schedule is in constant motion. Just as ASU football is winding down, ASU basketball is beginning — and he’s still working for the Cardinals, who have another month remaining in their season. Then before basketball ends, Dillon is calling ASU baseball. This season alone he’ll have called 27 football games (28 if the Devils go to a bowl), at least 30 basketball games and more than 50 baseball games.

But he is not one to complain. “I have a good deal,” he said, but “in May, I’m ready to go somewhere and relax.”

Another drawback to his job is the timing of all the games he calls. He said that led to many arguments with his first wife. “I work when other people play,” he said. “Our vacations were planned around ball games. There was always a baseball series at Easter, football on Thanksgiving, bowl games during Christmas and New Year’s.”

After a divorce in 1991, Dillon remarried in 1995, to Bonnie. “We like our time together, but we also like our own space,” he said.

Bonnie said: “Having no children (at home) makes a big difference. We spend time with each other when we have it.”

Dillon-Orthman said her father’s career presented challenges when she was growing up. “I spent a lot of my childhood in Sun Devil Stadium and the Activity Center,” she said. “But I was exposed to a lot of opportunities; it was an exciting lifestyle.”

During the USC game last season, Dillon found himself in a fix. It was the day Dillon-Orthman was to be married. “Lisa’s the biggest ASU fan,” Dillon said. “Her wedding was at 4 and she said it was OK if I skipped the reception because the game was scheduled to start at 7. I told her the team’s doing really well and the game time likely would be changed (for television) but she said, ‘No, no , that won’t happen.’”

The game was changed to begin at 12:30, but Dillon thought he’d still have plenty of time to get to the wedding in nearby Mesa, figuring he’d be off the air by 3:30. He even wore a tuxedo to the game. Then, the game went into overtime the same time the wedding was supposed to begin. ASU won, but Dillon missed the big event.

“I had to wish her and her new husband well on the air,” Dillon said. “I got a lot of heat for that (from listeners). Her mother walked her down the aisle. We were both going to do it anyway.”

Dillon-Orthman said she understood her father’s dilemma and supported his decision. “After all, he is the only voice of the Sun Devils,” she said. Her father did attend the reception, she added.

“I have a face made for radio”

Dillon describes himself as a child with this anecdote: “I remember my mother went to a parent-teacher conference when I was in seventh grade. My teacher called me incorrigible. I thought I was being complimented.”

Dillon always was interested in athletics, playing baseball at age 6. He was a starting catcher for three years in high school. “But I couldn’t hit a curve ball or run very fast,” he said. He also tried out football and basketball but added that he wasn’t made for either of those sports.

Nowadays, he likes to watch golf, tennis and auto racing. Dillon said he loves Olympic sports, especially women’s gymnastics and figure skating.

He is a self-described fan, not fanatic. “I don’t get caught up in rooting for my team,” he said. “I like going to a ball game to have the opportunity to watch the athletes perform. I’ll watch ball games on TV, but I don’t memorize the box scores.”

As a child, Dillon said he was an entertainer, singing for his father’s friends. “I thought I was the biggest bigshot in town,” he said.

His music career continued through his high school years in El Paso, where he sang in his church choir and played the guitar in a band. At 17, he visited radio stations to promote his band. During that time, he got hooked on a career in broadcasting.

“I liked the atmosphere,” he said. “The people were kind of nutso. I liked that, too.”

Throughout his college years at the University of Texas at El Paso, he worked at the campus radio station. His first job came in 1963, as a DJ at a station near his naval airbase in Richcrest, Calif. He learned play-by-play calling on the job.

“The station needed someone to do it and I was the only one who thought I could,” he said. “It was a career I thought I could pursue and enjoy doing.”

The station broadcast only during the day, so Dillon recorded the football games and then played them back on the air the next morning. During those times, he was forced to listen to himself.

“I was awful,” he said. “But it’s been the best training device. I still do that today. I’ve learned that the more I listen, the better I become.”

Dillon said he also listens to how other’s call the game and incorporates their stuff at times. He admires the giants of the field: the Packers’ Ray Scott, the Yankees’ Mel Allen, the Cubs’ Harry Caray, the Dodgers’ Vin Scully and the Lakers’ Chick Hern.

Dillon’s career took him many places. He spent one year on Armed Forces Radio while on a ship in the Pacific Ocean. He returned to El Paso for six months and also had stints in Las Cruces and Roswell, N.M., including a job as the “Voice of the Aggies” for New Mexico State University. In 1975, he worked as a cameraman and sports anchor at a television station in El Paso. By 1978, he had reached Arizona.

Dillon worked at KOOL-TV when he first arrived in the Valley. “I wanted to see how far I could go in television,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I only worked there for six months. For some reason, I never felt like I was a part of it.”

In 1982, he joined KTAR. And there he’s stayed. He has called more than 1,300 games in Phoenix. He would not say what he earns a year for all of his work.

Dillon said he thinks baseball is the hardest to call, but also the most fun. “You have more time to be yourself, to put your personality into it,” he said. “But it changes tempo quickly. You could be kicking back and then something happens all of a sudden and you have to be able to switch gears.”

He added that basketball action happens so fast, he doesn’t have much time for commentary. For football, Dillon has the aid of a color analyst. “I can throw it over to him and have time to collect my thoughts,” he said.

Other times, Dillon takes control of the action. Van Raaphorst recalled this story from a game at Oregon State. “We were in a long commercial when this OSU guy busted it for a touchdown,” he said. “We were about a minute late. He winks at us. We’re all laughing. I’m watching the TV monitor as he’s re-creating the play from memory. ‘He cuts to the 15, to the 10 — to the five. He scored! He scored!’ It was amazing.”

As Dillon called the touchdown, the crowd cheered, when their kicker scored the extra point. “He timed it perfectly,” Van Raaphorst added. “He just turned around a gave high fives to everybody. He takes a lot of pride in his job.”

“You can turn the lights out on this one.”

When former Cardinal place kicker Kevin Butler missed a field goal in the last minute of the Minnesota game and Viking place kicker Eddie Murray made one 42 seconds later for the victory, Dillon, visibly frustrated, simply said, “It’s good.”

He stood with his hands on his hips, speechless, knowing the Cardinals lost another close game. He paced around the short floor space he had and eyed his producer. “That’s it. It’s over,” he said, then recapped each scoring drive.

Calling games for the Cardinals, a team with nine consecutive losing seasons, could be tough for some people. “If I let it, it can be. But I don’t let it,” Dillon said. “It’s not the most exciting thought to have to go broadcast, but win or lose, it doesn’t matter.”

Dillon said he thinks he does a better job when the game is one-sided, but, “when the home team is losing, you have to work harder to keep people listening. Some people approach me to talk about how miserable the game was the night before and I think, ‘at least I kept them around long enough to listen to it.’”

Dillon’s broadcasting peers seem to be listening as well. He has been voted the Arizona Sportscaster of the Year for 16 years running (1981-1996). “It’s an honor because it’s not a popularity contest,” he said. “I’m being recognized by other reporters in the business. For those that I compete against to think that much of my work is nice.”

The man most radio people refer to as “TD” or “Coach” is described by his coworkers as professional, fun and easy to work with. “He’s never flustered,” Cardinals color analyst John Mistler said. “Some things happen and most announcers would be throwing their headsets. He’s professional. The guy just comes to work and rolls with it.”

ASU baseball coach Pat Murphy said that all he knows about ASU football in his four years in Arizona is from listening to Dillon. “He’s the guy,” he added. “He really educates the fans when they learn from his perspective. His knowledge of the game is second to none.”

Van Raaphorst agreed. “He could call a whole game without his notes; he knows everything so well,” he said. “He could do it without any players being on the field — he’s that good.”

Dillon also has won numerous awards for play-by-play and reporting from Associated Press and United Press International wire services in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.

He said he has no plans for retirement. “I have a job people would pay money to have,” he added. “I am not giving it up.”

written by Roc