In his open-air perch above Death Valley’s north end zone, Dan Borné settles in. Although he’s announced football games for almost three decades, the 67-year-old still gets antsy and excited before the first home game. He holds the black, fuzzy microphone close to his thin lips and takes a breath.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Saturday night in Death Valley, and here come your fighting Tigers of LSU.”
When he isn’t peering through binoculars and announcing corporate sponsors, the Voice of Tiger Stadium is president of the Louisiana Chemical Association and a Catholic deacon.
Borné has called 182 football games since he started working for LSU Athletics. In 1985, Sid Crocker retired his microphone, and Borné wrote a letter.
Months passed.
“And I got a call out of the blue, just over the transom, as they say, and it was the Athletic department. The person calling me said, ‘We found your letter.’ Letter? What’s that about? And I remember, yeah, the letter, and they said, ‘Why don’t you come in and talk with us?’”
According to Borné, this 30 minute conversation got him the job.
But why?
“Because no one else asked. That’s it, no one else had even applied for the job.”
There was no formal training before announcing his first game, but Borné said it’s simple: Call the plays after the teams run them. Although LSU football has grown into a full-scale production since 1986, Borné attests his job has stayed the same.
After announcing football for a few years, Borné also took on Men’s basketball.
Associate Sports Information Director, Kent Lowe, has worked with Borné on basketball for about 25 years, and Lowe explained what makes him a great announcer.
“His voice fits the sound system… But, he has a style that people like, he gets the information across, and he gets it right, and that’s probably three-quarters of it, to make sure what you say is accurate.”
Although Borné repeatedly describes the PA job as cut and dry, he’s taken some creative liberties.
“Chance of rain… never”
Borné explained his aunt would tell him it never rained in Tiger Stadium, but he never intended on broadcasting it.
“I just saw one game, chance of rain, and I said never, just threw it out there, never. And then, hmm.. hmm.. You could hear this kind of rumble”
Now, it’s a staple of every game in Death Valley. It’s even written into Borné’s script.
Borné’s love affair with LSU Football stands the test of time. He said he started attending games about 50 years ago when family packages cost around $2. His most critical game as an announcer was LSU’s loss to Tennessee on September 26, 2005, the first home game after Hurricane Katrina.
He said the LSU Tigers were out of steam.
“I mean that team had helped transport stretchers that had come off of MediVac helicopters that had landed in the in-field in Bernie Moore Stadium and carried those people to the PMAC where they went into a triage that saved some lives, and we lost some. The practice facility at the PMAC became a morgue. I mean that’s what we were dealing with on that campus.”
But the loss didn’t matter according to Borné.
“What it did was it brought the people of Louisiana together at a time that people had lost friends and families and homes. There were people living in cardboard boxes, who found ways to get to the football game. And for three hours, all that mess was somewhere else that was a victory.”
The Voice of Tiger Stadium has been there for 27 years calling the plays, but Borné doesn’t want the recognition.
“Because it’s not about me, it’s about the product, it’s about the information that people get, and the fact that some people identify me with that information and call me the voice of this or the voice of that, I’ll take it, but it’s not something I’ve ever really, you know, thrown a line into the water to hook. It’s just come along with the job.”
Borné said if Athletics called him and told him it’s time to retire the microphone. He wouldn’t be upset, he would be thankful for the experience.