Ask people who are familiar with Troy State University to give you the name of a famous person connected with the school, and although alumni include an astronaut, a television network journalist, a politician and a screenwriter, the name you hear will not be one of theirs. Instead, you’ll hear the name, Ralph Black. As the “Voice of the Troy State Trojans” for 26 years, Black has called them all, making him an institution in the world of Alabama sports broadcasting. The Alabama Broadcasters Association is honored to induct Ralph Black into its Hall of Fame.

Black tells how his broadcasting career began in his trademark, no-nonsense style. “I was over at Auburn as a student and I worked as an audio engineer at Alabama Public Television. The chief engineer there was also the engineer at WAUD-AM and he told me they needed somebody and to go see a gentleman by the name of Bob Sanders. That’s what I did and he hired me and that’s how I got into it.”

An engineer’s position didn’t exactly give Black any sportscasting experience. “No, no, no. When I started at WAUD … I might have called a high school game here or there … but really, my sportscasting career started when I got to Troy,” he explains. “That was in ‘71 and somewhere in the middle of the seventies, I got the job as the radio voice for Troy and the university.”

How exactly does someone without significant experience become the radio voice for a university’s sports program? “They didn’t have anybody to do it!” exclaims Black. “Let’s put it this way – I said heck, let’s see what we can do. They evidentially liked it because I got put in the Hall of Fame the other day.”

Black has been honored so many times he had to take a minute to make sure he remembers each and every induction. “I got into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Troy University … that was about ’05 … and in April of last year I got put into Troy University’s Sports Hall of Fame … and then I got into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame last summer. The chancellor stopped me the other day and said ‘When are these things going to stop?’” laughs Black. “And I said, ‘I don’t know!’”

Black says he’s pleased to have been part of the university’s sports program during what he thinks of as it’s hey day. He called national championship games for Troy in three sports; two in football, two in baseball and one in basketball. The regional, high school and youth games he’s called are simply too many to name.

Black signed up an impressive number stations on his football network, too. “I wound up with eighteen stations – pretty well covered the state – and I was very, very proud of that,” he says. “It may not have been the largest 1-AA (FCS) radio network, but I venture to say it was probably pretty darn close”.

Ask Black what stands out in all his many years as a sportscaster and he won’t tell you about a particular game or play or player. Instead, he tells about a child he talked to during a live remote for the Children’s Miracle Network at a local Dairy Queen.

“I knew she had been up to the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham and I asked her to stop by because I just wanted to check on her a little … to see how she was doing. Well, we’re live on the air and she tells me, ‘they told me I’m cancer free.’ That one was a knock out. That got me right in the gut – I’ll never forget it. That’s one of the highlights.”

These days you can hear Black during his Morning Show, Monday through Friday on WTBF-FM. “We’ve got news and weather and sports information and we play music and do interviews, keeping the community involved and informed,” says Black. “I have a ball doing this morning show, but getting up early is tough. God almighty, I get up at 4:20 every morning and I’m 76 now and so that’s gets a little tougher,” he chuckles. “But I have a ball, I really do.”