Crim: Dorsey’s Hall of Fame voice became soundtrack for golden era of Quincy basketball

QUINCY — The voice.

Instantly recognizable, it was a fixture on Quincy airwaves for more than four decades. Commanding yet comfortable, perfect for radio, whether Jeff Dorsey was doing play-by-play of a sporting event or hosting a daily morning show.

“There have been a number of great play-by-play guys, with (future baseball Hall of Famer) Bill King being the first,” Mike Moyers said. “The Tappes (Mel and El) were good, and Boots Bush was good. When Dorsey came around, he provided a truly professional sound.

“He was the gold standard.”

Now, two decades removed from regularly calling games, Dorsey has been selected for enshrinement in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in the media category. It’s a long overdue acknowledgement of his place among elite Quincy-area sports announcers.

He received a letter informing him of his selection two days after Thanksgiving and three days before the birth of his eighth grandchild, making November a month to remember.

“It threw me by surprise, but I’m very appreciative,” Dorsey said. “When I came here in 1978, I could not have picked a better time. I stepped into a gold mine doing play-by-play. Quincy College basketball was good, Quincy High was good, (Quincy) Notre Dame had good teams.

“Travel was never a lot of fun, but I never had a game I didn’t enjoy doing. There were times when the weather was bad and I’d ask myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But I always had the drive to do it, especially the big games. Who wouldn’t want to do that?”

Dorsey arrived in June 1978 after spending four years calling high school games for KIEE in Harrisonville, Mo., south of Kansas City. He was hired by WTAD to host a morning show and be the lead announcer for Quincy College basketball, which was coming off a third-place finish in the NAIA national tournament.

He also was the voice of Quincy High School basketball, which was about to embark on an incredible four-year run. The Blue Devils won 123 of 128 games during that stretch, including a then-record 64 in a row, and posted second-, first- and third-place finishes in the Illinois Class AA state tournament.

A “sea of blue,” as Dorsey described the QHS fan base on the air, filled several sections of cavernous Assembly Hall in Champaign when the Blue Devils played there in state tournaments, creating an impressive atmosphere.

“It was a lot of fun doing games with those teams,” Dorsey said. “Every game was a great game, and the following was tremendous. You had to be prepared. If you weren’t, it was going to show.”

Dorsey considers his call of the final seconds of the 1982 third-place game to be his finest. Hours after seeing its 64-game winning streak snapped and dreams of back-to-back state titles dashed, Quincy rallied from a 20-point deficit to pull within a point of Chicago Marshall.

Bruce Douglas, playing his final game for the Blue Devils, leaped out of bounds along the baseline at the Assembly Hall to miraculously snare and then flip a pass from his brother Dennis under the basket to Tim Huseman, who put up a short shot that rolled tantalizingly around the rim before dropping for a 62-61 victory.

“I still see that play in my mind,” Dorsey said. “I knew the pass was going too far out of bounds. I still don’t know how Bruce got to the ball and I’m not sure if he was trying to get it to Huseman. It was the best play I have ever seen, and I got to call it.”

Except that he almost didn’t.

“He was so sick that he handed me the play-by-play duties for the semifinal game (hours earlier) against Mendel Catholic,” said Moyers, who was working alongside Dorsey and Craig Cherington that weekend.

“He could have said, ‘You do the Marshall game.’ But he came back. Jeff never short-changed anybody. He knew he had a responsibility to deliver his ‘A’ game every night. I learned a lot … by watching and listening to him.”

Dorsey spent 12 years with WTAD and four more with WGEM, earning five Silver Dome awards from the Illinois Broadcasters Association for his play-by-play work. He stepped away from play-by-play for five years to take a management role with WTAD before returning to WGEM to do play-by-play for a couple of years.

He then embarked on a 20-year run with Y101 radio, where he hosted a popular morning show with Dennis Oliver, and then Sarah Deien, before retiring.

“What a lot of people didn’t realize is that Jeff was doing morning drive radio,” said Moyers, who worked alongside Dorsey for four years in addition to doing area basketball games and other sports before a two-decade run himself as the voice of QHS basketball that earned him a spot in the IBCA Hall of Fame.

“To do it the right way you’re getting up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning to prepare your show. You do a full day at the station and then hop in the car and drive to the Quad Cities to do a game. That’s a 20-hour day and he did that for years and never sounded like a guy running on fumes.

“He could have gone on and done great things in bigger markets. He’s that good. He could still do it today if he wanted to.”

Dorsey worked alongside Moyers, Cherington and Phil and Leigh Conover, among others, and credits their contributions for the success of those game broadcasts.

“Mike knew the history of the Blue Devils, which was beneficial because I was new,” Dorsey said. “We had good chemistry. Same with Phil Conover. He was so knowledgeable about the game and was concise with his comments, which you have to have when doing color for basketball because the game is quicker.

“They knew when to speak and when not to speak. Sometimes you need to let the crowd noise help tell the story, rather than try to talk over it, and then come back and recap what happened. That’s the sign of a good team.”

Some broadcasts don’t go as scripted, however, like the time Dorsey drove across the state in a snowstorm to broadcast a Harrisonville football playoff game in St. Louis for KIEE. 

Unbeknownst to him, his telephone line in the press box was unplugged and only the first five minutes of the contest reached his audience back home.

Or when he was forced to broadcast a QHS football game from the roof of the press box in Rock Island and it began raining in the third quarter. The rain stopped and he avoided being electrocuted, but after the game he found himself locked on the roof and had to repeatedly yell across the field to get the attention of people milling around the concession stand to free him.

Or when he was broadcasting a Quincy College basketball game against Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., from a perch in the bleachers. Late in the first half, some home fans became incensed by a referee’s call and began chanting obscenities, which were easily retransmitted by his microphone.

In that instance, Dorsey turned a nightmare into something memorable. He happened to look around to see Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft sitting a few rows behind him.

“So, I asked him if he wanted to come down at halftime for an interview,” Dorsey said. “He did and I told him he was welcome to stay and do color if he had time. So, I’m doing play-by-play with Gov. Ashcroft doing color.”

There are times when Dorsey, now 69, admits he wonders where moving up the broadcasting ladder when opportunities arose might have taken him, but his induction next May in the IBCA Hall of Fame is another validation that his body of work did not go unnoticed.

“I enjoyed what I have done,” he said. “There are not many people who are doing at 67 (his age when he retired) what they wanted to do as a kid, to be on radio. I could have gone to other places, but in my mind I’m happy with what I did. I have no regrets.”

Those who tuned in to listen to him would agree.