From Madison Square Garden to the Civic Arena to the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, Ray Goss has been a fixture at Duquesne men’s basketball calling play-by-play for 57 seasons. The grand total of games comes to nearly 2,700 — more than half of those played in the program’s 109-year history.
This offseason will offer him the luxury of reflecting on his remarkable career. Goss, the longest-tenured radio broadcaster in NCAA Division 1 basketball, will be honored by his peers twice in the next two months.
Already a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame, he will be honored May 15 by the Media Association of Pittsburgh. Then on June 30, Goss will be recognized as winner of the 2025 Woody Durham Voice of College Sports Award at the National Sports Media Association’s 65th banquet at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C.
“There aren’t a lot of benefits to growing old with arthritis and slowing down,” Goss told TribLive, “but being recognized for something you’ve done forever, it’s kind of nice.”
But he wonders, “How many have ever heard me? Maybe one or two down in North Carolina. Maybe a couple more in Pittsburgh.”
To rectify that personal perception, he will stand up in front of the crowd in Greensboro and play a recording of 40 of the most exciting seconds of his career. Goss remembers almost every detail from that game played 51 years ago.
“We’re playing (nationally ranked) Providence at the Civic Arena (during the 1973-1974 season),” he said. “The place was packed. I think it was a Sunday afternoon.”
The game went into overtime, Goss said, and Providence was up by a point and had the ball with six seconds left after a timeout. Norm Nixon stole the in-bounds pass and dribbled to the top of the key.
“It looks like he has to shoot it,” Goss said. “He throws it into the corner to (Baldwin graduate) Bernie O’Keefe. He fired it. I say on the play-by-play, ‘He has to shoot it. There are two seconds left.’
”It went in and the place went nuts, upset, 88-87. It’s only eight seconds of play-by-play, but (includes) my going nuts on the end of it.”
When he plays that audio at the banquet, he plans to tell the audience, “Now, at least, you’ve heard me.”
Goss called his first basketball game March 17, 1968, when Duquesne met Fordham in the first round of the NIT at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Starting with the 1968-69 season, he missed only two games during his career. The first was Jan. 7, 1978, at Penn State, when Goss auditioned for a regional play-by-play position with the NBA. The other was March 21, 2011, at Oregon after his wife, Dee, died
Also among Goss’ most memorable calls was a 75-72 victory against No. 8 St. John’s in College Park, Md., in a consolation game in the East Regional of the 1969 NCAA Tournament. He also was at the mic last year when the Dukes defeated No. 21 BYU, 71-67, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Omaha, Neb., Duquesne’s first tournament appearance in 47 years.
His longest consecutive game streak spanned 977 games, starting Jan. 9, 1978 (an 89-76 victory at West Virginia) through the Dukes’s CBI victory against Montana on March 16, 2011. He called games remotely in 2020 during the pandemic.
Goss graduated from Duquesne in 1958, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in radio and television journalism. He was inducted into the Duquesne Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.
In 2008, he wrote a book titled “Misadventures in Broadcasting,” which details his unusual and incredible experiences throughout his career.
In all, Goss’ radio career includes more than 3,000 events. He began at WDAD in Indiana in 1959, and served as the general manager of the station before he co-founded WCCS in Homer City with Mark Harley.
He also joined Pittsburgh Pipers coach Vince Cazetta as co-host of “The First ABA Championship” in the ABA’s first season (1968-69). Plus, he covered IUP sports and the Pittsburgh Piranhas of the Continental Basketball Association in 1994-95.
Goss is the eighth winner of the Woody Durham award. He will join Bill Hillgrove, the voice of Pitt football and basketball, who was honored in 2019.
How long does Goss plan to call Duquesne games?
”Coaches say they play one game at a time. I do one year at a time,” said Goss, who drives from Indiana, Pa., to Pittsburgh for the games.
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“Some of my kids (he’s the father of seven) think I should hang it up. My health is pretty good, though.“