By Hunt Palmer
Sights and sounds create experiences. Over time those become memories.
Across his nearly four-decade run as public address announcer inside Tiger Stadium and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Dan Borne’s booming South Louisiana voice brought those two venues to life.
On Friday, LSU announced he was stepping away.
There are so few constants in college sports. The players cycle through more quickly than ever. No quarterback gets a 14-year run like NFL franchises. No shortstop or point guard represents a decade. Coaches are hired and fired, and conferences fracture and morph annually.
For 38 years, Tiger Stadium sounded like Dan Borne’.
This 37-year-old writer first attended an LSU game as a five-year-old. That win over Ole Miss sounded like Dan Borne’.
Four years later, when Cedric Donaldson and Tommy Banks scored right in front of me in the south endzone before the goalposts fell, it sounded like Dan Borne’.
Matt Mauck to Skyler Green–my favorite game. It sounded like Dan Borne’.
When I got to sit in the student section for five years (sorry Mom and Dad) and watched as Jacob Hester converted fourth downs and Matt Flynn found Demetrius Byrd, it sounded like Dan Borne’.
I got my first job as a writer covering LSU. Those games from the press box sounded like Dan Borne’, too.
He addressed the crowd with that Thibodaux punch, “Tigah fans” he’d begin. Ole Miss was “peenalized”, and “Leonard Fournette SCOOOOOOOOORES!”
“The chance of rain is…….NEVER” inside that “pantheon of concrete and steel”.
Across the street, he’d “welcome a national television audience to the Deaf Dome” just before the ball was tipped and bring the Assembly Center to life when a three-pointer by “Collis Temple……THE THIRD” ripped the nets or “Tremont Waters…..SCOOOOORES!”
He used Will Wade’s nickname, “The General” and would ask you to stand at attention for the playing of the national anthem by “The Bengal Brass Basketball Band”.
He’s a legendary figure in the university’s history.
The sun will find its home in the western sky this fall, and it will be Saturday Night in Death Valley. It will sound different, and the next generation of “Tigah fans” will experience their version of what Tiger Stadium sounds like.
The Golden Band From Tigerland will play, and those gold helmets and white jerseys will come out of the north endzone tunnel.
Cannons will blast, and we’ll all hear the words that, aside from wedding vows and eulogies, elicit more Louisiana emotion than about any other, “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Saturday night in Death Valley. And here come your fighting Tigers of LSU!”
While the live entrance won’t sound the same in September, those 38 years of memories will be voiced indelibly forever.
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