Jim Hawthorne (sportscaster)


Jim Hawthorne is a former radio sportscaster. He is best known for having called radio play-by-play for the LSU Tigers sports teams of Louisiana State University for over 36 years, from 1979 to 2016, earning the nickname, "Voice of the Tigers". Before LSU, he called radio play-by-play for his alma-mater Northwestern State and Centenary College, as well as Texas League baseball and in the short-lived World Football League.
Hawthorne began calling LSU basketball games during the 1979–80 season. He began calling LSU football games in 1983 and LSU baseball in 1984 taking over for John Ferguson. Overall, he was LSU's radio play-by-play announcer for two BCS National Championship titles in football, all six of its College World Series championships in baseball, and three Final Four appearances in basketball.
His final season at LSU was the 2015 football season and 2015–16 men's basketball season. His final baseball season was the 2015 baseball season with Chris Blair taking over for the 2016 baseball season.

Notable calls

In 2015, Hawthorne was honored by the National Football Foundation with the Chris Schenkel Award as an individual with a "long, distinguished career in broadcasting with direct ties to a specific university." In 2016, he was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and also received the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.