The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/790572
84 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER C .A. Dillon was a faithful NC State alum, a prominent Raleigh businessman, a true Southern gentleman and a dedicated man of God. He died on Feb. 16 at his home in Raleigh at the age of 91. What NC State fans will all remember, however, is that the red-jacketed Dillon was always the "Soul of Reynolds Coliseum," where his tinny baritone voice echoed over the crackly public address speakers for the entirety of its 50 years as the home of NC State men's basketball. "Good evening/afternoon ladies and gen- tleman, and welcome to the William Neal Reynolds Coliseum, where tonight North Carolina State University is pleased to have as its guest, the (nickname) of (school name) …" was his trademark introduction for each of those games. The only time he ever asked for excused absences was to be with his family to at- tend his Monday night Bible study or an occasional business trip as president of Dillon Supply Company, which his father co-founded in 1914 in downtown Raleigh. For the first two Dixie Classics, Dillon was granted leaves from his posts in the U.S. Army to travel back to Raleigh to announce the games. He missed a game in 1956 for his honeymoon with Mildred, his wife of 61 years, and a game in 1961 when his mother passed away. If you have vivid memories of games played at Reynolds, Clyde Alvin Dillon Jr.'s voice is the soundtrack in your mind's ear. From 1970-99, he was also the public address announcer at Carter-Finley Sta- dium and, in his earliest years, a local radio play-by-play announcer who called NC State's first trip to the Final Four in 1950 because Bill Jackson, who called most of the team's games back then on WPTF 680- AM was unable to travel with the team to New York. "He has introduced everyone from A to Z," wrote The News & Observer's Gerald Martin in 1996, "from the Pack's Clyde Austin to the Tar Heels' Serge Zwikker, THE VOICE OF REYNOLDS COLISEUM C.A. Dillon Was The Public Address Announcer For 50 Years At The Historic Venue Dillon, who died on Feb. 16 at the age of 91, did almost all the basketball games — varsity, fresh- man, Dixie Classic, Southern Conference tournaments, ACC Tournaments and NCAA Tournaments — for five decades at Reynolds. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN