Kaitlyn Hughes & Ben Deihl | editor-in-chief & staff writer

Duquesne lost its longest-tenured announcer on Tuesday. 

Ray Goss, Duquesne’s lead announcer for men’s basketball, died of a heart attack at Indiana Regional Media Center. 

He was 89 years old. 

Goss was the longest-tenured NCAA Division I men’s basketball play-by-play announcer at the time of his death. Just miles away is another one of the longest-tenured voices, as Pitt’s Bill Hillgrove has called Panthers games for over 50 years. 

Goss graduated from Duquesne in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in radio and television journalism. Just 10 years after graduating, Goss returned to his alma mater to take the full-time position as play-by-play host for Duquesne basketball. 

Jim Duzyk, associate athletic director for strategic communications at Duquesne, said he can’t think of many people who graduated from a university and then spent decades of their life working there.

“The two things he loved most was his family and then Duquesne basketball,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever see someone have that type of impact in terms of a university.”

At the time of his death, Goss was recovering from a car accident he was involved in on April 2. Goss was heading to a routine doctor’s appointment when he lost control of his vehicle, resulting in a rollover crash that left him with a broken arm, leg and five fractured ribs, among other injuries.  

Despite the health scare, Goss vowed to be back for another season of Duquesne basketball, hoping to call his 59th season on the Bluff.

“He was going to keep doing it as long as the fans told him he was doing a good job, and he felt he was doing a good job,” Duzyk said. “He did that right to the end.”

Goss started his career as a Duke in 1968, calling his first men’s basketball game in a March 17 matchup against Fordham. In his 58 years of service, Goss only missed two Duquesne basketball games. 

Robert Healy III, founder of the sports information media program at Duquesne, still remembers what it was like hearing Goss talk on the radio. 

“I just could see the game the way that he would talk about it,” Healy said. “The way that Ray would describe the game, you could literally picture it.”

Goss was always a journalist first, which made him the legendary broadcaster that he was, Healy said. 

“Ray understood that we’re operating in language, and in order to communicate most effectively, you have to be a master of the language,” he said.

Goss also was always prepared.

He would go to practice and take notes, show up two hours before tip off to study the sports information notes and he would keep his own score card, Healy said.

“Ray’s so meticulous,” broadcaster Alex Panormios said. “He’s the consummate professional. I never saw Ray get upset about anything, even in the midst of equipment failure.”

Duquesne enshrined Goss into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. Goss has accumulated numerous accolades throughout his career, including the radio award from the Media Association of Pittsburgh at the 36th Outstanding Achievement in Media Awards and the 2025 Woody Durham Voice of College Sports Award. 

Goss is also a member of the Pennsylvania Associate of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2023. He also was the general manager at WDAD-AM and the co-founder of WCCS-AM.

“Ray had every right to be arrogant, but Ray was always humble,” Panormios said. 

In the final years of his career, Goss got to call games on a national stage when Duquesne men’s basketball made it to the NCAA tournament in 2024. During the last home game Goss called, the Dukes completed a 30-point comeback against RIchmond, the largest comeback in school history. 

“If there’s any way to go out in terms of your last call of a home game on the campus you went to school and the campus that you spent the majority of your life and the campus you’re known for, it’s poetic,” Duzyk said. 

Kaitlyn Hughes can be reached at hughesk10@duq.edu. Ben Deihl can be reached at deihlb1@duq.edu.