Another big loss from the Fresno State family: Former voice of Bulldogs athletics dies
Bill Woodward, the longtime Fresno radio announcer and former voice of Fresno State athletics, died late last month after suffering continued heart troubles.
He was 81 years old when he passed May 20 from his lakeside home in the state of Washington, where Woodward and his late wife, Sheila, had chosen to live following his 2010 retirement and move from Fresno.
Nearly half of Woodward’s life was devoted to calling Fresno State football, basketball and baseball games.
Woodward provided play-by-play commentary for 37 years on KMJ 580 AM radio and covered some of the greatest moments in Fresno sports history.
But more than the memorable games and the exciting calls, Woodward became a fabric of Fresno State athletics and the Fresno community.
He was the voice that listeners recognized and trusted.
And he was the man behind the voice that people often connected with when they met him in person.
“He was everybody’s friend,” said longtime Fresno State booster Harry Gaykian. “He knew some of the wealthiest people in Fresno, as well as people from lower income. Didn’t matter. They were all good to Bill, and he was good to them.
“And he was color blind. Treated everyone the same: with respect and like they were his friend. It’s why Bill was so loved.”
Said former Fresno State quarterback Kevin Sweeney: “He was just an awesome person. He loved the Bulldogs. And people loved listening to him talk about the Bulldogs. Gonna miss him.”
Fresno State athletics through the years
Woodward’s time calling Bulldogs games spanned five head football coaches, most notably Jim Sweeney (1976-1977, 1980-1996), and seven men’s basketball coaches, including the entire Fresno State tenures of Boyd Grant and Jerry Tarkanian.
He provided the radio commentary when Fresno State football defeated USC in the 1992 Freedom Bowl, as well as when the Bulldogs nearly pulled off another upset against a top-ranked USC team in 2005 before falling in the closing minutes.
He was the voice that people turned to when they couldn’t watch Fresno State basketball games in person, like when the Bulldogs won the NIT championship in 1983.
Woodward even provided radio broadcast for three College World Series runs by Fresno State baseball, including a brief moment in 2008 when he filled in for Paul Loeffler for the Bulldogs’ first game from Omaha, Nebraska. That Fresno State baseball team, later known as the “Underdogs to Wonderdogs,” would go on to win a national championship.
In total, Woodward was play-by-play announcer for more than 2,000 games on KMJ, the radio station estimated.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Loeffler said of Woodward’s passing. “It’s losing another irreplaceable member of the Bulldog family. We grew up with his voice providing the captions to the greatest moments in Bulldogs history.
“His description and passion, and his booming baritone voice. If you ever listened to him on the radio, you knew he was a Bulldog, and that he loved the Valley. And they loved him.”
Woodward’s death is the latest loss to the Fresno State family of yesteryear, coming two years after the deaths of Bulldogs coaches Boyd Grant and Bob Bennett. In addition, Tarkanian died in 2015 and Sweeney passed in 2013.
Hard working and humble
Despite Woodward’s popularity, he remained humble through the years.
“He never had any ego,” youngest son Sean Woodward said. “He felt like he was the one who was blessed to do what he did for that many years.
“He was an easy guy to get along with, and he was funny. The kind of guy people wanted to be around.”
Woodward’s personality and work ethic helped the radio broadcaster build close relationships with many Fresno State coaches and players.
It wasn’t unusual to see Woodward eating dinner with coaches on road trips or even go to their homes for a barbecue gathering.
“Two things I remember,” former Fresno State basketball coach Steve Cleveland said of Woodward. “His attention to detail. He always did his homework. In my 14, 15 years as a Division-I coach, I was around some great people. I consider him one of them, who understood his craft but also knew how to talk about difficult things when things weren’t great.
“He had such good intentions. His heart was so good.”
Added former KMJ program director John Broeske: “He had a good relationship with all of the coaches. He’d been there so long; you end up knowing so much.
“They trusted him and Bill wasn’t going to break that trust.”
Woodward’s work extended beyond Fresno State games.
In addition to commentating sporting events that typically were in the evening and on weekends, and sometimes on the road, Woodward maintained a “9-to-5” job with the KMJ newsroom and helped with breaking news.
“Bill had a good ear for the scanner,” Broeske said. “He’d come in the mornings early and get his morning sports updates ready. And while he’s doing that, he’s still listening to the scanners and catching stuff for our morning show.”
Sean Woodward said his father had opportunities to work in bigger markets, including calling games for the St. Louis Cardinals football team (before the football team moved to Phoenix in 1988). He also interviewed for radio gigs with the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Lakers.
“He passed up on some big opportunities,” Sean Woodward said. “He didn’t want to move the family. My parents, they liked the quality of life in Fresno. And he liked what he had going in Fresno for his career.”
How it started, ended
Woodward, who went to Selma High before graduating from Fresno State, worked at a radio station in Eugene, Oregon, and in Montana prior to landing a job back in Fresno at KMJ in 1972.
He called his final Fresno State football game during the 2008 season, though, retirement didn’t become official until April 2010.
Five months later, Woodward was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame.
Woodward and his wife then moved out of Fresno to retire in the small community of Allyn in Washington, where the couple had a house on a lake about 65 miles southwest of Seattle.
Woodward suffered a major stroke in 2013.
And when Sheila, Woodward’s wife of 60 years, died two years ago, life became much more difficult.
“She was kind of the backbone of that household, raised two boys, paid the bills, especially while Bill was on the road traveling for his work for many years,” Gaykian said. “When she left, I could tell it really affected Bill. Then he started having heart problems again.”
William George Woodward is survived by his two sons, William Paul, and Sean.
Woodward’s radio calls of Fresno State games, meanwhile, also live on in archive audio clips and some video footage.
“I was very fortune with the job that I had,” Bill Woodward said during his Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame induction speech that was posted on YouTube.com. “It was a job that I loved to do. I know a lot of guys who have a job that they don’t particularly like.
“I was very fortunate. I had one that was very good. And it’s been very good to me.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 7:55 AM.
