Jim Fyffe - Career

Career

A native of Paintsville, Kentucky, Fyffe became Auburn's play-by-play announcer in 1981 and spent 22 seasons calling Auburn football games. His signature "TOUCHDOWN AUBURN" call was beloved by Auburn fans. During his tenure as the voice of the Auburn Tigers, Fyffe shared the Auburn broadcast booth with three former Auburn quarterbacks. Pat Sullivan, the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner was the color commentator from 1981-1985. When Sullivan joined the Auburn coaching staff in 1986, he was replaced by Charlie Trotman, the Tigers quarterback from 1977-1979. When Trotman stepped down after the 2000 season, Stan White (the Tigers quarterback from 1990–1993) replaced him and worked with Fyffe during his final two seasons in the broadcast booth.

Fyffe also called Auburn basketball for 22 years. During basketball games, Fyffe was known to say "hello" to an Auburn player's home town following a slam dunk. According to Fyffe, this tradition started after Charles Barkley asked him to say hello to all the people in Leeds, Alabama, Barkley's hometown. Fyffe told Barkley that he would have to dunk the ball for him to do that. Barkley did, and thus began a tradition that Fyffe continued throughout his years behind the Auburn microphone. Fyffe also hosted "Tiger Talk," the Auburn Network's weekly radio call-in show until 1998, when Rod Bramblett succeeded him.

Fyffe would end every broadcast by saying, "My time's up, I thank you for yours." He would occasionally alter the phrase to be, "Our time's up, we thank you for yours."

Fyffe was also the play-by-play announcer for the USFL's Birmingham Stallions, Birmingham Steeldogs and Columbus Wardogs of the Arena Football League. He was also the public address announcer for Talladega Superspeedway for 20 years, and was associated with the Blue-Gray Football Classic in Montgomery.

Fyffe was a pioneer in sports-talk radio in Alabama, hosting one of the first such shows in Montgomery in the 1970s. At the time of his death, Fyffe hosted a sports-talk show on WACV in Montgomery, Alabama.

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