By Billy Watkins
With Mississippi State in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend to battle in yet another NCAA baseball regional, we salute Jim Ellis.
For the first time since 1979, Ellis won’t be providing postseason radio play by play for Bulldog fans. He retired before the season, saying simply it was time. Neil Price, who has called MSU football and basketball games since 2017, was chosen Ellis’ successor.
“It’s been an interesting year,” said Ellis, 78. “I bought two seats when they redid Dudy Noble Field a few years ago. I bought them where I could look down and to my right during games and see my wife (Jammie) and she could look up to the press box and see me. I sat in those seats this year. Great vantage point. I went to just about every home game, maybe missed one or two. I didn’t go to any road games.
“The team hasn’t had a great year, but I still enjoyed being at the games. I just love watching baseball.”
And he’ll be watching the Bulldogs this weekend on TV— with the sound turned off.
“I find myself being way too critical of the TV guys doing sports today,” he said. “The old way of doing things has changed. There is too much hype and stuff that I just don’t care to hear about.”
It’s a noteworthy achievement, especially these days, when someone gives nearly half a century of their life handling the same duties at the same place. But in Mississippi college sports broadcasting, it seems the norm. Along with Ellis, David Kellum is in his 47th year broadcasting Ole Miss games and John Cox is in his 40th year at Southern Miss.
“All three of us are good buddies,” said Ellis.“I know fans may be surprised by that because of the rivalries, but I always enjoy seeing them and talking with them.”
Ellis is known more for his baseball work, simply because he did it so long. But he was also a key figure in football and basketball coverage.
He began working alongside the legendary Jack Cristil in 1983 as the basketball analyst . Eight years later, he joined Cristil in the booth for football games.
When Cristil retired prior to the 2011-12 sports season, Ellis became the Bulldogs’ voice for all three sports. He pulled triple duty until 2017 when he retired from calling football and basketball.
“I feel tied to baseball. I love the game,” he said. “But I really enjoyed doing basketball. There is never any down time. There’s always action to describe so you don’t have to provide a lot of filler. Just tell what’s going on.
“Baseball is a much more conversational sport So from just the pure calling of games, basketball was my favorite. But baseball is my favorite sport. I grew up playing it. Wasn’t very good, but I played it and loved it.”
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His path to the radio booth is interesting.
Ellis earned a degree in education from State in 1969, then went to seminary school.
“But I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” he said. “I finally asked myself, ‘What do you really enjoy?’ And I remembered when I would go around the house when I was a kid and announce games to myself. But I had no inkling how to go about becoming a broadcaster,”
Living in Fort Worth, Texas at the time, Ellis made a bold call to Dick Risenhoover, sportscaster of the Texas Rangers.
“I asked if I could come visit him, and he was very nice,” Ellis recalled. “I told him what I wanted to do, and he said, ‘Practice. Turn the sound off the TV and practice calling games. Record it and when you get to the point you think you’ve got something to show people, let them hear it. They just want to know if you can call a game.”
Ellis moved back to Mississippi and taught school for a year-and-a-half.
“They were having a World Series in Columbus for 13-14 year-olds in the summer of 1978,” Ellis said. “ A radio station asked me if I could do it. They paid me $15 a day for a week’s worth of work.
“I taped it, listened to it and it was terrible. I was embarrassed. “
But Ellis was soon calling local sporting events for WSSO and other radio stations in the Columbus area — Hatley, Hamilton, Amory and Aberdeen.
“But that’s how I got to State,” Ellis said. “Joe Phillips, the head of the stations, had Mississippi State sports.”
Phillips called Ellis and said, “I need somebody to do State baseball. But I’m going to have to let Coach (Ron) Polk listen to your tapes.”
Phillips delivered the good news a few days later: “Coach Polk said you’ll do.”
Nearly five decades later, Ellis is a member of the Ron Polk Ring of Honor. The radio suite and the home radio booth at Dudy Noble are named after Ellis.
Ellis laughs about their first meeting.
“Polk was telling me that the ’79 team was probably going to struggle,” Ellis said. “He said they’d lost a lot of players and it was going to be a rough year.
“Of course, they wound up going to the College World Series.”
Ellis covered so many teams, called so many big moments that it would take a book or two to talk about them all.
But I wanted to ask about he 1985 team, which I also covered. It’s known as the Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen team. It came so close to winning it all, and I’m still convinced that State would have if No. 2 pitcher Gene Morgan hadn’t been knocked out of the tournament by a line drive to the shin.
“What an outstanding group,” Ellis said. “They had a professional approach to the game. It’s amazing to have four future Major League stars on one team. The depth on that team was really good, too. And they were a competitive bunch that had some healthy rivalry about it.”
Ellis brought up the 2020 Covid year as the worst of his 46 years. “With the team that we were supposed to have and then to have the season shut down was really hard to take.”
Finally, in 2021, Ellis was able to call State’s first national title.
“The pitching performance by Will Bednar was just outstanding (6 innings, 15 strikeouts and one hit in a 2-1 victory over Texas),” Ellis said. “We had really good defensive players who made big plays when needed the most.
“Then you take Tanner Allen and Rowdey Jordan and how they hit the baseball. Those kind of guys don’t come along every day. And, of course, Jake Mangum. I knew he was special the first few times I watched him, He was very mature and a gamer. Came from a great family. But it wasn’t just them. It seemed like everyone contributed that year.”
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Ellis is still being recognized for his work. The Mississippi Legislature honored him in February.
“I got a big ol’ plaque and it was a really nice day,” he said. “I was struck by the beauty of our capitol building.”
He watches baseball nearly every day, thanks to the MLB Extra Innings package and the MLB app.
“I follow players more than I follow one or two teams,” he said. “I keep up with our guys. I can check the app and know when Brent Rooker (of the Athletics) is coming up to hit. I’m always flipping channels.”
He continues teaching Sunday school at Bridgeway Church in Starkville. “I think I’ve had the same class for 20 years. I really enjoy that,” he said.
He’s touched by the church’s outreach program to MSU students. “We have two services each Sunday morning when the students are here, and we’ll get 400 to 500 students every Sunday.”
Ellis paused.
“You know, I look back and life has been really good to me,” he said. “I feel very fortunate, very blessed, very happy.”
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