 "Photo: Amy Lugibihl")
Virtual bulls darted wildly through city streets, lasers exploded off the court and as a proverbial voice shook the darkness, 20,500 fans erupted in unison.
"And now, the starting lineup for your Chicago Bulls," the voice boomed through the speaker system.
Ray Clay, director of campus recreation at UIC, was that voice, synonymously known around the world for his pre-game introduction of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the rest of the cast that made up the Bulls dynasty.
"I wasn't the quiet kind of announcer," said Clay, 53, who worked as public address announcer for the Bulls from 1990 to 2002. "I always tried to throw myself into the game."
The Chicago native, who grew up in Berwyn, received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in physical education at UIC. He has been an employee on campus since 1978 and Director of Campus Recreation since 1983.
Clay got his start in announcing sporting events in 1980 doing UIC basketball games at the old physical education building.
Possessing a naturally deep voice, Clay explains that among the most important jobs of a PA announcer is letting the crowd know what is happening from play to play.
"The worst thing is, watching a game, and a play happens, and you sit there going, 'what happened?'" said Clay.
But there is much more to announcing than that, as anyone who has ever heard Clay can substantiate. There's a knack to invoking emotion in the crowd.
"You use inflections in your voice to hype up the crowd," said Clay. "You have to know certain times in the game when there might be a lull and your team needs a little pick-me-up. Some things you do with your voice, it helps your team."
Late in the '91 season versus Milwaukee, Clay was given the opportunity to do a live Bulls game in old Chicago Stadium as part of a job interview.
"The first game, they didn't give me a lot of what I needed to do, just how the game flow went," said Clay.
The following day, he was called into the Bulls front office and presented two tapes, one with his recording from the game and the other, a recorded tape of former/current PA announcer Tommy Edwards doing a game.
"Michael Jordan I did the right way and Scottie Pippen I did the right way," said Clay. "Tommy used certain catch phrases like 'the man in the middle.' They said, 'we want you to hit the 'man.'"
Clay was presented the opportunity to do a second game and shortly after, a third game, the home finale of the regular season.
"It was nice doing the first game, the second game I got an opportunity to fine tune what they wanted me to do, and now they're calling me for the third game," said Clay. "I really didn't know what was going on."
With the playoffs approaching, Clay figured that they were using him as a fill-in to close out the regular season. But before the third game, he was told that he got the job.
"I got to that Friday game and I was working on my script and Les Grobstein (former UIC Flames Radio announcer) came by and said congratulations, you got the job."
"The first thing I learned when I did the Bulls games my first season was that, you'd get somebody who'd make a couple great player, well boy, you really want to give them their props when they're coming out of the game," said Clay.
Among his greatest memories of introducing the team that won six championships in eight seasons was Jordan's return and the first title against the Los Angeles Lakers.
"The city, never experiencing that [championship] and playing the Lakers, being able to beat them, I think that was kind of neat," said Clay.
His world-famous player introduction he credits to the growing momentum of the franchise.
"The 'and now' wasn't as pronounced when I first started, but as the Bulls became more popular, I saw that as a way to build up the excitement in the crowd. That was just something that evolved," said Clay.
Saturday, April 15, after Chicago received word that it had claimed the U.S. bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Clay was called to be the emcee for the city's Olympic Celebration.
"It was neat. I like big events like that because you can feel the crowd being hyped up and stuff like that," said Clay.
"The Mayor's office, they are so good at these things, this is like second nature to them. Everybody loves Mayor Daley. He has his detractors on some of the things he does, but when he throws a party or does an event, it's like St. Patrick's Day, everybody's Irish."
Clay, who feels that the bringing the Olympic Games to Chicago would be a positive, had the job of introducing the speakers, such as Mayor Daley, Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
"I think it would unite Chicago. Here's our chance to put our best foot forward and show that, you know, we're not the number two or number three city in the U.S. Chicago is sort of in the breadbasket of the U.S., we're the down-home kind of people," said Clay.
As for his feelings the possibility of being a representative voice of Chicago in the event of receiving the '16 Olympics, Clay admitted that it would be "a dream come true."
"Even if I didn't do anything, to know that I was a Chicagoan and we had the Olympics here would be neat enough," said Clay. "But, yeah, to have the opportunity, that's always in the back of my mind that if we do the Olympics, I want to be involved."
In June, Clay will retire from his position as director of campus recreation and hopes to pursue teaching of physical education. However, he will continue to lend his voice to announcing UIC and Chicago Sky basketball, a passion he began again last season.
"We are thrilled," said UIC director of athletics Jim Schmidt. "Ray has been an institution at UIC. The many students' lives he has touched through the years of hard work and dedication to providing great programming can't be measured. We always know we will get a professional presentation without any skip of our game flow."
As for his summer plans, Clay wants to play more golf.
"I've played golf for 30 years and it's finally about time that I learn how to play the game."
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