David Herbert Wills (March 13, 1964 – March 5, 2023) was an American sportscaster who, along with his broadcast partner Andy Freed, served as the radio voice of the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. Since its inception ...

from 2005 until his death. Wills and Freed alternated play by play and color commentator duties during Rays game broadcasts, usually trading roles every three

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

s. Wills signed several contract extensions with the Tampa Bay Rays Radio Network and signed another "multi-year" deal after the 2017 season.

Early life

Wills was born and raised in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

area, where he was a "die-hard" fan of the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He played baseball and basketball at

Oak Lawn Community High School Oak Lawn Community High School, is a public four-year high school in Oak Lawn, Illinois, in the Chicago metropolitan area. The name "Spartans" and the colors Kelly Green and White were chosen by a committee in tribute to the Michigan State Unive ...

, where he also wrote for the school newspaper. He attended

Elmhurst College Elmhurst University is a private university in Elmhurst, Illinois. It has a tradition of service-oriented learning and an affiliation with the United Church of Christ. The university changed its name from Elmhurst College on July 1, 2020. Hist ...

, where he pitched on the baseball team and worked for the school's newspaper until graduating with degrees in speech communications and urban studies in 1988. While in college, he also worked for SportsPhone, a call-in service that provided one minute of sports scores and updates for the Chicago area. After graduation, Wills served as the

pitching coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

/ recruiting coordinator for the Elmhurst College baseball team in 1989 and as the interim head baseball coach at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1990.

Broadcasting career

Wills began his on-air broadcasting career covering sports for radio stations WMAQ and

WMVP WMVP (1000 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metro area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship station of the Chica ...

in the Chicago media market. His first play-by-play position was with the Class-A

Kane County Cougars The Kane County Cougars are an independent professional baseball team located in Geneva, Illinois and are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball (MLB). They play their ho ...

, for whom he was the radio voice from 1991 to 1995. From 1997 to 2004, Wills served as the pre-game and post-game analyst and back-up for John Rooney on White Sox radio broadcasts. During the same period, he also co-hosted a daily

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

radio show, hosted a local

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

sports show, hosted the pre- and post-game radio broadcasts for Notre Dame football and basketball, and did radio play-by-play for

University of Illinois Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

(UIC)

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. Wills and Andy Freed were hired as the new broadcast team by the

before the 2005 season, replacing the club's original radio team of

Paul Olden Paul Olden (born 1954) is the current public address announcer for the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. He has been the announcer since the Yankees moved to their new ballpark in 2009. Early life and career Born in Chicago, Olden moved with his ...

and

Charlie Slowes Charles Martin Slowes (born March 16, 1962) is an American sportscaster. Slowes is the radio play-by-play announcer for Washington Nationals baseball, and can be heard commentating every game on WJFK-FM 106.7 ("The Fan") and the rest of the team' ...

. The last Rays game Wills called was a spring training game against the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

on March 4, 2023, the day before his death. In 2016, Wills was inducted into the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Wills lived in

Lutz, Florida Lutz is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, north of Tampa. The northern part of Lutz also makes up a portion of south Pasco County. The population was 23,707 according to the 2020 Cen ...

. He and his wife, Liz, had two children.

Health and death

In September 2022, Wills was hospitalized in Toronto with a heart condition, which was diagnosed as

supraventricular tachycardia Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is an umbrella term for fast heart rhythms arising from the upper part of the heart. This is in contrast to the other group of fast heart rhythms – ventricular tachycardia, which start within the lower cham ...

, and missed the last two weeks of the Rays' season. He returned to the booth for the

2022 American League Wild Card Series The 2022 American League Wild Card Series were two best-of-three playoff series in Major League Baseball (MLB) that determined the participating teams of the 2022 American League Division Series (ALDS). Both Wild Card Series began on October 7, ...

. Wills died at his home on March 5, 2023, at the age of 58.

References

External links

Official bio from raysbaseball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, Dave 1964 births 2023 deaths American radio sports announcers Chicago Maroons baseball coaches College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Elmhurst Bluejays baseball players Major League Baseball broadcasters Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers People from Lutz, Florida Place of birth missing Radio personalities from Chicago Tampa Bay Rays announcers