Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Palmer to step down from Women’s Basketball play-by-play
10/4/2024 3:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – After 17 years as the voice of the Lady Raiders, play-by-play announcer Dick Palmer announced that he is stepping away from the Middle Tennessee women's basketball program. Palmer will still remain involved with MTSU, hosting the football pre- and post-game shows, and calling all Blue Raider baseball games.
"I have enjoyed every minute of the 17 seasons that I've been with the basketball program," said Palmer. "I am stepping down due to family commitments. This was my decision and mine alone. It has been a privilege to work with Coach Insell and his staff. I want to say thank you to all the folks that have been so kind to me over the years. I will miss it, but I will be at every home game and as many away games as I can attend."
"Dick has meant as much to me as he has to our program," said Head Coach Rick Insell. "He was somebody I could lean on. Somebody I could take advice from. I could get his opinion on things. He's been around the game of basketball for a long time. We were privileged to have someone call our games that called for Adolph Rupp. He is a true family man and a competitor. That's what you want. He doesn't like me to say this, but he's a homer, too. I always liked that about him. He was for us. He was always a professional and if there is anything to be said about Dick, it's this: He's a professional, a family man, and a team player. Everything you want out of your players; we got out of our radio announcer."
Palmer will resume his 43rd season of calling play-by-play action at Middle Tennessee when the first pitch is thrown at the Reese this spring. A 1960 graduate of MTSU, Palmer has been broadcasting sporting events for the past 58 years and ended a 25-year run in 2005 of calling Blue Raider football and a 17-year run of calling all women's basketball games.
"Dick Palmer has been synonymous with Blue Raider Athletics for decades over the airwaves in Middle Tennessee," said Director of Athletics Chris Massaro. "There is no way we could ever repay him for the years of dedication he has given to all the teams here on campus. We will miss seeing him on press row in the glass house, but we're thrilled to have Old Pro still around the program and department as he takes a step back from full-time women's basketball play-by-play to spend more time with his wife DeLois and his family."
From 1971 until his return to Murfreesboro, Palmer was the voice of the Memphis Blues Class AA baseball team, the Memphis Pros (later the Tams) in the American Basketball Association, and the Memphis Grizzlies in the World Football League.
Earlier, he worked in Jackson, TN, for nine years, broadcasting a wide range of high school sports, as well as Union University's basketball games.
Palmer, who co-hosted the first sports call-in show in Nashville during the mid-70s, was the studio host for Vol Network Football Broadcasts for five years and has called the TSSAA Basketball State Tournament on the Tennessee Sports Radio Network every year since 1982.
A little league baseball coach for over 40 years, Palmer enjoyed a long career with Palmer Wholesale. Palmer and his wife DeLois have three sons, Richard, Mike, and Jon, and two granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Abby.
