Legendary Clemson SID Tim Bourret reflects on remarkable career
We use the word “legend” a ton these days describing athletes, actors, and some public figures.
But to describe Tim Bourret as a legend may be the most significant understatement in some time.
Clemson’s Sports Information Director announced on January 26th that he would enter retirement on June 1st, ending a remarkable 40-year span at Clemson.
His career in Clemson began at the age of 22 in September of 1978.
In June of 2017, Bourret was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame. His career in Clemson began at the age of 22 in September of 1978.
He has impacted the world of college sports and Clemson University in many different ways. In a rare circumstance, he put out the release announcing his retirement, to which he chuckled while on Clemson Sports Talk this past week.
Bourret, the consummate professional of the industry, received 427 messages on Twitter from people thanking him for all he has done over his career. Countless other messages exist on the social media platform about Bourret.
Clemson encouraged people to tweet #ThankYouTimBourret. Former players and coaches like C.J. Spiller, Vic Beasley, and Tommy Bowden were among the many that reached out with kind words on social media.
“I guess I would have gotten phone calls if this would have happened 15 years ago,” Bourret joked.
Bourret is known for his mesmerizing memorization and is a fountain of knowledge for media members or anyone who follows him on Twitter. Sometimes he will post something, and your first response is: “how?” It’s no wonder Bourret’s often referred to as a “Clemson Google."
He even has his own parody Twitter account, which he enjoys, "He does a good job on there, absolutely."
There has been no one like him, and when people say he is the best in the business, they mean it.
As busy as he is on a daily basis, Bourret found a few minutes to join us and look back on his run at Clemson. And, as Bourret always does, he had some statistics in his back pocket.
When asked about the comparisons between the beginning of his career and the end of his career regarding Clemson’s gridiron success, Bourret noted, “My first year was 1978, and we finished 11-1 that year. We’ve had good years, but not on the level of going 40-4."
Bourret’s career in Death Valley started and ended with games against The Citadel. Of course, they both ended similarly.
“My first game at Clemson full time was in 1978 with a 58-3 win over The Citadel, and my last game was a 61-3 win over The Citadel,” Bourret said.
If not for a late Christian Grooms field goal, for a guy who loves statistical oddities, a 58-3 final would have buttoned up his home career just perfectly.
Those two contests make great bookends to a storybook career, which he took an interest in since he was a kid.
He grew up in Connecticut and was the biggest Notre Dame fan because his father went to school there. He remembers, as a nine-year-old, sitting with his dad on a Saturday at the kitchen table listening to the Fighting Irish play a football game.
“He’s the one that taught me how to keep stats and keep all the rushing and the passing,” Bourret said. “I did that ever since I was ten years old.”
It was a trip to South Bend, Indiana that sold Bourret on Notre Dame and what sports had to offer. The summer trip changed his life.
“I was nine years old, and we took a summer trip out to South Bend. We drove out from Connecticut, and on that trip, we went to the Knute Rockne Memorial, which is where Ara Parseghian’s office was. He wasn’t there, but the secretary let me go sit in his chair. That’s about all it took.”
“I was hooked.”
Bourret didn’t just admire sports from afar. He was an all-conference baseball player in high school, but his love for broadcasting lead him to become his high school’s PA announcer at athletic events.
He didn’t know it at the time, but the knowledge Bourret gained from that experience set him up for a radio career as a color commentator with Clemson basketball that has spanned 38 years.
Oddly, Bourret didn’t know Sports Information existed until he had already gotten to Notre Dame. In the summer of 1975, Bourret’s father had a meeting with Roger Valdiserri, the athletics communications director at Notre Dame at the time.
Valdiserri thought Bourret would be perfect for a role in sports information.
“I wrote him a letter, and I told him I would be there in the summer,” Bourret said. “Roger wrote: ‘Let’s hire this guy. It looks like he could make a good summer slave.’”
Since then Bourret has been slaving away helping out media members in the best way possible. He worked with the Notre Dame football media guide and in his final year in school; the Irish made it to the national championship in football and the Final Four in basketball. Bourret developed contacts at those events and then one day, he found a job opening in the Foothills of South Carolina.
He got the job and has been in Clemson ever since.
Bourret started out as an assistant with long-time SID Bob Bradley, and the 22-year-old learned so much more from him than just stats and information.
“(He taught me) how to treat people,” Bourret said. “He treated everybody the same.”
Bradley was always there when people needed him. For example, if it was a late-night football game and a media member needed a ride to his car in the media lot. Bourret caught on pretty quick that loyalty is another important quality to have.
“Align yourself with the school, not the individual because the institution is what is going to be there long after you move on to another job,” Bourret said.
But he never moved on. Clemson was his home.
There was a moment in Bourret’s career where he had the opportunity to leave Clemson. In 1983, Bourret was 27 years old and felt he had learned enough under Bradley and wanted to go somewhere else to be the head man in charge. That’s when a job at Pittsburgh opened up.
Bourret applied for the position and got it, but got a brutal feeling in the pit of his stomach right after. He had a hard time wrestling with the fact that he’d actually be leaving Clemson.
“Five days later, I had worked myself up so sick over it,” Bourret said. “I actually lost 27 pounds in the 30-day period agonizing over it. I just realized that I didn’t want to leave Clemson. If I was going to be Mr. Bradley’s assistant for a little while longer, that was fine but I really loved being at Clemson. I called them back a few days later and told them I wasn’t coming.”
Lucky for Clemson, Bourret was around for the long haul. He was even made an honorary alumnus of Clemson University by the Alumni Association in 2007.
Even in retirement, Bourret will continue to be involved with the athletic program at Clemson. He hopes to continue broadcasting basketball games on the radio, write for the football program, and write for the magazine: The Orange Experience.
He’s most looking forward to maintaining the relationship he has with Dabo Swinney. Every Sunday after a Clemson football game, the two would talk.
“Coach Swinney said that I’ll be on speed dial on his phone,” Bourret added. “Usually we talk to him on Sunday after games for things to look up and motivate the team or promote the program, so I told him I’ll still be available to do that.”
In the midst of many other jobs he does at Clemson, Bourret presides over the Ring of Honor Committee as the Chairman, and whether he wants to admit it or not, he’ll probably join the prestigious group when it’s all said and done.
His name is bound to be added to the list of Clemson greats that are enshrined in Clemson’s history. After all, that’s where the legends live.