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Tim Bourret (Clemson University), CoSIDA Hall of Fame
by John Heisler, University of Notre Dame Senior Associate Athletics Director
Tim Bourret was honored for his 1,000th broadcast at Clemson,
which fittingly was against his alma mater Notre Dame.
Tim Bourret: A Clemson Icon, Indeed
When
Tim Bourret headed to Clemson University in August 1978 as the newest athletics hire as assistant sports information director, he probably never envisioned he’d eventually be heading into his 40th football season with the Tigers in 2017.
Yet that hardly should have come as a surprise, given the fact he was joined at the hip — and learned the sports information/media relations craft — with two individuals whose names became synonymous with their institutions.
Bourret, a West Hartford, Connecticut, product, worked as both a student assistant and then a graduate assistant with longtime University of Notre Dame publicist Roger Valdiserri (a CoSIDA Hall of Famer and the 1987 Arch Ward Award winner), who served as both sports information director and associate athletics director from 1966 through the 1990s.
Bourret’s salad days in South Bend ranked among some of the best years in Irish athletics. In the athletic year (1977-78), in which he earned his master’s degree in communication, Notre Dame won the national title in football and then played its way into the NCAA Final Four in men’s basketball. At different points in Bourret’s freshman year (1973-74), the Irish ranked No. 1 nationally in football, men’s basketball and hockey.
The successes of those Irish programs meant that a constant trail of national media headed to South Bend — so Bourret literally had the opportunity to rub elbows with just about everyone in college athletics simply by riding around on Valdiserri’s coattails.
Then, once he moved to Clemson, Bourret did much the same, working alongside another legend in the sports information business in Bob Bradley (another CoSIDA Hall of Famer and the 1977 Arch Ward Award winner). Bradley served at Clemson for 45 years prior to his death in 2000, with Bourret eventually heading the overall Tiger media relations operation for 24 years. Clemson is the only place Bourret has ever worked on a full-time basis.
Bourret with 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Deshaun Watson.
And now, 2017 marks the year that Tim himself takes his rightful place in the CoSIDA Hall of Fame where his mentors also have been recognized and honored.
It's hard to imagine anyone who has impacted Clemson athletics over the last four decades more than Bourret, named an assistant athletics director in 1992. He has provided tremendous continuity and historical perspective that have been of huge value to media and many others. His work products are as professional as any in the country.
Bourret is not flashy, but the material he produces is consistently full of interesting and often unique facts, figures and research. Don’t try to outwit him in any sort of battle involving Clemson or Notre Dame athletics trivia.
Bourret normally authors an essay for the final page of the Clemson football game programs. Yet when Notre Dame played there in 2015 (the first Irish visit to Death Valley since Bourret saw the same two teams play there in 1977) his sports information colleagues high-jacked the page and wrote their own tribute to their boss.
He knows how to run a press box, how to relate to media, and over time has been as influential a voice as Clemson athletics has had. He followed one legend (Bradley) and learned from another (Valdiserri). A solid case can be made that no school in the country puts out better nuts and bolts sports information material than Clemson and that's because of Bourret.
Bourret’s football media operations have been honored consistently by the Football Writers Association of America.
“I was very fortunate to work for two Hall of Fame SIDs in Roger Valdiserri and Bob Bradley,” says Bourret, who is an avid golfer in his spare time. “Both taught me the basics, but had one common message … your credibility with the media is your most important asset. Never lose that. Once you do, you become ineffective in the profession.”
In addition to his everyday duties in football media communications, Bourret has been a member of the Clemson Radio Network since 1980, serving as the color voice of Tiger men's basketball. He has broadcast more than 1,000 Clemson events in his career — and it was truly ironic that his 1,000th broadcast came in February 2015 against his alma mater, the Fighting Irish.
In November 2007, he was made an honorary Clemson alumnus by the university's alumni association. Additionally, Bourret has authored two books involving Clemson athletics; "The Vault" and "If These Walls Could Talk," both historical reflections on Tiger football.
He has been the chairperson of Clemson's Ring of Honor Committee since its inception. Bourret also has been a regional chairman for the College Football Hall of Fame voting process and in 2003 was a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference 50-Year Anniversary Committee.
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