Bill Worrell

Biography

Bill Worrell was born in 1947 in Houston, Texas. Bill Worrell is the son of William "Dub" Hamilton Worrell (1920-2011). William Worrell had a long time association with several Houston sports teams. William Worrell served as the team dentist for the Rice Owls, University of Houston Cougars, Houston Oilers, and the Houston Rockets. William Worrell's greatest contribution was the introduction of the usage of mouth pieces. Bill Worrell began attending the University of Houston in 1964. While he was at UH, he participated on the school's baseball team as a pitcher. Four years after arriving to the University of Houston, Worrell and his team successfully made it to the College World Series in 1968.

Bill Worrell took part in the School of Communication at the University of Houston and became a distinguished alumnus. Eventually, Worrell became interested in broadcasting and decided to start a career with the campus radio station KUHF. This was the beginning of his lifelong career in broadcasting. Soon after he graduated he was hired by a local Houston news station NBC 2. He eventually became a live television as an anchor for the Houston evening news. As a sports lover his whole life, Worrell wanted to go in a different direction with his career. In 1974 he decided to stop being a news director and become a sports director for the station. But this was only the beginning of his career.

ESPN was only in its infancy in 1980 when Worrell began to move up in the sports broadcasting world and started working with the company. That same year, he called began calling Houston Rockets games on a part-time basis. He stayed with ESPN in their early days for three years before joining Home Sports Entertainment in 1983 as a full-time NBA commentator for the Rockets. Worrell wanted to work for the Rockets so that he could get experience doing play by play announcing. Since then he has announced a great majority of the Rockets games for the past 30 years. Home Sports became his 'home' for sports broadcasting to this day, despite going through several name changes. Today the network is now Root Sports. Worrell commentates for local Houston Rockets Root Sports broadcasts alongside Clyde Drexler and Matt Bullard.

Awards and Other Sports

Bill Worrell’s distinguished sports broadcasting career encompasses over four decades of quality commentating. During this time, he has received many awards including six "best sportscaster" awards and a Lone Star Emmy for best play by play announcer. Though being well known for his Rockets commentating, he has done other sports as well.

Worrell served as a sports analyst for the Houston Astros from 1985 to 2004. Bill Worrell primarily covered Astros home telecasts during the NBA off season. During his tenure as an Astros broadcaster, Worrell served as an analyst partnered with longtime Astros play by play announcer Bill Brown.

In 2005, Larry Dierker's decision to rejoin the broadcast booth ended Worrell's stint as an Astros broadcaster. Worrell's removal was amicable; he remarked that "Twenty years was a good run,... I really enjoyed my association with the Astros, team owner Drayton McLane and all the managers and players I had the great pleasure to work with. This is an opportunity for Larry Dierker to come back and be a part of the staff. Bill Brown, Larry Dierker and Jim Deshaies are without a doubt the best announcer lineup in baseball." He also broadcast play by play announcing for various college sports and the Houston Oilers, a professional NFL team. His career also includes broadcasting major sports, such as the Kentucky Derby and even the Super Bowl.

Nicknames

Worrell is well known for the nicknames he gives players. Notable nicknames include: