SPRINGDALE — Editor’s Note: This is the third in a season-long series on people involved in Friday night football. The series will highlight those who play key roles in making high school football a special event each week in small towns and big cities across Northwest Arkansas.
SPRINGDALE — Bill Carter wasn’t relaxing in his usual Friday night seat that overlooks the field inside Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium.
A thunderstorm had forced Springdale High’s football game with Tulsa Central on Sept. 7 to be delayed for an hour, meaning Carter had to wait to perform the volunteer job he has held for the past 30 years.
Springdale’s longtime public address announcer was temporarily silenced by lightning.
“I have a real job,” said Carter, 63, who serves as Vice President of Sales for ABSnext Incorporated. “This is just volunteer work that’s fun for me.
Profile
Bill Carter
SCHOOL: Springdale High
JOB: P.A. Announcer
Notable: Is in his 30th season as Springdale’s P.A. announcer. ... Moved to Springdale in 1980 after falling in love wit the area while visiting his father, who lived in the city. ... His son, J.R. Carter, was a tackle for the Bulldogs before graduating in 1997.
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Carter might get a free hot dog and a bottle of water as payment for announcing during games who made the last play and how many yards it gained. But that’s about it for almost three hours of talking.
Still, Carter has no plans to turn the microphone over to someone else. He has been Springdale’s P.A. announcer for so long that it’s just assumed that he’ll do it every season.
At this point, school officials don’t even bother to ask Carter if he wants the job. They just simply say, “You’re going to be here, aren’t you?” And he has been for the past 30 seasons, spending his Friday nights in the fall sitting inside a cramped press box above Springdale’s home section.
“My dad was a coach, and I grew up around football fields and basketball gymnasiums and played a little ball back in the day,” Carter said. “So, hey, it’s the best seat in the house. It’s high, it’s dry and during cold weather it’s warm.”
Carter was 34 years old when legendary Springdale coach Jarrell Williams asked him if he’d be interested in being the P.A. announcer during Bulldogs games.
Williams said he knew Carter’s father, who had served as the principal at Springdale Central Junior High. And Williams admitted he was impressed after hearing Carter’s clear-sounding voice over the P.A. system during a band event inside the stadium.
“When I heard him speak, I knew that that was the kind of guy that we needed in our program as far as announcing,” Williams said. “So I was very excited about the fact that being a devoted Bulldog fan he accepted my invitation.”
And Carter just kept coming back each year.
He arrives at the stadium around 6 p.m. on game days and spends the next hour trying to find out if Springdale has any special announcements he must make that night. Perhaps more importantly, he tries to determine if any player has an unusual name that might trip him up during the game.
After all, no one wants to make a mistake on the job, especially one that could be caught by several thousand people.
“Does that mean I’ve always pronounced the names correctly? No,” Carter said. “I’ve even mispronounced our own home team names on occasion.”