Howard Hill, public address announcer for Kansas University football and men’s basketball home games for two decades, has decided to step down.

“It’s been a great run,” said Hill, 70, who will conclude his 21st season as football public-address announcer Nov. 22 at the KU-Iowa State game.

He’ll continue working KU basketball games until a replacement is found.

“By the same token, I think I’ve done it long enough,” Hill said. “There are a lot of reasons. I’ve done it for a long time. It’s my 21st year and I turned 70 in September. My health generally has been very good, but I had open-heart surgery early this year. It’s taken a while to come back. The vision isn’t what it used to be.”

Hill, longtime manager at radio station KANU, is known for his deep, booming voice and professional style of announcing. He said this “wasn’t a sudden decision. It’s something I’ve thought of for a while.”

The decision was his alone.

“Nobody asked me (to leave),” he said. “I told Mike Lickert (KU video coordinator) a couple weeks ago and he said, ‘Why don’t you think about it over the weekend?’

“This may be a good time to get some new blood in here, too. Part of the thinking is if you are doing OK and people like the work you do, it may be good to go out on top. Joe Paterno isn’t doing that (as Penn State football coach), and it’s tough on Joe. He coaches at one of my alma maters.”

Hill, who did graduate work at Penn State, has possible successors in mind to recommend to KU athletic department officials.

“I’d like to help phase that person in,” Hill said. “I had a couple suggestions and may have a couple more, but I don’t think it’ll be hard to find somebody to call KU football and basketball. When word gets out, there may be people knocking on the door at Allen Fieldhouse or Parrott (Athletic Center).

“You do need to have some announcing background. I’d never done a football game before my first one. Jack Alden and I tried out at the spring football game in ’82. Tom Hedrick (former voice of Jayhawks) suggested it. Jack said, ‘Howard, you want to do the first half or second half?’ I said, ‘Jack, you’ve done football before and are an official. Why don’t you do the first half?’ I listed to him and took over the second half.”

Hill was offered the job and only has missed a handful of games since.

“I missed one when I was on the city commission and we played Oklahoma,” Hill said. “I still saw the game. I have missed some, but not many.”