Ray Dunne reflects on the significance of calling Temple’s 2,000th win, balancing the historic moment with the game’s storylines. Credit: ESPN+
By Sam Neumann on

It wasn’t destiny — no, that would be giving fate a bit too much credit.

Calling it destiny would also be selling Ray Dunne short.

Being on the call for the 2,000th win in his alma mater’s program history wasn’t something cosmic or preordained. Dunne had to put in the work to sit alongside Marc Jackson on ESPN+ for the Temple-Davidson broadcast.

And attributing his role to unseen forces or serendipity diminishes the effort that got him there.

Temple became the sixth program in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history to reach 2,000 wins — and Dunne was there to capture the moment. More than that, he provided the soundtrack to one of the most significant milestones in the program’s storied history.

But it wasn’t a slam dunk from the start. Temple trailed Davidson by as many as 11 points during the game, making the road to history anything but smooth.

“I couldn’t script it, but I’ll be honest with you: when the decision was made to have me do these games on ESPN+, I will say that there was an eye put on the schedule of, ‘Oh, this game is on ESPN+; could this be the game they do it?’ ‘Could this be the game they do it?’ So, it’s something I was paying attention to going into the season,” Dunne told Awful Announcing in a phone interview.

It wasn’t just Dunne keeping tabs.

The production team at Temple wanted to lean into the storyline as well. But narrating the win didn’t fully sink in until the game was over — until he got home and saw how fans, his friends and loved ones were reacting to his call(s).

For Dunne, it was more than a milestone. Sharing the moment with Jackson, a Temple legend in his own right, and knowing his voice would forever be tied to a historic night brought his journey full circle.

“As a Temple alum, I’m not sure there’s much more I can ask to be a part of that,” Dunne said. “I joked with our athletic director [Arthur Johnson] before the season that I’d have to work at Temple for like 40 years to give back what Temple’s given to me… And being able to be a small part of that moment, I think maybe now I have to work 50 years at Temple because that’s something I’ll be able to point to, to forever and say, ‘Hey, that night, I had a chance to be on the mic and deliver it to people watching at home.”

 

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A Career Built on Opportunity and Advocacy

​​Dunne’s journey to moments like these wasn’t about fate — it was about seizing opportunities and earning the trust of people who believed in him.

In addition to serving as the producer of The Mike Missanelli Show and weekend host on 97.5 The Fanatic, as well as the voice of Temple women’s basketball, Dunne earned the opportunity to call select ESPN+ games for the men’s team.

The way this opportunity came about is just another example of Dunne’s hard work paying off.

Diane Richardson, Temple’s women’s basketball head coach, has been a consistent advocate for Dunne. She’s spoken highly of his talent and helped cement his place in the program’s ecosystem.

Then there’s Kevin Copp, the associate athletic director overseeing video production and the radio voice for Temple football and men’s basketball. Copp has been one of Dunne’s loudest supporters, and Dunne credits him for opening doors.

With all the support from Copp and Richardson, Dunne feels that push was key in landing the opportunity. And let’s not forget; it also helps that Dunne is a Temple alum who truly cares about the school and is eager to give back.
While we don’t want to stray too far from the moment that cemented Dunne’s place in Temple lore forever, it’s important to understand how he got here in the first place.

A Serendipitous Start

Dunne describes his entry into the Temple women’s basketball broadcast booth as “kind of luck.”

“When I was graduating, I had a meeting with Kevin Copp,” Dunne said. “I basically told him, ‘Hey, I don’t really want to leave town, and I want to do play-by-play. Is it possible for me to freelance in this market doing play-by-play?’ He walked me through how I could make it happen and said he’d help me with some connections.”

Copp didn’t just encourage him — he connected him with opportunities.

“At some point in the meeting, he said, ‘There’s rumors the new women’s basketball staff might put Temple games on the radio for the first time in a long time.’ Of course, I was interested.”

For a while, though, nothing happened.

Dunne followed up, eventually landing a meeting with Diane Richardson and her entire staff.

From that moment on, he knew he was being seriously considered for the role.

“That’s the way it’s been since that moment. They’ve embraced me as part of their family,” Dunne said. “They take great care of me. I feel like I’m not just kind of a broadcaster; I feel like I’m part of what they do. That’s a really cool feeling to have… That relationship’s been really strong what I’ve built with them. Diane’s been a big, major advocate for me… that feeling of want is certainly really cool.”

Back to the Moment

In a game where history beckoned for Temple basketball, broadcaster Dunne faced the challenge of balancing the weight of a 2,000th program victory with the reality of a Davidson squad determined to steal the moment.

“I opened with, I think the line was ‘The pursuit of history in a city filled with it.’ I wanted to lean in fully to that storyline,” Dunne explained. “Marc and I talked at the open of the game about 2,000, what it would mean for him. And being the ESPN+ broadcast — and not the Temple radio broadcast — I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t overselling that storyline because there’s an entire audience out there that’s tuned in for Davidson.”

“I made sure that after we went to say, ‘Hey, this is a good Davidson team [Temple’s] got tonight. They’re not here to watch Temple make history; they’re here to win a basketball game. And going with that storyline, I didn’t want to pound it into the ground… I think even the end call of the game, which I can’t tell you there was any type of rehearsal for that… I just kind of said what I felt at that moment.”

Dunne emphasized that rehearsing a call can strip away the raw emotion of the moment. When the game ended, his first thought was to acknowledge the 2,000-win milestone because that was the storyline. But he also wanted to capture the chaotic nature of the game. Davidson led for most of the contest, yet Temple found a way to win when it mattered.

Dunne also mentioned a pregame conversation with Temple head coach Adam Fisher, who downplayed the milestone in his approach to the team. “It was more of a ‘We’ll celebrate if we win’ type of thing rather than ‘This is for 2,000.’ If that’s how the team was treating it, I wasn’t going to overdo it either because there were 40 minutes of basketball to cover and plenty of great storylines between these two teams.”

When Temple fell behind by 11, Dunne and Jackson exchanged glances, quietly acknowledging that it might not happen that night. Temple wasn’t scheduled to be on ESPN+ again until late January, and if they were still chasing 2,000 wins by then, the tone of the broadcast would likely shift to “What went wrong over the past month?”

Dunne admitted that as a Temple alum, he went into the game wondering if he’d be the one to call this milestone. But as the game unfolded, it became clear that Davidson’s Reed Bailey was having a career night, and Davidson’s team as a whole looked poised to steal the spotlight.

Until they didn’t.

A Date with Destiny

And because of that, the 62-61 final score didn’t just solidify Temple’s 2,000th win — it gave Dunne a lasting connection to history.

“It means a lot,” he admitted. “It’s really cool to think about it. I think it hit me really [when] I was sitting back at my apartment, thinking about that end-of-game sequence and everything we did. And sometimes, I’ll try to listen and critique things about myself just because I want to get better. I didn’t do that because I kind of wanted to let the moment sit.

“I thought about the end of the game when we played that win No. 1,500 on the broadcast. And it was like, ‘Yeah, that happened in the ‘90s — and we’re talking about that 30 years later.’ I thought maybe someday, if I’m lucky enough to go anywhere with my career when they play that package from that night, there’s a chance that you’re going to hear something I said, or you’re at least going to see the broadcast I was on.”

It’s a modest piece of an extraordinary story, one that belongs to the players, coaches, staff, and university. But for Dunne, there’s pride in knowing his small contribution might endure. He shared that his phone lit up with messages as friends scrolled through ESPN’s Instagram post and recognized his voice.

It’s that type of appreciation that feels really rewarding, he says.

Since graduating, Dunne has logged close to 100 broadcasts, including memorable moments like calling a Temple women’s basketball regular-season conference championship and Temple’s Big 5 Classic win over Villanova. But this moment stood out as “really freaking cool,” Dunne said, adding that he’s grateful for never letting doubt or circumstance stop him from pursuing these opportunities.

One of his most immediate feelings, however, was relief. “I’m so glad my voice came back,” Dunne said, laughing about waking up the day before the game in vocal distress. “I was terrified about how I’d sound on air. Once I got past that, I could finally appreciate being part of something truly special.”

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann