Dave Wills (sportscaster)

American sportscaster (1964–2023)

David Herbert Wills (March 13, 1964 – March 5, 2023) was an American sportscaster best known as an announcer for the Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcasts. A native of the Chicago area, he was involved in both sports and journalism in high school and college. After a short stint as a college baseball coach, he began covering sporting events on local radio and television, then did play by play radio for a minor league baseball club. Wills joined the Chicago White Sox Radio Network as a pre and post game host in 1997. In 2005, he and broadcast partner Andy Freed became the radio voices of the Rays, a position he held until his sudden death in March 2023.

Wills was born in Chicago and raised in nearby Oak Lawn, where he was a "die hard" fan of the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played baseball and basketball at Oak Lawn Community High School, where he also wrote for the school newspaper. He attended Elmhurst College, where he pitched on the baseball team and worked for the school's newspaper until graduating with degrees in speech communications and urban studies in 1988. While in college, he also worked for SportsPhone, a call in service that provided one minute of sports scores and updates for the Chicago area. After graduation, Wills served as the pitching coach/recruiting coordinator for the Elmhurst College baseball team in 1989 and as the interim head baseball coach at the University of Chicago in 1990.

Wills began his on air broadcasting career covering sports for radio stations WMAQ and WMVP in Chicago. His first play by play position was with the Class A Kane County Cougars, for whom he was the radio voice from 1991 to 1995. From 1997 to 2004, Wills served as the pre game and post game analyst and back up for John Rooney on White Sox radio broadcasts. During the same period, he also co hosted a daily sports talk radio show, hosted a local cable television sports show, hosted the pre and post game radio broadcasts for Notre Dame football and basketball, and did radio play by play for University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) basketball. The pair become popular in the Tampa Bay area and well respected across the league for their knowledge of the game and on air comradery, and Wills was particularly known for his "big personality" and his ability to connect with fans off the air. In 2016, Wills was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. On April 14, 2024, Wills was inducted into the Tampa Bay Rays Hall of Fame, the fourth individual to be inducted, after Don Zimmer, Wade Boggs, and Carl Crawford.

Wills lived in Lutz, Florida. He and his wife, Liz, had two children. He missed the last two weeks of the Rays' regular season and returned to the radio booth for the 2022 American League Wild Card Series.