Content area
Full Text
Behind the scorers table at Petersen Events Center is a blue-cushioned chair no more than 7 feet from the end of the Pitt bench.
In each of the Panthers' seven home games this season, that seat, wedged between radio broadcasters Bill Hillgrove and Curtis Aiken, has remained unoccupied. In its empty state, it carries more weight than the one holding the heaviest spectator in the venue.
For 40 years, the spot next to Hillgrove was taken by Dick Groat, whose voice, along with Hillgrove's, had become synonymous with the program. This year, for the first time since the late 1970s, Groat is not calling games.
His presence isn't entirely lost, though. In Pitt's first game of the season, a 63-61 victory against Florida State, the chair between Hillgrove and Aiken was empty. By the time Pitt returned to action fewer than 72 hours later against Nicholls State, the seat remained that way. This was no accident.
For the duration of the season, the seat separating the two broadcasters will stay vacant as a way to commemorate Groat, an idea hatched by Aiken in the offseason.
"It really wasn't meant for other people in terms of their perception," Aiken said. "It was really meant for Dick. I wanted him to know that I didn't feel like I could replace him...