Mississippi State University football and men’s basketball lost their voice last Thursday as it was announced that this past year’s football and current men’s basketball season are the last for Jim Ellis. 
While he will no longer fill the play-by-play role for basketball and football, he has been a part of the basketball broadcast team since 1983 and part of the football broadcast team since 1991.
In a press release from MSU on Thursday, John Cohen, MSU’s athletic director,  commented on Elllis’ professionalism.
“Jim has been a true professional behind the microphone and represented Mississippi State with class and dignity,” Cohen said. “We are thankful to his service, and we are glad he will continue to be the voice to many Diamond Dawg baseball memories in the future.”
Ellis, a West Point, Mississippi, native and a graduate of the 1969 class at MSU, has called games for almost 40 years and is ready for things to slow down. With football season starting in August and baseball season ending as late as June, it can be a handful to call all three sports. Ellis said he wants to spend more time with his family.
“I want to have more time to spend with family,” Ellis said. “I am able to travel some and I work with mission trips with church and things of that nature and just different things I would like to be able to do and have more time to do.” 
Ellis will not be completely out of MSU radio as he will continue his role in calling MSU baseball games. Ellis has called baseball for almost 40 years and will continue to do so. 
“I love all three of the sports, I have enjoyed doing all three of the sports, but baseball is where I started,” Ellis said.  “I started with baseball so I thought it would be appropriate to end with baseball.”
Ellis has called some great moments over the years at MSU. Although he said he does not have a favorite call, he said there have been plenty of special moments. 
He called the men’s basketball team’s 1996 NCAA Final Four run lead by former men’s head coach Richard Williams. The greatest season in modern MSU football history is the 2014 season and when fans look back on that season they will hear Ellis’ voice on the play-by-play. He saw MSU rise and fall that season but one game stuck out. 
“My best experience of that year was beating LSU in Baton Rouge and the way that we just dominated that game,” Ellis said. “That is when I thought, ‘Hey, this team has got a chance to be really special,’ and I think when I look back, that ball game was certainly one of the most enjoyable to call.”
Ellis began his career in baseball and has seen a lot of success over the years. He has been to eight College World Series. While many will point to MSU’s 2013 baseball run where they were the runner’s up in the College World Series, Ellis points to a time almost 40 years ago. 
“I looked back all the way to 1979 with that ball club in the first year I broadcast for Mississippi State and we went all the way to the College World Series, that was as special time too,” Ellis said. “I have gotten to see the College World Series grow over the years from a little 8,000 or so seat stadium at Rosenblatt and saw it go through all the changes, and when it got to the point that it was in a new stadium- that was a lot of fun.” 
 
Ellis was raised by an MSU graduate, so he grew up an MSU fan all the way. Ellis said his dad took him to games growing up and said sports were his first exposure to MSU. Sports went from fandom to career and have been a big part of his life. 
Ellis said his earliest memory related to MSU was a football game called by future co-worker and legendary MSU radio broadcaster Jack Cristal.
 “I listened to Jack Cristal on a football game in 1955 or ‘56 when we beat Kentucky on the road,” Ellis said.  “That is my earliest memory of Mississippi State and I think the next year I went to a Mississippi State-Ole Miss game and that was the first time I had been on campus and I have been loving the university ever since.”
Ellis would go from listening to Cristal call games to calling them with Cristal. When Cristal would call play-by-play, Ellis was the radio analyst for football when he first started in 1991, but took over the play-by-play when Cristal retired in 2011. Ellis said he grew up listening to Cristal, and talked about how much he respected Cristal saying he was MSU to a lot of fans. 
“Being able to be in the booth with him over all those years was certainly something I really didn’t dream would happen but when it did it was quite an experience,” Ellis said. “He is certainly someone to really model after as a professional broadcaster because he really takes his craft seriously.”
Learfield is MSU Athletics’ multimedia rights holder and manages broadcast operations for MSU and for over 100 other colleges, conferences and arenas. Learfield will lead the search for Ellis’ replacement. Vice President of Broadcast Operations Tom Boman released a comment in a press release on Thursday about Ellis. 
“Jim, without a doubt, will continue to be part of the fabric of Mississippi State with his legendary voice and life-long affinity to the Bulldogs,” Boman said. “He has been a special part of this university, and we thank him for lending his talents to calling so many memorable moments for these programs over the years.”
At the end of the day, Ellis will live on when MSU fans watch highlights of the 2014 football season, of the 2013 baseball season and many other moments over the years. Ellis will forever be a part of MSU sports.
“You are sort of the imprint on a story from that standpoint and it is in some ways unbelievable and is certainly something that is a source of pride and a feeling of accomplishment over the years,” Ellis said. “It makes me feel good to know Mississippi State folks have been so gracious and have accepted my broadcast as a part of the university scene over these years, it is something that I cherish.”