Popular Auburn High hoops announcer dies Popular Auburn High basketball P.A. announcer dies after heart attack at age 59

Billy Aldridge was stricken at his home Wednesday.

1958-2017

Wednesday was the day the music died at Auburn High School.

Billy Aldridge - who brought style, smiles and a suitcase full of rock and roll tunes to his 17 years of work as the public address announcer at Auburn boys and girls basketball games - died suddenly Wednesday at age 59 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Riner.

Aldridge worked full time as a building inspector for the town of Christiansburg. His supervisor, building official Jerry Heinline, said Aldridge was stricken early Wednesday morning and could not be revived.

"It was too late," Heinline said. "From what I was told, he got up at 5:30 this morning and hit the floor. His girlfriend was there. She tried to resuscitate him and perform CPR.

"It's stunning. [Tuesday] we had a staff meeting, and I gave him a fist bump like I do every day. I had no idea it would be the last time I saw him."

Aldridge, a 1976 Auburn High graduate, was a dedicated supporter of the Eagles' basketball programs, long before the new school was built in 2013.

"In the old gym, we didn't have a scorer's table. He made a scorer's table for them," Auburn boys coach Terry Millirons said. "He put up speakers for a sound system. He would bring in his own equipment to run things. He would do just about anything for anybody.

"It was a shock to hear about that this morning. Nobody was expecting that out of the blue."

Aldridge's volunteer spirit extended beyond the Auburn campus.

"He did a lot for the Riner community," said Gene "Bull" Teal, a longtime Auburn supporter who handled timekeeping duties next to Aldridge at Auburn games. "Last year he had a benefit barbecue at his house to support one of the volunteer fire department members who had cancer."

Aldridge's death also was felt in other local communities.

For the past five years, Aldridge handled the public address duties at Floyd County High School's Chance Harman Classic, a benefit tournament that raises funds for pediatric cancer research at Duke University.

The two-day event was begun in 2008 by Floyd County boys basketball coach Brian Harman in memory of his son, Chance, who died at age 4 in 2007.

"He cared about that event as much as we did," Harman said. "I could tell it always meant a lot to him in his heart.

"He would come over two or three days before the event and make sure the speakers sounded good. We run a lot of games. I've asked him the last couple years, 'Do you want a break?' He'd say, 'Nope, I want to do them all. Just give me a barbecue here and there.' It's going to be a loss for us."

Aldridge served as the P.A. announcer for the first Western Virginia Basketball Officials Association boys and girls all-star games at Patrick Henry High School in 2016.

In January, he announced Patrick Henry's home game against Cave Spring that served as a fundraiser for Blue Ridge Cancer Care amid PH coach Jack Esworthy's battle with esophageal cancer.

"He wouldn't take a nickel," Esworthy said. "As a matter of fact, he donated. I gave him three T-shirts and he paid for them all, then he put 20 dollars in."

Aldridge also volunteered to handle the P.A. duties at the Adam Ward benefit tournament at Salem High School in February.

"He did it all out of the goodness of his heart," WVBOA commissioner Jerry Spangler said. "He was one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Ever. We all love sports, but [meeting] people like him are why we do this. He was one of a kind."

Esworthy was rocked Wednesday when he learned of Aldridge's death.

"I'm walking down the hall, and I'm like, crushed," the Patrick Henry coach said. "When he was here, he came up and told me, 'I'm going to be back year after year, and you're going to keep on living.' "

Aldridge was preceded in death by his ex-wife, Belinda "Boo" Aldridge, who died suddenly in March.

Their son, Brannon Aldridge, lives in Colorado but has been in the area in recent days working on his mother's former home.

"His son came in from Colorado when his mother passed," Spangler said. "That's why Billy didn't do our all-star game this year. He wanted to spend time with his son."

Aldridge was known for mixing jocular banter on the microphone with an array of 1960s and 1970s rock and roll hits during timeouts and other breaks in the action.

The somewhat more relaxed atmosphere at the Chance Harman tournament allowed Aldridge to dip deep into his vast discography.

"The music that he did was phenomenal," Harman said. "Most every year we would have somebody ask, 'Where did you get this guy? This is awesome.' "

Esworthy put it this way:

"He just made the night."