How Tim Sinclair became the voice of the Bears, the Bulls, the Fire and the Illini
Tim Sinclair is the only public address announcer who works for three professional teams in the same city here in Chicago, and a familiar voice to many sports fans. But Chicago stadiums may have felt very different if he hadn't changed careers.
Sinclair wanted to be an architect. That's what he went to the University of Illinois to study. He was looking to make a little money when he took up what he thought would be a hobby.
"I looked around at our church one day and happened to see a guy who worked in radio, and I said, 'I wonder if he would give me a job, super part time, on the weekends,'" Sinclair said. "And he said words that changed my life. He said, 'do you want to be on the air?'"
Sinclair worked in TV and radio for years before he came across another opportunity at Illinois. He applied to be a public address announcer, then waited.
"They didn't call back for like a year.," he said. "When they got real desperate, they asked me to do a baseball game. That was where the wheels for this job started turning."
Sinclair gained experience working multiple sporting events on campus. He's called Illini men's basketball games for more than a decade. Thursday he was recognized in Chicago as the voice of the Chicago Fire FC and the Chicago Bears, but it's work with the Chicago Bulls you might know best.
"This was never anything I planned to do so I wasn't ever trying to mimic someone I was really trying to be myself and be quote on quote a fan with a microphone," he said.
He has been behind the microphone for the Bulls since 2020, and doesn't take being part of a historic franchise and iconic moment for granted.
"When you realize that intro the one from the Michael Jordan days that everyone around the world knows, the most famous intro in sports — to me, best intro in sports – to now I'm the guy who is going to be doing that, there's a little fear and trembling," Sinclair said.
So what does it feel like to have to do it in front of an arena filled with 20,000 people?
"In the moment I don't think about it, because I think if you dwell on it too much—I'm an emotional person, that would be very emotional. But I love the idea that now, six seasons in, hopefully 10, 15, 20 down the line, there will be a generation of people where my voice will be tied to that intro just like Ray, Clay and Tommy, their voices are tied to it for me," he said.
Pronouncing names is no easy task either, but Sinclair said he doesn't practice starting lineups or phrases on purpose. What you see is what you'll hear. The results speak for themselves and have led to some pretty awesome opportunities.
"Being in the NBA2K video games, like to be a voice in a video game or one of them is crazy. To be singing the State Farm jingle in a State Farm commercial with Jake, that I never expected," he said.
Sinclair sometimes calls games in Champaign and Chicago on the same day. How does he do it? He said he spends a lot of time in the car.