Asheboro man heard around the state

Don Bullins of Asheboro makes some pregame announcements recently at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)

RALEIGH – Don Bullins of Asheboro has been a busy man behind the mic as a public address announcer for various sports events during the past month.

In some ways, it’s a continuation of assignments during many stretches of the year.

Just since December, he has handled assignments for high school football and basketball and college basketball.

“It has been a busy few weeks,” Bullins said. “I didn’t take off a lot of time.”

Bullins spends a good amount of time as a public address announcer in Raleigh. He’s the voice heard at Reynolds Coliseum for the nationally ranked North Carolina State women’s basketball team, which almost always plays in front of sell-out crowds. He has held that gig since 2017.

He has worked in various capacities at N.C. State sports events. He spent about four years as the public address announcer for baseball at Doak Field, though now he’s a back-up for that role.

For N.C. State football games, he provides rundowns for what’s considered the in-press box PA. Then he was the general PA announcer for last month’s high school football championship games at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“This is my primary role,” he said of events at N.C. State. “I schedule everything around this.”

That has been quite a workload, perhaps the busiest stretch that he can recall.

The week prior to Christmas, he worked at 10 games in the HAECO Invitational in Greensboro. In a similar girls’ and boys’ basketball holiday tournament following Christmas at Asheboro High School, he called another dozen games.

He also handled PA duties when Appalachian State and Gardner-Webb met in a neutral-site men’s basketball game last month at the field house at the Greensboro Coliseum complex.

He has done PA for events at High Point University. More recently, he’s courtside for women’s basketball at Campbell and occasionally for the men’s games there in Buies Creek, too.

His assignments also have included soccer, volleyball and lacrosse.

Back in Asheboro, he has been on the mic in recent years for American Legion baseball regional tournaments at McCrary Park.

Sometimes, one assignment leads to another.

“I run into a lot of people,” he said.

Bullins, 62, retired in December 2022 from Timken Company in Randleman, though he has been called back for some special assignments there.