Purdue women's basketball broadcaster Tim Newton stares down a milestone Wednesday

WEST LAFAYETTE — When you have a broadcasting career with one program the span of Tim Newton's, you never forget when it started.

In Newton's case, his first call of Purdue women's basketball was an easy one to remember anyway.

"It was a Purdue and Ohio State game that Purdue won by 60 points because Ohio State had suspended half of its team for that game," Newton recalled.

That was Jan. 3, 1991 and marked the Boilermakers' first victory against the Buckeyes, having lost the first 20 meetings in the series.

From game one to game 1,000, which for Newton will come Wednesday morning when Purdue hosts Indiana State at 11 a.m. in its annual education day game where elementary and middle schools are invited to the game for a field trip.

Newton's voice has become synonymous with Purdue women's basketball, from that first season where the Boilers won their first Big Ten title with stars Joy Holmes and MaChelle Joseph, to three Final Fours, two NCAA title game appearances and the 1999 national championship win over Duke.

"It wasn’t like it is now where you’re always on TV," said Jane Schott (née Calhoun), who was the starting center for all 30 games during Purdue's 1991-92 season and now is on the broadcasts alongside Newton. "We relied on newspaper and radio for people to stay connected to us. We had people connected. They listened to Tim."

How Newton wound up in West Lafayette to begin with is a story within itself.

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Growing up in western New York, Newton was a Notre Dame football fan because Fighting Irish highlights were shown on a local Buffalo TV station on Sunday mornings.

Naturally, Newton wanted to attend Notre Dame.

In the 1970s, well before researching universities was a simple Google search, you relied on a book that supplied all the information about colleges in the United States.

Newton was researching Notre Dame, his dream school, but thought it made sense to have a backup plan.

"The book was open to the state of Indiana. I think I wound up turning right and wound up at Purdue," Newton said. "Purdue had a free application. If I had turned left it might have been Ball State or Indiana or Butler or somewhere else."

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Long story short, Newton was accepted at both Purdue and Notre Dame. When he saw the tuition fees at both schools, Purdue seemed more economically feasible.

Newton graduated from Purdue in 1982.

Twice, he left West Lafayette, once to embark on a short stint as a disc jockey for a small country station in New York, only to return just months later to become sports director at WASK in Lafayette. In 1986, Newton resigned from that job and ended up working for a St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliate in Erie, Pennsylvania.

He returned to Purdue in 1989 as an employee of the university and has stayed ever since. He added voice of the women's basketball program to his duties beginning with that Ohio State game in January of 1991.

He did try to give it up, albeit more a decision to appease his wife and his employer. Newton resigned following the 1992-93 season. His successor was already lined up until another opportunity came along.

Newton was asked to reconsider.

"Well, I never wanted to give it up in the first place so I went back to me wife and back to my employer and for whatever reason they changed their minds and here I am," Newton said. "We ended up going to the Final Four in 1993-94."

Newton, who since 2010 also has been the play-by-play broadcaster for Purdue football for the Boilermaker Sports Network, has piled up his share of accolades since that reconsideration in the fall of 1993.

But more importantly, he's built long-lasting friendships and unforgettable memories.

And Newton can still recall most every detail of iconic moments in program history, ones some may have forgotten like the win over Illinois on the last day of the 1997 season to win a Big Ten title before a sold out crowd in Champaign. That team had a depleted roster following a coaching change and was cast aside in terms of being conference championship contenders.

"When the 1999 team came back (for a 25-year reunion this season), to see those players’ connection with Tim, Tim gave a toast and got really emotional," said Purdue head coach Katie Gearlds, a star guard for the Boilers from 2003-07. "He is not just the radio guy. He is a part of our family. I don’t want to know the day when Tim is not on the mic."

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue women's basketball broadcaster Tim Newton embarks on milestone