After 30 years of doing radio play-by-play for Pittsburgh Steelers games, Bill Hillgrove announced Thursday that he would be retiring from that position.

However, he will continue to do play-by-play for Pitt football and basketball.

“You can’t completely stop,” Hillgrove said during Thursday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “I think people who do that put themselves in dire straits. If you just go 100 miles an hour and come down to zero, I don’t think it’s good. So I’ll be able to cut down. I’ll have half a weekend left after a Pitt game and all of July and August. That’s going to give me an opportunity to smell some roses. And I think that’s something I have to do.”

During his time behind the mic with the Steelers, Hillgrove called four Super Bowls and nine AFC championship games. When I asked him about any favorite calls he had over the years, much like many dedicated play-by-play men, Hillgrove initially gave me one that he wished he had authored better.

“On James Harrison’s return in Super Bowl XLIII, I think I had him out of bounds once and down once. Other than that, I had very few regrets,” Hillgrove said with a chuckle.

Actually, if you listen to the call, there was only one quick mention of Harrison being down and an immediate correction. I think everybody in Raymond James Stadium did the same thing at some point on that one.

Hillgrove also gave me one call that he was particularly proud of orating.

“The play in 1995 (the AFC championship game against the Colts) when Jim Harbaugh threw that rainbow into the scrum. I was proud that I waited,” Hillgrove recalled. “Merril Hoge was in the booth, and he watched the official as well. As soon as we saw him point to the ground, we knew it wasn’t a touchdown.”

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Hillgrove was blessed with great pipes, for sure. But how he used his voice as a tool to convey passion, tension and gravitas of various moments during an NFL game — especially in the setup of a play, then at its apex — that’s what made him a unique play-by-play craftsman.

He was also a perfect complement for some pretty unique, enthusiastic and unpredictable color commentators over the years, such as Myron Cope, Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley.

“I remember Abbott and Costello. They were funny,” Hillgrove said. “But (Lou) Costello was the slapstick guy. The straight man was Bud Abbott. That’s what I felt my role was — to be the straight man. Give people the nuts and bolts, and then let the color men do what they do best.”

Now, Sundays in the fall will be reserved for Hillgrove watching the Steelers as a fan, often at Conneaut Lake, instead of being the voice of their games.

“If it’s not for the fans, we don’t have a game. And if not for the game, we don’t have a platform,” Hillgrove said. “You have to bow to the fans. For me to step aside, if you would ask me to reduce my speech to two words, it would be ‘thank you.’ And that would be in the direction of the fans.”

Listen: Bill Hillgrove joins me for a Gerger Construction podcast to discuss his retirement after 30 years as the radio voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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