In his 33-year career, Hein earned the trust of viewers and respect of sports figures he covered. In the 1980s, he was voted Indy’s best sportscaster.

INDIANAPOLIS – Don Hein, the face of Indianapolis sports for more than 30 years at Channel 13 who never backed down from getting a scoop, was quick-witted and outspoken and who was always flashing his signature, brightly-lit smile, has died.

Hein, a standout high school and college athlete who turned his love of playing sports into a “dream career,” landing exclusive interviews with the fiery IU coach Bob Knight and becoming a fixture at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was in hospice care when he died July 3. He was 85 years old.

It was 1969 when Hein got his start in Indianapolis at then-WLWI Channel 13 covering the ABA days of the Indiana Pacers while being the television play-by-play announcer for the team, including the Pacers’ three ABA titles.

He went on to have an illustrious career that included covering the modern-day Pacers, the Indianapolis Colts, IndyCar, IU, Purdue, high school basketball, football, baseball, an occasional Indianapolis Indians game and everything in between.

Hein’s coverage through three decades earned him the trust of viewers and respect of the sports figures he covered. He was once ranked, in an unofficial poll of television viewers in the 1980s, as the best sportscaster in the city.

He was honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for exemplary reporting and was inducted into the Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame and the Indiana Television Pioneers Hall of Fame.

“Don was a great writer and quick witted,” Rich Nye, a reporter with WTHR, posted to Facebook. “He may have been best known for his on-and-off relationship with Bob Knight. But whenever Bob made news, Don was a guy who could usually get a TV interview with Knight.”

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Inside the WTHR newsroom, Hein was known as the “local grammarian” and his reports were always meticulously prepared, said Nye, who grew up watching Hein having no idea he would one day be reporting to him as his sports director.

After Hein’s death, memories and condolences poured out on social media.

Just one year after arriving in Indianapolis, Hein was at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum for a Pacers game when fan Scott Goudy accidentally spilled an orange soda all over him.

“He was so kind,” Goudy said. “Two weeks later I received an Indiana Pacers autographed official ABA ball. What a great man.”

Rob Walters shared memories of how Hein looked out for the kids at IMS. “If you were in the pits, Don would call out drivers and say ‘Hey ___ why don’t you come over and sign some autographs for these kids?'” Walters said. “And the drivers would.”

For sports fans in Indy, Hein was the man people turned to, not just for his reports but for his magnetic personality. In addition to his passion for journalism, he also played tuba and had a penchant for tap dancing.

“Donald Ray Hein may have left this world, but his legacy, compassion and success will continue to live in the hearts of all who admired him,” reads Hein’s obituary. “In the words of Don Hein: ‘That’s all sports fans… I’ll be hanging up now.'”

‘Telling it like it is’

Hein was born May 24, 1940 in Oelwein, Iowa to the late Rev. Herman and Marie (Reyelts) Hein. From a young age, he quickly showed he would be a remarkable athlete.

At Waverly High School, Hein played for the conference champion football team, was a pitcher on the baseball team and played forward for the basketball team. He was named First-Team All-State in basketball after leading his team to the championship game of the Class A Iowa state tournament.

Hein was named Athlete of the Year at Wartburg College, holding basketball records for his scoring average (22 points per game) and his .861 free throw percentage. He played his last two years of college basketball at the University of Northern Iowa, where he started for legendary coach, Norm Stewart, and was twice named to the All-Conference first team. He graduated with a major in speech and english.

His broadcasting career began at WMBD-TV in Peoria, Illinois, where he met long-time weather colleague, Bob Gregory. That coworker partnership would be one for the ages with Hein and Gregory bantering for decades at Channel 13 in Indianapolis, where they both eventually landed.

A small blurb on Page 24 of the Oct 10, 1969, Indianapolis Star told the city of Hein’s arrival.

“Sports director Brian Madden is leaving Channel 13 and his post as voice of the Indiana Pacers. He will be replaced by Don Hein in both roles. Hein comes to WLWI TV from Peoria, Illinois, where he has been sports director since 1966.”

Throughout his 33 years as sports director, Hein had a no-nonsense style of “telling it like it is.” When an IndyStar television critic wrote a piece calling him “toupeed Hein,” he retorted with a blazing letter to the editor calling out that critic.

Hein ended the letter: “By the way, fat and untalented, if you’re going to report only that I wear a piece you should also know that I have four capped teeth and have an arm that was broken in four places when I was a kid and it’s slightly bowed. I also wear glasses.”

‘Thank you for bringing sports into my life’

His raw, brutally honest style earned Hein a place in the heart of IU’s Knight who wasn’t a coach who had many places in his heart for the press.

After allegations emerged from former IU player Neil Reed in March 2000 accusing Knight of choking him at a practice in 1997, Hein landed Knight’s first interview.

Knight denied the allegations, calling them “absurd” and characterizing them as a mixture of exaggerations and outright lies. He told Hein the journalists responsible for the report should be fired.

“Sometimes I kind of grab a player,” Knight told Hein a day after the allegations were made public. “Maybe I grab Neil Reed by the shoulder. Maybe I took him by the back of the neck. I don’t know. I don’t remember everything I’ve ever done in practices.”

Knight said any physical contact that occurred was simply an application of the techniques he has used with “100 other players that have been here.” He then went on to conduct an on-camera demonstration on Hein of how he positioned players in practice.

Those were the kind of reports Indy had come to expect from Hein so, when he retired, the city missed him and made sure the station knew it.

In what became for several years a semi-retirement for Hein, he was called back by WTHR for stories on occasion. “My love of sports will never fade,” Hein said in a 2001 IndyStar article.

“I have noticed one thing since I’m at home much more than when I was working regularly. My wife doesn’t think I’m right as much as she used to,” Hein said in 2001. “Could it be that I may have been reduced in rank a bit? We’re still working out the tempo on that one.”

Once officially retired, Hein was an avid golfer — often at the helm of outings raising money for nonprofits. He also played racquetball, pickle ball and ballroom danced with his wife.

He was on the board of directors of the Indianapolis Symphonic Band, announcing concerts for them and The New Horizons Band while also being a member of the tuba section. He was a volunteer teacher at Butler University, read to the blind and officiated youth sports.

“Don found joy in the simple moments of togetherness with family and friends,” his obituary reads.

When Jeff Hodges ran into Hein last year at the Kroger store in Broad Ripple, he approached him to tell him what a big fan he had been of Hein and Gergory since the 1970s.

“He told me, ‘Wait here. I’ll be right back,'” Hodges said. “He returned with his wife and told me to repeat what I had told him and then started to brag about it to her. He was just as fun and friendly in person as he was on all of his broadcasts. A real local legend.”

Margaret Griggs posted she “made it through (Hein’s) obituary smiling often because of his accomplishments, and the wonderful memories I have of him, but ended up shedding tears” at the end. “Don I want to thank you for bringing sports into my life. I never really cared about them because neither of my parents did. Just the way you announced them and talked about them drew me in. You’ll never be forgotten.”

Hein is survived by his wife, Helen; daughters Lisa (David) Goode and Amy Armstrong; step-children Danell (Gary) Duff, Doug (Jennifer) Dulin, and Darron (Teresa) Dulin; grandchildren Kasey (AJ) Hodges, Shanon (Justin) Bannister, Jay, Benjamin and Daniel Armstrong; six great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his wife of nearly 50 years, Judith Ann and daughter Michelle Ann Hein.

There will be a celebration of life for Hein July 11 at Indiana Funeral Care, 8151 Allisonville Road with visitation 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. followed by services.

Make a donation to Alzheimer’s Association – National Office in memory of Donald Ray Hein

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X:@DanaBenbow. Reach her via email:dbenbow@indystar.com.