By Tim Healey, Sun Devil radio play-by-play announcer
In August of 2022, just a few weeks before the start of my 25th year as the radio voice of Sun Devil Athletics, I came up with a list of the top 25 broadcast memories of my first quarter-century as the play-by-play announcer for Sun Devil Football, Men’s Basketball and Baseball.
The resulting journey down “Memory Lane” was an enjoyable one, enabling me to reflect on some of the great moments I’ve witnessed while calling Sun Devil games in all three sports. After reading my article, featured on the Sun Devil Athletics website, fans hopefully came away with a sense of enjoyment and nostalgia.
Fast-forward to August 2025.
As we approach a highly anticipated football season – one in which Arizona State will be defending its Big-12 championship – I figured it might be time to add on to my original list of top 25 Sun Devil sports moments. And with this coming season marking my 28th as the Voice of the Sun Devils, I’ve come up with three additional highlights expanding upon my original list to produce a top 28 heading into year 28.
Truth be told, it didn’t take very long to come up with my three new memories. I’ll bet any true Sun Devil reading these words can guess which games and moments resonated most with me in these past three years.
Here we go!
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023
The Miracle at McHale
After managing to stay physically healthy during the 2020 pandemic and for a few years afterward, I ended up testing positive for COVID-19 in early February of 2023. The illness sidelined me for a two-week stretch, causing me to miss four critical games for the men’s basketball team, which was fighting for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
In case you’re keeping score at home, the Sun Devils won three of the four games in which I was a DNP, including the program’s second sweep of the Stanford-Cal road trip in the Pac-12 era.
Upon receiving clearance from my doctor to return to work, my first game back behind the mic would be on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Tucson, where ASU would square off against its archrival, the #7 Arizona Wildcats, in the opener of a crucial stretch of three straight Pac-12 road games to conclude the regular season. Little could anyone have imagined the epic hoops drama that would unfold that afternoon.
I don’t know if it was that I was well-rested from two weeks off, but I felt as though my long-time on-air sidekick, Kyle Dodd, and I had an excellent broadcast that day – mainly because we had a really good game to broadcast. The Sun Devils and the Wildcats emptied their fuel tanks in the contest, thrilling us with an intense, hard-fought battle that featured clutch performances by players on both teams.
After leading by one at halftime, the Sun Devils found themselves trailing U of A by 10 with 6:30 left in the game. At that point, Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils tightened up on the defensive end of the floor, holding Arizona to just one field goal while storming back to take a pair of one-point leads in the final two minutes.
With the Wildcats on top 87-86 with 02.9 remaining, U of A’s outstanding center, Oumar Ballo, went to the free-throw line with a chance to ice the game with a pair of foul shots. After Ballo missed his first attempt, Kyle and I speculated on-air that Ballo should perhaps miss the second shot on purpose, our thought being that it would be doubtful that Arizona State could rebound a miss and get off a potential game-winning shot in the limited amount of time remaining.
As it happened, Ballo made the second free throw, giving Arizona an 88-86 lead, but giving Arizona State one last chance for a miracle finish.
Sure enough, ASU guard Jamiya Neal delivered an uncontested inbounds pass to three-point specialist Desmond Cambridge Jr., who caught the pass in stride, enabling him to step, in rhythm, into a 60-foot heave from backcourt. This desperation shot found nothing but net at the other end!
In one electrifying moment, Des gave the Devils a dramatic 89-88 win, giving Sun Devil fans a memory to last a lifetime! In addition, there are those who’ll say that the Miracle at McKale may well have been the win that catapulted Arizona State into the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
What really made the moment special for me was the fact that Cambridge’s miraculous shot came at the conclusion of one of the best college basketball games I’ve ever seen or broadcast. It was the rivalry at its best. Two teams, battling their tails off to take down their bitter foe, with so much at stake for both squads. Additionally, it was so satisfying to see the Sun Devils win like that in a building where they’ve seldom enjoyed success the past few decades.
Along with Football’s “Jael Mary” (the Mike Bercovici-to-Jaelen Strong end-of-game 46-yard TD pass that beat USC in October 2014), Des Cambridge’s Miracle at McKale represents the single most dramatic moment I’ve broadcast in my 28 years as ASU’s radio voice.
The great @TimHealeyASU calls the Miracle at McKale!
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) February 25, 2023
pic.twitter.com/NbGlqWadqi
One footnote: The Cambridge game-winner at U of A wasn’t Des’ first or only successful half-court heave of that 2022-23 season. He also connected on a buzzer-beating basket to end the first half of ASU’s home game vs. UCLA about a month earlier.
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024
Big 12 Football Championship game
Of the 27 ASU football seasons I have had the privilege of broadcasting, the 2024 campaign was easily the most memorable.
A Sun Devil Football team picked in preseason to finish dead last in the newly-expanded 16-team Big-12 Conference, stunned the college football world by ending up in a four-way tie for first place in the Big-12 standings. Because of tie-breakers, Arizona State and the Iowa State Cyclones earned the right to head to Arlington, TX., on Dec. 7, 2024, to take part in the Dr. Pepper Big-12 Championship game.
Playing on the program’s biggest stage since the 1997 Rose Bowl, the Sun Devils – to say the least – put their best foot forward in Arlington, and they did so with a confident, aggressive mindset that manifested itself early against Iowa State.
It’s not often that a game’s turning point occurs in the first quarter, but with ASU trailing 7-3 late in the first quarter, Head Coach Kenny Dillingham elected to go for it on a 4th-and-1 play from his own 34-yard line.
The result: QB Sam Leavitt’s 63-yard completion to Melquan Stovall led to a Leavitt TD run, putting the Sun Devils ahead 10-7. Though the Cyclones later tied the game at 10, it was pretty much Arizona State’s day from that point on. The Sun Devils scored five unanswered touchdowns, three of them after ASU forced Iowa State turnovers on consecutive third-quarter possessions.
The two breakout stars of the Sun Devils’ magical season were breakout performers in the Big 12 Championship game. Redshirt freshman QB Sam Leavitt threw for 219 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for a fourth TD. Meanwhile, senior RB Cam Skattebo — who ended up fifth in the 2024 Heisman Trophy balloting — dazzled a national TV audience with his 170 yards rushing, while also catching a touchdown pass from Leavitt.
Picked last. Finished first. Won the Big 12 championship in the program’s first year in the league. A storybook season, indeed. Best of all: The season wasn’t over yet. The win over Iowa State earned Arizona State a spot as the number four seed in the upcoming College Football Playoff.
Next on the schedule: A New Year’s Day date with the Texas Longhorns in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Sounds like another Healey’s Highlight in the making, yes?
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
ASU’s Big 12 Championship win over Iowa State catapulted the Sun Devils into their first New Year’s Day bowl game since Jake Plummer’s 1996 Arizona State squad came oh-so-close to winning a national championship against Ohio State in the January 1997 Rose Bowl.
In 2024, the Devils went down to Georgia to take on the Texas Longhorns in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which was a quarterfinal game in the College Football Playoff. It would be Arizona State’s second all-time appearance in the Atlanta-based Peach Bowl.
The first was one of the most significant games in ASU history, when Frank Kush’s 1970 Sun Devil squad withstood a rare Atlanta snowstorm to defeat North Carolina 48-26 to cap off a perfect 11-0 season.
By virtue of their Big 12 title, the 2024 Sun Devils received an automatic first-round bye in the College Football Playoff, meaning the Peach Bowl would be ASU’s first football game in 3 1/2 weeks. In contrast, Texas played and won an opening-round CFP match-up against Clemson in Austin the week before.
For a good chunk of that New Year’s Day afternoon inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Sun Devils looked as though they had met their match. Texas dominated the first half and owned a 17-3 lead midway through the third quarter.
Then one of ASU’s most unsung players flipped the game’s script with one great play. With Texas’ offense backed up deep in its own end of the field, ASU senior nickel back and defensive leader Shamari Simmons delivered a big hit on Texas RB Quintrevion Wisner near the goal line, forcing him to fumble in the Longhorn end zone for what ended up being a safety. Simmons’ jarring hit seemed to snap the Sun Devils back to life, and from that point, the game was on!
As you figured he would be, RB Cam Skattebo was conspicuous by his presence in 4th-quarter crunch time against Texas, throwing a fourth-down 42-yard (how fitting that a great ASU play would have the #42 associated with it) touchdown pass to Malik McClain, later making an eye-popping 62-yard reception of his own (while having his face mask grabbed), all of which led to a Skattebo 2-yard TD run and 2-point PAT run that tied the game at 24 with 5:00 remaining in regulation.
The game’s most talked-about play came in its final minutes with Arizona State in possession of the ball in a still-tied contest. On a pass play near midfield, Sun Devil receiver Melquan Stovall absorbed what appeared to be a helmet-to-helmet hit from Texas All-American safety Michael Taafe. A targeting penalty would have given ASU the ball in Texas territory, presenting the Sun Devils with a chance to drive toward a potential game-winning field goal. However, targeting was not called, and regulation ended with the score tied at 24. This New Year’s Day thriller was going into overtime!
The Sun Devils scored a TD on their first OT possession (Skattebo again), meaning the Longhorns needed a touchdown to keep the game alive. ASU’s hopes of advancing to the CFP semifinal in the Cotton Bowl came down to one play: A Texas 4th-and-13 from the ASU 28-yard line. With his team’s championship hopes on the line, Longhorn QB Quin Ewers delivered a clutch 28-yard scoring strike to WR Matthew Golden, and just like that, the game was knotted up again and headed to a second overtime.
The Ewers 4th-down touchdown pass seemed to suck the life out of the Sun Devils and their fans. Texas scored a touchdown on the first play of the second overtime and added a successful 2-point conversion. Moments later, a Sam Leavitt pass was intercepted at the goal line, sealing the 39-31 win for Texas and ending ASU’s magical 2024 season.
Of all the posts I’ve made on X (or Twitter, as it was once called) over the years, none has received more “likes” or re-posts than the thoughts I wrote an hour or so after the Peach Bowl game had ended.
Sometimes in sports, teams earn as much, if not more, respect in defeat as they do in victory. So proud of the Sun Devils and the grit they displayed in today’s Peach Bowl game vs. Texas. A gut-wrenching loss for sure, but great things are in store for this program.
— Tim Healey (@TimHealeyASU) January 2, 2025
That sentiment clearly resonated with Sun Devil Nation. Though they lost the game, Kenny Dillingham’s ASU squad clearly proved themselves worthy of their spot in College Football’s limelight in 2024.
For me, it was so rewarding to see the Arizona State program gain national relevance and prominence once again. Perhaps most exciting of all is the sense that 2024 was only the beginning for Dillingham’s program and that even better days and bigger games lie ahead.
Meaning, of course, that I’ll be gladly updating this list of highlights again and again in the very near future!