Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn dies at 85
LOS ANGELES -- Play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn, who made phrases like "slam dunk'' and "air ball'' common basketball expressions during his 42-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, died Monday. He was 85.
"Chick Hearn passed away at 6:30 this evening,'' Los Angeles Lakers spokesman Bob Steiner told a hushed news conference outside Northridge Medical Center Hospital, where Hearn was taken Friday night after suffering a fall.
Hearn fell Friday in the back yard of the Encino home he shared with wife, Marge. The two would have celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary on Aug. 13.
Surgeons operated twice Saturday to relieve swelling in his brain, but he never regained consciousness.
Whether Hearn was the most famous Laker of them all can be debated, but his career with the team was far longer than such standouts as Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy and Michael Cooper.
And he was calling games long before current stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were born.
Hearn called a record 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting in 1965 before missing one because he had to have an operation in December 2001 for a blocked aortic valve.
While recovering, he fell and broke his hip.
Hearn returned to work April 9 and broadcast the Lakers' playoff run to their third consecutive NBA championship.
He called his first Lakers game in March 1961. His last game was June 12 when the Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets 113-107 in East Rutherford, N.J., to complete a sweep of the NBA Finals and earn their ninth title since moving from Minneapolis in 1960.
During the finals, he told The Associated Press he was getting stronger every day and planned to work at least one more season. And he said he believed his call of the Lakers' Game 7 victory over Sacramento in the Western Conference finals might have been as good as any in his career.
As recently as last week, he drove to Las Vegas with his wife to speak at a fantasy basketball camp.
Born Francis Dayle Hearn on Nov. 27, 1916, in Aurora, Ill., Hearn peppered his rapid-fire delivery with terms like ''no harm, no foul,'' ''the mustard's off the hot dog,'' ''ticky-tack foul,'' and ''faked him into the popcorn machine.''
Whenever he believed a Lakers victory was clinched, Hearn would say: ''You can put this one in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O is jiggling.''
Hearn's unique ''words-eye view'' provided the soundtrack for nine NBA championships -- one with West and Chamberlain, five with Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar, and the last three with O'Neal and Bryant.
When it came time to give out rings, raise championship banners, emcee victory parades or retire uniform numbers, Hearn was the master of ceremonies.
Hearn also broadcast other historic Lakers accomplishments, such as the night in Las Vegas when Abdul-Jabbar broke Chamberlain's NBA career scoring record and when Johnson broke Oscar Robertson's career assist record.
Hearn also was a comforting voice to fans in difficult basketball times -- helping fans cope with Johnson's HIV announcement in 1991 and Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers' death in 1990.
When the Lakers moved from the Forum in nearby Inglewood to the downtown Staples Center in 1999, the press room was named in Hearn's honor.
He has been immortalized with a star on Hollywood's ''Walk of Fame,'' and appeared as himself numerous times on television shows -- including the TV movie ''The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.''
And he hosted the TV show ''Bowling for Dollars.''
Hearn missed just two games before his unprecedented streak -- one because bad weather kept him grounded and one because he had another broadcast assignment.
The first game of the streak was Nov. 21, 1965, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Johnson was in grade school and Abdul-Jabbar was still Lew Alcindor and a teenager.
Throughout his career, Hearn refused to call in sick. He came to work when he wasn't feeling well -- including a couple of times with laryngitis that forced him to sit out the second half.
A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame, Hearn received a standing ovation on his 85th birthday in November during a Lakers-Milwaukee Bucks game.
...And he's getting another tonight.
So many times we'd hear that! Such a shock to come home to tonight...He was doing so well after his aortic surgery earlier in the year, and now, a fall. God Bless Chick Hearn! I grew up listening to him, he will be missed.