On April 13 it was Harry Kalas, and yesterday in Honolulu Les Keiter passed away, just two weeks short of his 90th birthday.
You're probably my age or older if you recognize Keiter's name. Here's a brief synopsis of his professional career:
Keiter, who was raised in Seattle, was a graduate of the University of Washington. He started his broadcast career in Hawai'i after World War II, then went on to a successful career in Philadelphia and New York.Keiter was the voice of Philadelphia's Big Five college basketball.
He announced 14 championship boxing matches, including Muhammad Ali's first title victory over Sonny Liston, and the bout between Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson. Howard Cosell often served as his broadcast partner on title fights.
Keiter also covered the New York Yankees, New York Knicks, New York Rangers and New York Giants football team.
After the New York Giants baseball team relocated to San Francisco in 1958, Keiter was hired to do recreated broadcasts of their games for Big Apple baseball fans.
He called Hawai'i Islanders games from 1971-1979, and was also the sports director for one of our local TV stations until his retirement in 1994.
He wrote an autobiography called Fifty Years Behind the Microphone in 1991.
Keiter got the nickname "The General" after he played an Army officer with that rank on an episode of Hawaii Five-O and was often thereafter addressed that way on air.
Farewell, Les. You'll be missed.
Posted by Linkmeister at April 15, 2009 09:50 AM | TrackBackOh man, what an awful week for a Boomer from Philadelphia.
I absolutely remember Keiter and his basketball calls. I believe he was joined on those wonderful Big Five telecasts by His signature phrase was "ring-tailed howitzer", for a high-pressure outside jumper.
Posted by: N in Seattle at April 15, 2009 12:13 PM