Broadcast Legend Chick Hearn Dies

Hearn, who dished out catchy "Chick-isms" for the Lakers and their fans for 42 years, passed away at 6:30 p.m. at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Northridge, California, the team announced. He never regained consciousness following a fall at his Southern California home last Friday, doctors said.

Hearn had tumbled and hit the base of his head on a cement patio, resulting in brain hemorrhaging and prompting two rounds of brain surgery. Things looked bleak almost from the time Hearn was admitted to the hospital, with doctors speculating over the weekend that, even if he survived, the resulting brain damage probably would ensure that his broadcast career was over.

A string of health problems marred Hearn's most recent, and now final, season. He underwent emergency heart surgery in December, an event that forced him to miss his first Lakers broadcast after a record 3,338 consecutive calls. As he rehabbed from that surgery, he fell and broke a hip in February.

But Hearn, known among Angelenos as simply "Chick," had as much game as the team he worked for. By April, he was back behind the mike giving his "word's-eye view," working the last month of the season and straight on through the Lakers' third straight championship run.

Born Francis Dayle Hearn on November 11, 1916, in Aurora, Illinois, he toiled in the Midwest for the first half of his career, keeping radio fans up-to-date on the exploits of the likes of Bradley University and the Peoria Caterpillars.

He was 44 when he was tapped to call the games for the recently transplanted L.A. version of the former Minneapolis Lakers. The marriage of Chick and the Lakers was nearly as durable as that of Chick and his wife, Marge. Hearn's passing comes just days before the wedded couple was to mark its 64th anniversary.

Hearn's commitment to the game and his team was just as legendary. He called every single Lakers game from November 21, 1965, to December 16, 2001, the last game before his heart surgery.

The Lakers won nine National Basketball Association titles during the Hearn years, from the slick Jerry West-Wilt Chamberlain-Elgin Baylor era to the "Showtime" Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era to the current Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant hip-hop-era dynasty.

With Hearn behind the mike, tuning into a Lakers game wasn't just about hearing what the score was, but about hearing what Chick-ism would be deployed next. Would he declare the game as being "in the refrigerator" (i.e., over)? Would he complain about "ticky-tack" fouls? Would he rave about a player "putting the baby to bed" (scoring on a smooth lay-up)? If the ref missed a call? Well, "no harm, no foul."

He was also credited with creating such hoops terms as "finger roll," "dribble drive" and "sky hook."

Because of his proximity to Hollywood, Hearn was frequently cast in TV and movies as, yes, a sportscaster. He racked up nearly 40 credits, everything from Gilligan's Island to The Love Bug to Fletch. In the 1970s, he hosted the syndicated hit, Bowling for Dollars. He received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1986 and, earlier this year, was given the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Governors Award Emmy for lifetime achievement.

Hearn was a member of the Sportscasters Hall of Fame and is one of three broadcasters in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Survivors include his wife and a granddaughter. Hearn and Marge had two children, but both died as adults--the son from a drug overdose, the daughter from complications relating to anorexia.