
Go Spartans... a 64-52 winner over Louisville to get to the NCAA basketball's Final Four.
LAKELAND, Fla. -- George Kell, one of the true gentlemen of baseball, died this morning at his home in Swifton, Ark. He was 86.
Kell, enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, broadcast Detroit Tigers games for 37 years before retiring in 1996.
"George had two great careers," said Tigers Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell. "He was a wonderful third baseman and a Hall of Famer, and then as an announcer.
"I think George's appeal was that he brought the field to the booth. There was an authoritative ring to what he said. He was straight forward with a laid-back touch. It was nothing fancy; George just laid it out.
"And to the people who listened, they all thought he was a friend of theirs."
Kell was a career .306 hitter, amassing 2,054 hits and winning the batting title in 1949 for the Detroit Tigers by hitting.3429 and edging future Boston Red Sox teammate Ted Williams by .0002.
It was while injured in his final 1957 season with the Orioles that Harwell, then calling games in Baltimore, invited Kell to do one inning with him. Harwell said is comments were well-received, leading to a pregame show on CBS-TV before the national games handled by Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese.
Kell began doing Tigers radio and TV broadcasts in 1959, and was instrumental in bringing Harwell to Detroit.
"George called and said, 'I recommended you and the Tigers asked me to get in touch with you.' '' Harwell said. "I came and that was it."
Harwell, 91, was the 1981 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, placing him in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown as a broadcaster.CHICAGO -- Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90.
Harvey died surrounded by family at a hospital in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio Networks, where Harvey worked for more than 50 years. No cause of death was immediately available. Harvey had been forced off the air for several months in 2001 because of a virus that weakened a vocal cord. But he returned to work in Chicago and was still active as he passed his 90th birthday. His death comes less than a year after that of his wife and longtime producer, Lynne.
"My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news," Paul Harvey Jr. said in a statement. "So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend."
Known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of "The Rest of the Story," Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment" for ABC Radio Networks.
He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. "Stand by for news!" he told his listeners. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as "skyjacker," "Reaganomics" and "guesstimate."
"Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation's history," ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson said in a statement. "We will miss our dear friend tremendously and are grateful for the many years we were so fortunate to have known him."
In 2005, Harvey was one of 14 notables chosen as recipients of the presidential Medal of Freedom. He also was an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame, as was Lynne.
Harvey composed his twice-daily news commentaries from a downtown Chicago office near Lake Michigan. Rising at 3:30 each morning, he ate a bowl of oatmeal, then combed the news wires and spoke with editors across the country in search of succinct tales of American life for his program.
Harvey was born Paul Harvey Aurandt in Tulsa, Okla. His father, a police officer, was killed when he was a toddler. A high school teacher took note of his distinctive voice and launched him on a broadcast career. At the peak of his career, Harvey reached more than 24 million listeners on more than 1,200 radio stations and charged $30,000 to give a speech. His syndicated column was carried by 300 newspapers.