Billy Packer, a Sports Emmy award winner and college basketball broadcaster for more than three decades, died at the age of 82, his family announced Thursday.
“The Packer Family would like to share some sad news,” his son Mark shared on Twitter. “Our amazing father, Billy, has passed. We take peace knowing that he’s in heaven with Barb. RIP, Billy.”
The Packer Family would like to share some sad news. Our amazing father, Billy, has passed. We take peace knowing that he’s in heaven with Barb. RIP, Billy. 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/uFRixmgCcd
— Mark Packer (@MarkPacker) January 27, 2023
Packer was hospitalized in Charlotte, N.C., for the past three weeks and had several medical issues, ultimately succumbing to kidney failure, Mark told the Associated Press.
Advertisement
Packer worked as an analyst or color commentator for 34 straight Final Fours with NBC and CBS. He worked with NBC from 1974 to 1981, followed by CBS until 2008. He won the Sports Emmy award for Outstanding Sports Personality/Analyst in 1993.
“He really enjoyed doing the Final Fours,” Mark told the AP. “He timed it right. Everything in life is about timing. The ability to get involved in something that, frankly, he was going to watch anyway, was a joy to him. And then college basketball just sort of took off with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and that became, I think, the catalyst for college basketball fans to just go crazy with March Madness.”
Packer was born in Wellsville, N.Y., and was the son of Lehigh University’s former basketball coach Tony Packer. He played college basketball as a guard at Wake Forest University, leading his team to the Final Four in 1962 and winning All-ACC honors from 1960 to 1962. Packer also served as an assistant basketball coach for Wake Forest from 1965 to 1969 before his broadcasting career began in 1972 in Raleigh, N.C., when he served as a fill-in analyst for a regionally televised ACC game.
After regularly covering ACC games, Packer joined NBC Sports for the 1974 NCAA tournament, joining with Curt Gowdy, Dick Enberg and Al McGuire to call games in future years.
He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Packer’s legacy
There are very few broadcasters who covered their sport so well, for so long and during so many huge moments. Packer was the very definition of a trailblazer. He started in the early 1970’s by covering the ACC and the NCAA Tournament at the end of the John Wooden era at UCLA. He formed an epic team with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire at NBC, and then moved over to CBS to continue working the Final Four for two decades. Billy loved what he did. It wasn’t a big game unless he was sitting courtside.
Advertisement
The brilliance of Billy’s insights into basketball were surpassed only by his candor. His assessments could be blunt, and some viewers found that grating. But he was never afraid to say exactly what he thought, and you knew he had done his homework and studied the game. He gave it to you straight whether you liked it or not.
I worked with Billy at CBS Sports for five years before he decided to retire, and we stayed in touch afterward. He was one of the most fascinating people I have ever known. His interests were extremely eclectic. He was a news and political junkie, a successful businessman and an avid reader. He may have had a reputation for being curmudgeonly and acerbic on air, but I can tell you he was a lot of fun to be around. Billy loved to laugh, and though you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth, he didn’t take himself too seriously. If he tossed a few barbs your way, he didn’t mind if you tossed ’em right back.
When I interviewed Billy for The Athletic back in the summer of 2019, he told me that he didn’t even watch college basketball anymore. When he watched sports on TV, he tended to watch kickboxing and ultimate fighting. He wasn’t bitter — he just had other things he wanted to do. That included a vaping business he was doing some work for. Billy didn’t do a whole lot of interviews or maintain a visible public profile, but he kept himself plenty busy and engaged, and he loved nothing more than being with his family.
Packer was a broadcasting legend and colorful character who didn’t just cover college basketball, he defined it. He was one of the best who ever worked behind a mic. And he was my friend. I’m gonna miss the guy. — Davis
Required reading
(Photo: Bob Stowell / Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k2pqaWllbnxzfJFsZmlpX2eEcK7IpaOyZaCWsKyx0Wabop2jYrukrcBmmZqrm5rBo63LpWSapp6kwq%2BvxKtm