Deaths of Celebrities and Notable People in 2010
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Bob Blackburn:
Sports Broadcaster
Bob Blackburn (1924 – January 8, 2010)Bob Blackburn was the original play-by-play voice of the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association. He called games for the team on KOMO radio and KOMO-TV, and later on KJR radio. His tenure with the SuperSonics included the team's first season in 1967-68 and its NBA Championship run in 1979, when the SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets four games to one in a best-of-seven series.
In the 1940s through the late 1960s, Blackburn broadcast a variety of sports teams in Oregon, from the Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League baseball team, to the University of Oregon and Oregon State University (OSU) football games.
Bob Blackburn was hired as the new SuperSonics on-air play-by-playbroadcaster when the team joined the NBA in the 1967-1968 season. Blackburn called most SuperSonics games as the single broadcaster during his first 20 years with the Sonics. During the 1987-1988 season, KJR radio added Kevin Calabro to the broadcast team and the two basketball experts shared play-by-play responsibilities. In the early 1990s, Blackburn left in what he described as a "forced retirement". At that time, Calabro became the sole play-by-play voice after Blackburn's departure.
In his 60 years on the air, Blackburn called over 7,000 sports events and 2,359 of those were NBA games; the vast majority with the Seattle SuperSonics. When Blackburn did retire, the Sonics treated him like a veteran star ball player, and, since he didn't actually have a "number" to be retired, the SuperSonics retired his microphone instead.
Bob Blackburn made his home in Issaquah, Washington, until his death on January 8, 2010.
Resources:
Longtime Sonics broadcaster Bob Blackburn dies, The Seattle Times, January 10, 2010
Bob Blackburn, former voice of Sonics, dies, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 10, 2010
Where Are They Now? Blackburn gave Sonics a voice, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 15, 2006
Famed Sports Announcer Blackburn Remembers His FUHS Roots, Fullerton News
