Passing: Bill Flemming - Low Key ABC Sports Announcer for Decades (NY Times)

From the New York Times:

By Dougals Martin
Published: July 26, 2007

Bill Flemming, one of the original announcers on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” who was also known for his Olympics, college football and golf broadcasts, died July 20 in Petoskey, Mich. He was 80.

For over 60 years, Flemming was one of the principal voices in the rise of electronic journalism in sports. He announced 11 Olympics and more than 600 events for “Wide World of Sports,” once shuttling from hurling in Ireland to car racing in Santa Monica, Calif., to a parachuting contest in Bavaria, all in a single month.

In the days before viewers could see eight televised football games from noon to midnight on a Saturday afternoon and repeatedly see their highlights on ESPN, Flemming’s early Sunday afternoon survey of the previous day’s games allowed fans to glimpse games from other regions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/sports/othersports/26flemming.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185722824-0q3zqaSTUdPq54DurWQOEw