Remembering the legend of Chick Hearn

SPORTTALKS

His voice is gone, but not stilled.

His eloquent and colorful words are heard no more, but forget

them? Never.

Laker broadcaster Chick Hearn has had to hang ‘em up, but his sad

departure is down a special path of victory. His life, which ended

much too soon at 85, was one of triumph over the bitterness of two

losses in his family.

In each instance, he grieved through a web of sorrow at home and

in traffic -- anywhere he could be alone with thoughts of a

prematurely departed son and daughter.

Yet, when the somber Hearn arrived at the words-eye-view

microphones of KLAC-AM and KCAL-9, he was the catalyst for an uplift,

unmatched in basketball broadcasts.

Chick lived on a high with the Lakers and no badly played games

nor court disappointment could bring him down. He stayed in this slam

dunk mode for 42 years. Then, last season, when he first was ill, the

Lakers’ come- from-behind victories were like “winning one for the

Gipper” -- in their case, the “Chicker.”

In the mid-1960s, Hearn and the Lakers were image fixtures at

KLAC, and this writer was the station’s sports director. Jim Mergen

of the sales department came up with a special program to highlight

Chick’s fan appeal.

Every day, during the season, a Hearn re-creation of a mythical,

on-court, Laker moment was presented from audio tape. The play would

include the names of all five Laker players in action and then the

tape would be stopped while the listeners vied to see which one could

get through on the phone to name the player who would make the next

shot.

It would be a 5-1 guess. Eventually the tape was resumed to reveal

the spotlighted Laker, and the winning KLAC listener received a

prize.

Hearn’s uncanny way of making the contest plausible created one of

the station’s top mini-programs. Listeners, among themselves, played

the game, simultaneously. Hearn’s re-creations were unbelievably

good. It was a fun time.

The famous Hearn-isms (the refrigerator, yo-yo, dribble drive) all

were a part of the simulated action.

At times, Chick influenced the game. One night, at the Sports

Arena, I sat directly opposite his floor-level microphone and watched

him, with the action between us.

As the Lakers defended against a close-in basket attempt, Chick

suddenly shouted, in a voice far above his on-air level, “That’s

three seconds in the lane.”

The nearest game official snapped his head around, saw that the

voice was Chick’s, immediately blew his whistle, raised his hand and

called out, “Three seconds in the lane.”

Hearn was a charter member of the Southern California Sports

Broadcasters, attending the first meeting on June 6, 1958.

There were 35 sportscasters on hand, and now, without Hearn, there

are 14 remaining.

I always have contended that Southern California has had the

best-ever pro football announcer (the late Bob Kelley), the best-ever

baseball broadcaster (Vin Scully), the best-ever multi-sport

announcer (Dick Enberg) and the best-ever pro basketball announcer

(Chick Hearn).

When Hearn was inducted into the SCSB Hall of Fame in 1999, it

completed the shrined honors for these four. No other city in sports

history has had so many broadcasters who were the best in their

category.

Hearn fit the mold like a scoring Elgin Baylor hang-time shot fit

the swish of the basket.

No one could surpass Hearn, a nationally recognized iron man who

reigned atop the rim. Recently, Vin Scully was voted the Dodgers’

all-time MVP, easily winning more votes than the Dodger Hall of Fame

players. Hearn’s followers are many, and they will tell you that

Chick was the all-time Laker MVP.

His words brought movie stars, fans off the street and out of town

visitors to see the Lakers. In Los Angeles, he was better known than

Laker team greats Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Kareem

Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain.

Listeners had become fans of the players after Hearn’s words had

drawn them to the Laker box office.

Among the sidekicks (color men) in Chick’s Laker career was the

late Dick Schad, a lesser known but superbly talented man, who, in

1965, subbed on play-by-play for a travel-bogged Hearn.

The next Laker game, November 21, 1965, began a Chick Hearn

consecutive game streak that grew in wide-eyed focus as years and

years went by. In December, 2001, Chick was ill and the streak of

never missing a Laker broadcast came to an end at 3,338 games. He

came back later, but only for awhile. Now he is gone.

Believers say that Chick’s gracious and generous life was just a

prologue.

The memory of him will outlive us all.

* Reach Chuck Benedict at 637-3200 (voice mail 974), by fax at

5499191 or by e-mail: BChuckbenedict@aol.com