By TEDDY ALLEN/ Designated Writers

“Perhaps you remember Jack Whitaker,” the note to me from a Hall of Fame broadcaster began, “a man who excelled in description, use of the language, perception, delivery and on-air communication. I much liked his work, play-by-play included. There are no more Jack Whitakers.”

There is one less, that’s for sure, and he was a good one.

Whitaker, a Hall of Fame broadcaster and Philadelphia native who passed away in his sleep from natural causes at age 95 Sunday morning, called the first Super Bowl and ended his career broadcasting essays from Churchill Downs and golf courses and NFL stadiums. He was an original, poetic, accurate, and authentic.

He was wounded on Omaha Beach three days after the D-Day invasion. A few years later he was beginning a broadcasting career in his hometown, then worked 22 years for CBS, then completed his career with ABC.

His career began in play-by-play, and DW missed most of that. He was pre-anchor desk or studio host. He was a true play-by-play guy when everyone of the young generation who wanted to be in the broadcasting business wanted to be a play-by-play guy. Skip a couple of generations, and most of the younger set who wanted to be in the business wanted to be studio hosts.

After play-by-play, Jack Whitaker morphed into the first of his kind with these beautiful video essays he’d penned, then shared live from whatever Big Game or Big Race or Big Match was going on. Poetry, and on sports.

Five-tool player. We take a mental knee at his passing, and thank him for leaving it all on the field.

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