[nfbwatlk] OT - Bob Blackburn, former voice of Sonics, dies

[Mike Freeman]

Bob Blackburn, former voice of Sonics, dies.
    
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF. 

Bob Blackburn, the announcer who spent a quarter century calling Seattle SuperSonics games and announced their 1979 championship win over the Washington Bullets, died Friday. He was 86. 

He arrived in Seattle when the Sonics did in 1967, beating out more than 100 other candidates who auditioned for the play-by-play job. 

It was hard for me to believe I was that important," he told P- I reporter Dan Raley in 2006. I hate the word 'celebrity. I just had a wonderful job connected to the public. Scott Eklund/P-I Bob Blackburn 

He was Seattle's first professional sports voice, arriving before Pete Gross for the Seahawks and Dave Niehaus for the Mariners. For the first 16 years, Blackburn was the play-by-play announcer, color man and engineer. 

After the Sonics beat the Bullets in Andover, Md., Blackburn received a championship ring with a large diamond in the middle and his name engraved on the side. 

He survived open-heart surgery in 1983, and returned to the air with three of his five major arteries unclogged. He was replaced by Kevin Calabro in 1992. 

Blackburn grew up in the Los Angeles area, listening to Pacific Coast Conference football broadcasts as an 8-year-old kid bedridden with tuberculosis. It was there he imagined himself behind the microphone. 

He landed a series of jobs in California, playing music, reporting news, calling games and building a r?sum? He worked his way north, handling play-by-play duties for the Portland Beavers baseball team for 18 years, doing college football on the side and meeting every celebrity imaginable, with a photo of him and Elvis Presley together still a prized possession. 

After leaving his job as the Sonics' voice, Blackburn became a professional auctioneer. He also led worldwide vacation tours, talking people through 85 countries. When interviewed by the P-I in 2006, he was the spokesman for a retirement community. 

Blackburn married the former Pat Hardin in 1948, and they raised six children.In the past few years, he'd made periodic appearances as a Sonics legend. 

At this age, most of my friends have had a voice change," Blackburn told Raley in 2006. I probably would not be able to broadcast all the games. But after 50 years, I think it still sounds the same. 

ANNIVERSARY BROADCAST 

On the 25th anniversary of the championship Blackburn, forward John "J.J. Johnson and retired Seattle Times reporter Greg Heberlein were members of a panel discussion about the Sonics at the Museum of History and Industry. 

The discussion was produced, moderated and recorded by Feliks Banel, who provided this recording. 

Information from the seattlepi.com archive is included in this report and seattlepi.com reporter Greg Johns contributed. Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or caseymcnerthney at seattlepi.com . .