Lee Kirby, Sportscaster Of WBT, Dies

Lee Kirby died late yesterday afternoon.

The little Texan, "Mister Sport" in the South since 1936 when he joined radio station WBT, had entered a local hospital on Tuesday and underwent a major operation on Wednesday. His death, at about 5:45 p. m., was quiet. quick and a heavy shock to radio-listening thousands.

Lee celebrated his 48th birthday last Saturday, three days before he entered the hospital.

His sportscasting career, which reached its zenith at WBT and WBTV, began in San Antonio. In 1946, he received the N. W. Ayer award for the best reporting of college and professional football in the nation.

Health Failed

It was shortly after receiving this honor that his battle with failing health began. But Kirby, whose great dedication was to the sports of the prep schoolers and collegians, refused to give up the Shrine Bowl game, a classic sponsored by Shriners to aid crippled children. He helped make it the greatest single charitable event in the Carolinas. He covered all but one of the games in its 16-year history and on that occasion had been confined to bis bed for several months.

Lee Kirby had covered every type of sports event in the Carolinas and for years delivered the play-by-play of all Duke games on a large sports network.

This season, he had, despite ill health, broadcast play-by-play accounts of all Lenoir-Rhyne games. He was on the air for WBT and WBTV until moments before he left for the hospital.

MEMORIAL BROADCAST

In the upcoming Shrine Bowl game, WBT and WBTV will continue to make the Lee Kirby award to the outstanding player of that game, according to Charles Crutchfield, general manager. No decision had been reached last night by the Shrine Bowl Committee on who would succeed Mr. Kirby as broadcaster for the game.

The manner In which he began his association with WBT was as dramatic as his broadcasts of sports classics. From his position as program director of KABC in San Antonio, he accompanied the United Drug Co. Rexall Train on a tour of the U. S. and Canada in 1936 as its radio publicity director.During its Charlotte stop he was asked to join the local station, flipped his hat on the rack and stayed.

Born in Ft. Worth, Tex., Lee was a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. McDonough, who survive, along with his wife, Frances; a son, Lanham [...]

Clipping courtesy Don McDaniel