Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Jim Durham

Sad day for Bulls fans. Former Bulls announcer Jim Durham passed away. Here's the information in Tom Taylor Now...

"Former Bulls, White Sox and ESPN Radio voice Jim Durham dies at 65. ESPN Radio Senior VP/GM Mo Davenport says “Jim was a respected play-by-play specialist who combined a tremendous gift for storytelling with a Hall of Fame voice.” Just last year, Durham was recognized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts with the Curt Gowdy Media Award. Jim worked as recently as last Tuesday’s season-opening NBA game between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. In addition to handling the games of the Chicago Bulls and White Sox, Durham did work for teams like the NBA Dallas Mavericks and baseball’s Houston Astros. Sometimes he did TV, sometimes he did radio – understanding the different requirements for each medium. He’d worked with “The NBA on ESPN Radio” since it was launched in1996. He died over the weekend in the Houston area, at his home in Tomball.

I ran the control board for Bulls games back in the day at AM 1000, and actually talked to Jim quite often during the commercial breaks. It was never more than "back in twenty seconds" or "you're up", other than an occasional back and forth about the game itself, but I felt like I actually knew him. Sad to hear the news.