By Theodore N. Beitchman
For those of you too young to remember him, Bill Campbell was the Voice of Philly Sports in the early 1960s.
Literally.
He was the play-by-play man for the Phillies, the Warriors, who preceded the Sixers as our NBA team, and the Eagles.
For some perspective, imagine one broadcaster doing all three today.
You would have to clone Scott Franzke, Tom McGinniss and Merrill Reese!
Campbell did the radio call on the 1960 Eagles title victory over Green Bay, in which the Birds’ Norm Van Brocklin, passing to Tommy McDonald (25 in photo above) won 17-13.
And, for a town that is dying for another NFL title, Campbell called the Eagles’ awesome 17-13 victory over the Green Bay Packers that won the 1960 NFL title at Franklin Field.
The game wasn’t on local TV, except for us lucky enough to live in the Northeast and had a father smart enough to buy a rotating antenna and pick up New York’s CBS affiliate. So everyone else in town, except the 67,000 lucky devils who attended, heard the game only on radio.
Campbell, who died on Monday at age 91, also did college basketball, college football and was a radio talk-show host and television sports director.
What he’s remembered for most is being behind the radio mike on March 2, 1962 when Wilt Chamberlain scored his NBA record 100 points for the Warriors in a 169-147 win over the Knicks in a neutral-site game played in Hershey, Pa.
There’s no video of the game, but here’s the last three minutes of Campbell calling this historic game.
