Death of Chris Economaki

[Overlay]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/nascar-journalist-chris-economaki-dies-at-91-092812

Chris Economaki, the dean of American motorsports journalism, and a name and voice familiar to anyone who has followed or watched any form of auto racing, has passed away at the age of 91.

[cj]

He was a staple of all things racing.

[sandpit]

When I read this, it made me think of the great ones of days gone by: Chris Schenkel, Jim McCay, Curty Gowdy, Dandy Don, Al McGuire, Howard Cossell...and the incomparable Monday Night Football radio duo of Jack Buck and Hank Stram. On those many autumn nights when the game ran past my curfew, I would listen to their call on the radio, and they always made me feel like it was a couple of friends describing the game to me; I could see the action unfolding in the darkness.

And on a local note, there will never ever be a basketball or horseracing announcer like Cawood Ledford...he won three Eclipse Awards and is the standard by which all basketball announcers are measured. The last game he ever called was the classic Kentucky-Duke matchup when Laettner hit the winning shot.

Sorry for the rant, feeling nostalgic tonight.

[raybo]

A huge loss to racing, and the world!

[ElKabong]

When I read this, it made me think of the great ones of days gone by: Chris Schenkel, Jim McCay, Curty Gowdy, Dandy Don, Al McGuire, Howard Cossell...and the incomparable Monday Night Football radio duo of Jack Buck and Hank Stram. On those many autumn nights when the game ran past my curfew, I would listen to their call on the radio, and they always made me feel like it was a couple of friends describing the game to me; I could see the action unfolding in the darkness.

And on a local note, there will never ever be a basketball or horseracing announcer like Cawood Ledford...he won three Eclipse Awards and is the standard by which all basketball announcers are measured. The last game he ever called was the classic Kentucky-Duke matchup when Laettner hit the winning shot.

Sorry for the rant, feeling nostalgic tonight.

Ledford....In the early 80's I used to tweak my radio so I could faintly hear Ky basketball games after dark. The whole production (team, media covg there, Ledford) was alluring.

RIP, Chris E. I used to equate his voice with auto racing.

[raybo]

I caught the program, on Speed channel I think, yesterday, about Chris, what a character! They interviewed lots of racing's personalities, all of which had nothing but praise for him.

The host asked him at one point, what is wrong with auto racing today, his response was "technology". He said that technology has taken much of the excitement out of the sport, too much speed, too costly, etc, saying that racing started with home built cars, and evolved into a sport that the average person could afford to be involved in, either as a racer or a track patron. He noted that now, sponsorship is absolutely necessary to compete as an owner/driver, and the fan costs have made active participation, by the average person, impossible either as a participant or a track patron.

Chris said that back in the day, people went to the track to see "passing" and wrecks in which the drivers walked away, unlike what some people say about viewers just wanting wrecks, whether or not the driver(s) walked away or not. He said that technology has provided so much speed that the industry has had to take over the sport to such a degree, in order to cut down on the serious injuries and deaths, that racing, as it originally was, is a thing of the past. The man made a lot of sense, in that regard. Gone are the days where the track announcer notified the crowd of a new track record, and the crowd went crazy.