Al Meltzer (June 26, 1928June 12, 2018), nicknamed "Big Al", was an American sportscaster. Born in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

, Meltzer worked for Channel 10 and Channel 3 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and Comcast SportsNet (as sports director). He also worked for WPHL-17 where he called play-by-play of Big 5 and 76ers basketball. He has also covered the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

, and

Temple Owls The Temple Owls are the college athletics, athletic teams that represent Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current athletic director is Arthur Johnson (athletic director), Arthur Johnson. The owl has been the symbol and masco ...

. Previously, he worked in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

WEBR WEBR (1440 kHz) is an AM commercial radio station licensed to Niagara Falls, New York. It serves the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area from studios on Kenmore Avenue in Buffalo. The station is currently owned by William Yuhnke, wit ...

. He is a member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Big 5 Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame. During the 1970s, Meltzer, while still living in Philadelphia, commuted to Buffalo to serve as the

Buffalo Bills Radio Network The Buffalo Bills Radio Network is a broadcast radio network based in Buffalo, New York. Its primary programming is broadcasts of Buffalo Bills home and away games to a network of 26 stations in upstate New York, the Northwestern and Northern Ti ...

play-by-play announcer, serving on a team with Rick Azar and

Ed Rutkowski Edward John Anthony Rutkowski (born March 21, 1941) is an American former professional football player and politician. He played for the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League (AFL), earning AFL All-Star honors. Rutkowski played colleg ...

. He died at the age of 89 on June 12, 2018.Philadelphia sports broadcasting icon Al Meltzer dies at 89
NBC Sports Philadelphia, June 14, 2018 Meltzer occasionally did voice-over work for

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...

and was a substitute host for NFL Films' weekly wrapup, ''This Week in Pro Football ''(''This Week in the NFL ''starting in 1974).

References

1928 births 2018 deaths People from Newtown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania Television personalities from Syracuse, New York St. Lawrence University alumni American Jews American television sports announcers American radio sports announcers Buffalo Bills announcers College football announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Major League Baseball broadcasters NBA broadcasters NFL announcers Philadelphia 76ers announcers Philadelphia Phillies announcers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) commentators {{US-radio-bio-stub