Robert E. Fouracre (November 22, 1937 – April 17, 2021) was an American sportscaster who called football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

for the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

. He was a 1956 graduate of Northboro High School, a 1958 graduate of the Cushing Academy and a 1962 graduate of the Cambridge School of Broadcasting. Fouracre called Holy Cross football from 1970 to 2015 and

Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball The Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball team represents the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts (about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston) in NCAA Division I competition. The team competes in the Patriot League and plays thei ...

from 1989 to 2015. From 1970 to 1981, Fouracre worked at WSMW-TV, where he called

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

games (1971–73), hosted "Bay State Bowling" (1970–81), and called college basketball and football games. Fouracre began his career at

WARE WARE (1250 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. Licensed to Ware, Massachusetts, United States, the station serves the Springfield radio market. The station is currently owned by Success Signal Broadcasting ...

, calling high school sports from 1962 to 1969 and called

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

preseason games in 1971. Fouracre called games for the WBL's

Worcester Counts The Worcester Counts were a professional basketball franchise based in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1989. The team played its inaugural season in the World Basketball League before folding. The Worcester Counts were one of numerous failed minor leag ...

in 1989, the CBA's

Bay State Bombardiers A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of the Boston ...

and

WORC (AM) WORC (1310 kHz, ) is a commercial AM radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, owned by Gois Broadcasting. The station broadcasts at a transmitter power output of 5,000 watts during the day and 1,000 watts at night, and serves ...

(1983–86), and hosted "Big Shot Bowling" on NESN (1985–91). He is, to date, the only person to call play-by-play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and the World Basketball League (WBL). His former broadcasting partners include

Bob Cousy Robert Joseph Cousy ( , born August 9, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. He played point guard for the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963, and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals during the 1969–70 season. A 13-time NBA ...

Togo Palazzi Togo Anthony Palazzi (August 8, 1932 – August 12, 2022) was an American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Boston Celtics and Syracuse Nationals. Playing and coaching career A 6'4" forward/guar ...

, Upton Bell,

Gino Cappelletti Gino Raymond Michael Cappelletti (March 26, 1934 – May 12, 2022) was an American professional football player. He played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and was an All-Star in the American Football League (AFL) for the Bos ...

, Gordie Lockbaum,

Gary Tanguay WBZ-FM (98.5 FM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, WBZ-FM is the Boston affiliate for Fox Sports Radio; th ...

and

Greg Dickerson Greg Dickerson is a Boston sportscaster who served as the Boston Celtics sideline reporter and co-host of ''Sports Tonight'' for Comcast SportsNet New England. Dickerson's career began in 1995 at WWTM in Worcester, Massachusetts and WBZ radio i ...

. For one season he worked on

preseason. Fouracre was suspended as host of the Holy Cross football and basketball shows on WGMC TV-3 in September 1998 after police charged him with assaulting a reporter and cameraman from the cable television station. The charges were dismissed by agreement of the parties four months later.

Health and death

In January 2005, Fouracre underwent an

angioplasty Angioplasty, also known as balloon angioplasty and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, is a minimally invasive procedure, minimally invasive endovascular surgery, endovascular Medical procedure, procedure used to widen narrowed or obstructe ...

and had three

stents In medicine, a stent is a tube usually constructed of a metallic alloy or a polymer. It is inserted into the Lumen (anatomy), lumen (hollow space) of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open. Stenting refers to the placement of ...

installed in the major artery of his heart. He died on April 17, 2021

Honors

On May 5, 2007, Fouracre was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame. On October 11, 2008, Fouracre was inducted into the International Candlepin Bowling Hall of Fame.International Candlepin Bowling Hall of Fame
owlcandlepin.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouracre, Bob College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Bowling broadcasters Holy Cross Crusaders football announcers NBA broadcasters Mass media people from Worcester, Massachusetts Sports in Boston 1937 births 2021 deaths High school football announcers in the United States New England Patriots announcers High school basketball announcers in the United States Boston Celtics announcers NFL announcers Grahm Junior College alumni