Gary Papa (September 2, 1954 – June 19, 2009) was a sportscaster with

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in t ...

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 ...

from April 1981 to June 2009 and was the 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. sportcaster. He joined the station as a weekend sportscaster in 1981 and was promoted to the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. newscasts in 1991, and was named sports director one year prior. In 1999, he added the 5:30 p.m. newscast to his duties on an interim basis due to sports anchor Scott Palmer anchoring regular news on weekend mornings joined by health reporter Anita Brikman.

Biography

Prior to working at WPVI, Papa worked at

WGR-TV WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...

(1978-1981) in his hometown of

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 ...

and WSTV-TV in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville ( ) is a city in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Weirton–Steubenville m ...

(1976-1978). Papa's brother,

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (sometimes spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadian b ...

, was the longtime radio voice of the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

(now the radio voice of the San Francisco 49ers). Papa co-hosted the Saturday evening public affairs show ''Primetime Weekend'' with

Cecily Tynan Cecily Joan Tynan (born March 19, 1969) is an American television meteorologist who has been with WPVI-TV since 1995. , she is the 5, 6, and 11 pm weathercaster and chief meteorologist for ''Action News'' and is also the weathercaster for a str ...

. He had hosted the program since December 3, 1983, when he took over after the death of Jim O'Brien. On April 20, 2004, he revealed to viewers that he had been receiving treatment for

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

and lost his hair as a result. He continued to work while receiving

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

. Three years later in July 2007, during the 6:00 p.m. ''Action News'' broadcast, Papa along with Jim Gardner announced that he once again was going through chemotherapy.

Death

Papa died on June 19, 2009, at 2:57 p.m. at the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is the flagship hospital of Penn Medicine and is located in the University City section of West Philadelphia. History The hospital was founded at its current location in 1874 by the Universi ...

, at the age of 54; his final sportscast on WPVI had been a month earlier, on May 13. He was survived by his father, insurance adjuster Frank Papa (1926–2019); his wife, Kathleen; and his two sons, Nathaniel and Tucker, along with his brother

Legacy

Papa was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame on November 14, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papa, Gary 1954 births 2009 deaths Cornell University alumni Deaths from prostate cancer in Pennsylvania American television journalists Television anchors from Philadelphia Philadelphia television reporters Television personalities from Buffalo, New York American male journalists Journalists from New York (state) 20th-century American journalists