James Fagan (December 25, 1944 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor, and voice-over artist. Fagan attended

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

, on a football scholarship. After breaking his leg freshman year, he returned to play in 1963. Fagan remembered playing against Navy and Roger Staubach. The following year, he got sick, and was told he couldn't play football anymore. He graduated with a fine arts bachelor's degree in 1967. Fagan spent his career doing voiceover work for the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

, the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, the Olympics,

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

, the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

, the Mountaineer Sports Network and hundreds of commercials. He was also a member of the ''Order of Vandalia'', WVU's highest honor. Fagan worked as ring announcer for the

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show, held annually in the New York metropolitan area. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is one of a handful of benched shows in the United States. Dogs are required to be on ...

in 2010, taking over for Michael J. LaFave. He faced criticism for his mispronouncing ''

Schipperke A Schipperke (; ) is a small breed of dog that is believed to have originated in the 1600s in Flanders.Alexandra Anastasio (January 31, 2017) American Kennel Club official websit "What Was the Schipperke Bred To Do"/ref> There has been a long in ...

''. LaFave returned to the post the following year. In 1989, Fagan provided the voice over narration for

NBA on NBC Television broadcasts of the National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by NBC Sports has aired on American broadcast network NBC under the ''NBA on NBC'' branding throughout three incarnations in its history. The NBA was first telev ...

series. He died in 2017. In 2025, NBC announced it would use AI to recreate Fagan's voice after the network repurchased the rights to the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagan, Jim 1944 births 2017 deaths American male voice actors