IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Like the rest of the Delaware Valley, Eagles radio voice Merrill Reese was stunned and saddened by the sudden passing of his friend and colleague, Phillies voice Harry Kalas Monday in Washington.
"We had lunch just before Harry left for spring training - we talked
for several hours for a book I'm writing about broadcasting," Reese recalled.
"He mentioned he had a medical procedure coming up, but he felt confident
about it. I spoke to him again by phone when he got home from the
hospital. Harry said he was looking forward to this season as much as
any season ever."
"When you think of Harry, you think of the great, resonant voice,
the great home run calls. When you think of Harry Kalas, you think of
the legends - Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse. He belongs right
in that group, announcers as big as or bigger than the players they
cover."
Reese said he remembers covering Kalas' inaugural press conference
as a young radio reporter when the Phils brought Harry to Philadelphia, in 1971.
"I remember asking him for career advice" not long after that, Reese
said. "He was always very kind, very approachable, very warm. He had a
lot of humility.
":Harry never acted like a big star. He was the same off the air as on
- easygoing."
Reese said they did commercials together, but never worked a broadcast together, despite Harry's long radio affiliation with the NFL, and his extensive work with NFL Films.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
