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Jack O'Rourke of KYW dies after covering game

KYW Newsradio is reporting that long-time sportscaster Jack O'Rourke, 80, died last night after covering the Phillies game for the station.

KYW Newsradio is reporting that long-time sportscaster Jack O'Rourke, 80, died last night after covering the Phillies game for the station.

It is the second veteran staffer at the station to die within a week. Karin Phillips, 53, of Mount Laurel, a familiar voice on KYW Newsradio as its community-affairs reporter, died Tuesday, Sept. 13, after a brief illness.

O'Rourke was originally a news anchor at the station and once served as City Hall Bureau Chief, the station says.

He moved on to sports, covering not only the Phillies but the Olympics and other events.

A company biography says that O'Rourke served as a news anchor at KYW from 1966 to 1969.

Then, in 1969, he took a job at NBC Radio in New York where he worked for next 20 years. He returned to KYW.

O'Rourke, a native of Boston, attended high school in Beverly, Ma. He went on to Emerson College in Boston. He lived in Secane (Delaware County), Pa., and was a member of the Philadelphia Sportswriters' Association. O'Rourke has four children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.