Billy Packer

As we embark on the year's first weekend of sports viewing, here's a look back at the top sports-media stories of 2008. 1. Magic fans get a late Christmas gift. After years of haggling, Bright House Networks reached an agreement with FSN Florida to carry...

Sports television offered viewers an entertaining diversion from a seemingly never-ending presidential campaign and negative economic news in 2008. It was a year of upsets, dramatic finishes, good-byes to famous venues, a drought-ender in Philly, a...

The main element of my Friday newspaper column recounts my night hanging out with Dick Vitale at the Garden Tuesday. I hadn't talked to Dick at length since the early 1990s, and he hasn't slowed down much if at all......

Longtime Mount St. Mary's coach Jim Phelan was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo., last night with a class that included Charles Barkley, former Kansas star Danny Manning and Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson....

Basketball has arrived, it's exciting, but we all need to relax and take a step back. How far? Try one foot. The most dramatic change in college basketball is not the loss of analyst Billy Packer from NCAA tournament coverage. It won't be Lute Olson's...

I was fortunate enough to talk to many interesting sports media people at Tuesday night's CBS presentation (see post below), including Screamin' Gus Johnson, who told me he recently re-upped to continue as the Knicks' radio play-by-play voice. Johnson...

Some newsworthy items fall through the cracks because I don't have the time or inclination to come up with a clever, bloggish tone for them. But they still might be of interest. Hence, the following roundup of leftovers from the......

Jim Nantz also made an appearance at the SBJ event (see post below), reiterating he plans to retire from golf broadcasting after working his 50th Masters in 2035, and confirming there is an "unwritten rule" at CBS against discussing NFL......

If Anheuser-Busch, America's self-proclaimed ''King of Beers,'' can be sold to a Belgian brewer, then no one should be surprised that Lehigh Valley native Billy Packer has been released as the lead college basketball analyst on CBS and his streak of...

Billy Packer is out after 27 years as the lead college basketball analyst for CBS, making way for Clark Kellogg. Kellogg, who played for the Indiana Pacers during 1982-87, has done game and studio analysis for CBS for 16 years. He will partner with Jim...

Wow. So much for any chance Billy Packer had of sneaking onto Newsday's Tuesday back page. There is just way too much going on in the world for me to keep up.......

Here is my Tuesday newspaper column on Billy Packer. The guy had a heck of a run, is a unique character and remains a valued trove of college basketball history who no doubt will resurface soon with other hoops-related ventures.......