Don Poier

Don Poier
Don Poier
Born February 24, 1951(1951-02-24)
Snohomish, Washington, United States
Died January 21, 2005(2005-01-21) (aged 53)
Denver, Colorado
Nationality American
Occupation Sportscaster,
Play-by-Play Announcer,
Area Announcer
Years active 1970s–2005

Don Poier (February 24, 1951 – January 21, 2005) was a sports play-by-play announcer who called telecasts of Pac-10 football and basketball games and was the radio and television voice for the Vancouver and Memphis Grizzlies.

Contents

Early life

Born in Snohomish, northeast of Seattle, Poier was a three-sport standout in baseball, basketball, and football at Snohomish High School, were he played first base, forward, and punter/quarterback/tight end/defensive back. He starred on Dick Armstrong's first league-champion football team in 1968,
earning all-state honors as a DB.

After playing basketball for on the freshmen team at Washington State, Poier transferred to Pacific Lutheran near Tacoma,
where he played defensive end on the football team in 1972-73 for another legendary coach, Frosty Westering.[1]

Career

Poier spent more than 20 years of his broadcasting career in Seattle, announcing regional basketball and football games in the Pac-10 and hydroplane boat races. In the 1980s he was the sports director at KING-TV (NBC), and later worked at KCPQ (Fox) and Prime Sports Northwest.

In 1995, Poier moved to the professional ranks, joining the Vancouver Grizzlies during their first year in the NBA. Before that, the only professional games he had called was in baseball, as a broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners in the 1981 season. He and former NBA player and sportscaster Bob Elliott gained national recognition by lending their voices to EA Sports' NBA Live Series video games from 1999 through 2003. After doing radio play-by-play for every Grizzlies game during his tenure in Vancouver and Memphis, he was promoted to television play-by-play for the 2004–05 season.[2]

Death

On January 21, 2005, Poier was found dead of an apparent heart attack in his Denver hotel room before the Grizzlies' game against the Nuggets.[3] The Grizzlies decided to play the game in spite of Poier's sudden death, and lost by a final score of 92–82.

The media center at FedExForum, the Grizzlies' home arena in Memphis, has been named in honor of Poier.[4]
In addition, a memorial banner hangs from the ceiling at every Grizzlies home game.

References

  1. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer - "Don Poier, 1951-2005: Voice of Grizzlies honed his skills in NW" - by Jim Moore - 2005-01-25
  2. ^ GRIZZLIES: Don Poier, Memphis Grizzlies play-by-play announcer, dies
  3. ^ Don Poier, Voice of the Grizzlies, Dies
  4. ^ Grizzlies Unveil Don Poier Media Center

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • KING-TV — Seattle, Washington Branding KING 5 Slogan The Home Team (general) Coverage You Can Count On (news) Channels …   Wikipedia

  • 2005 — Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.2005 was designated as: *The Year of the Volunteer by the UK government. *The World Year of Physics. *The International Year of the… …   Wikipedia

  • 1981 Seattle Mariners season — MLB yearly infobox name = Seattle Mariners season = 1981 misc = current league = American League y1 = 1977 division = Western Division y2 = 1977 Uniform logo = ballpark = Kingdome y4 = 1977 city = Seattle, Washington y5 = 1977 owners = Danny Kaye …   Wikipedia

  • NBA Live series — The NBA Live series of basketball video games, published by EA Sports, is currently one of the leading National Basketball Association simulations on the market. NBA Playoffs The predecessor of the NBA Live series was the NBA PLAYOFFS series,… …   Wikipedia

  • Deaths in January 2005 — Deaths in 2005 : ← January February March April May June July August September October November December → The following is a list of notable people who died in January 2005. 31 Ron Basford, 72, Canadian cabinet minister (1970s) Nel Benschop …   Wikipedia

  • List of Seattle Mariners broadcasters — Current broadcast team*Dave Niehaus (1977 present) *Rick Rizzs (1983 1992, 1995 present) *Dave Sims (2007 present) *Mike Blowers (2007 present) *Julio Cruz (Spanish language, 2002 present) *Alex Rivera (Spanish language, 2007 present)Broadcast… …   Wikipedia

  • Bob Elliott (basketball) — Infobox NBA Player name = Robert Alan Elliott nickname = Bob position = Point guard height ft = 6 | height in = 10 weight lbs = 225 league = NBA team = nationality = American birth date = birth date and age|1955|8|16 birth place = Ann Arbor,… …   Wikipedia

  • Root Sports Northwest — Launched 1987 (as Northwest Cable Sports) Network Fox Sports Net Owned by DirecTV Sports Networks Country …   Wikipedia

  • Kultur in Österreich — Die Österreichische Kultur ist seit Jahrhunderten mit der europäischen Kultur verbunden und hat international bekannte Leistungen hervorgebracht. So entstanden etwa in allen Stilepochen bedeutende Bauwerke, von denen viele heute zum UNESCO… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • ESC 2003 — 48. Eurovision Song Contest Datum 24. Mai 2003 Austragungsland  Lettland Austragungsort Riga Moderation …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”