Lee Hamilton (sports)

Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton was a sports talk show host based in San Diego, California. Up until September 3, 2008 he hosted an afternoon show on KLSD "Xtra Sports 1360" from 3 to 7 p.m. Hamilton's contract with Clear Channel Communications had expired. The parting was mutual, according to the host.

Hamilton has also been a noted play-by-play host for the San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, USC Trojans, Minnesota Vikings, and San Diego State University.

He has worked for KLAC in Los Angeles since February 2005, when the station became all-sports in a three-way frequency swap with XTRA and KTLK. Before that, he served 17 years at XTRA Sports 690.

From 1986 to 2005, he hosted a daily four-hour talk show on those stations. In July 2005, he lost the show as part of a restructuring as KLAC de-emphasized sports talk in favor of "man talk." The new hosts are Matt Smith and Joe Grande, both of whom once read sports news as part as morning shows, as well as former UCLA Bruins quarterback Wayne Cook. Hamilton still hosts a weekend talk show on both KLAC and on San Diego's KOGO AM; KLAC stopped carrying his daily updates in 2006.

Hamilton was the play-by-play announcer for San Diego Chargers on radio from 1986 to 1997, one of the longest tenures of any play-by-play announcer in the team's history. Hamilton replaced Ted Leitner, whom Hamilton referred to as "Teddy Lightweight." Leitner eventually replaced Hamilton in 1997 when XTRA Sports lost the broadcasting rights to KFMB, but not before Hacksaw went on an on-air tirade during his last game as Chargers' announcer. (In an ironic twist, Hamilton and Leitner became broadcast partners in 2007 as KOGO assumed the broadcast rights to San Diego State Aztecs football games. Hamilton is normally a color commentator, but switched to play-by-play for a few early season games when Leitner called San Diego Padres games on XEPRS-AM.)

In 2001, he resigned as the play by play announcer for the Minnesota Vikings after just one pre-season game. It came after a reporter for a weekly African-American newspaper in Minneapolis who is also the father of current Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald exposed racist and sexist comments that Hamilton sometimes used on his talk shows. Hamilton was going to replace long time Vikings announcer Dan Rowe. The job would go to Terry Stembridge, Jr.

As a Chargers announcer, Hamilton would criticize the referee's calls against the Chargers; on one occasion, Hamilton screamed at the refs to "throw the flag, dammit!", calling for pass interference against the defender on a long pass play.

Among the games he called was Super Bowl XXIX in January 1995, the only such appearance in team history. His partners were Jim Laslavic and Pat Curran. Another broadcasting partner was Chet Forte, who was too ill to continue during the Chargers' run to the Super Bowl.

Before the Chargers, Hamilton was announcer for the football and basketball programs at Arizona State University and a talk-show host in Phoenix for news/talk/sports station KTAR. His show, "620 Sportsline", was a four-hour show similar in format to the show he would host in Southern California. During his tenure at KTAR, Hamilton engaged in a long-running feud with then-Arizona Republic columnist Tom Fitzpatrick, whom he dubbed "Trashcan Tom Fitzpatrick." Fitzpatrick countered with blasting Hamilton in his column for being self-important and being all style and no substance. The main reason he gave for leaving KTAR was a chance to do play-by-play for the Chargers, since Phoenix didn't have an NFL team at the time.

Even earlier, in the mid-1970s, he was play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association, and hosted an evening sports talk radio show on Akron, Ohio talk station WHLO.

Other play-by-play assignments include the USC Trojans football team, the Seattle Seahawks, the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament, and National Football League games on Sports USA Radio Network.

Hamilton is best known for his pet phrases: "Show me your lightning bolt!", and "I am bleeping brilliant!" and, "You use the line or you lose the line." his argumentative attitude toward some callers.

Nationally syndicated sports talk host Jim Rome used to broadcast on the same station as Hamilton, and often imitates him saying "React to me!", "Show me your lightning bolt!", and "Good night now!" on The Jim Rome Show.

In Chris Russo's interview with Howard Stern on Sirius XM Radio it was announced that Hamilton will have his own show on Chris' channel Mad Dog Unleashed, which begins September 15, 2008. Chris also said that he is looking for "young people" to hire for the channel.

Personal

*Hamilton was born Paul Mahan in Northport, New York, on Long Island. He now lives in the Rancho Bernardo section of San Diego.
*He is married to a wife born in the province of Quebec, Canada. She has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
*One of their sons attends Chapman University in Orange, California.
*On October 23, 2007, he appeared on NBC's "Today". He discussed with Matt Lauer his experiences with the Witch Creek Fire. He told Lauer that, although his own home was still standing, the three houses on either side of his were completely destroyed.

External links

* [http://www.xtrasports1360.com/pages/sportswatch.html "SportsWatch" with Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton] on Xtra Sports 1360