Jerry Stovall obit

Jerry Stovall, former LSU head coach and Heisman Trophy runner-up, dies at 85

 

He was not on the list.

Legendary LSU figure Jerry Stovall passed away on Monday. Stovall not only played for the Tigers but he also took control of the program for four years. He grew up in the state of Louisiana and became an important piece of LSU history during his life.

“LSU has confirmed that former Heisman Trophy runner-up Jerry Stovall, who later became the school’s head coach for four years, died Monday,” Will Weathers of LouisianaSports.net said via X. “The native of West Monroe was 85.”

Stovall spent three seasons in Baton Rouge as a player at the running back position. He first saw the field in 1960, being deemed the replacement for Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon. From a rushing standpoint, 1961 was Stovall’s best year, going for 405 yards and three touchdowns.

But LSU will remember him for finishing as an All-American in 1962 and finishing second for the Heisman Trophy. In 10 games played, Stovall rushed for 368 yards. LSU used him through the air as well, adding 213 yards and a touchdown on nine receptions.

Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker wound up winning the Heisman Trophy. Stovall received the most second-place votes, just passing Minnesota offensive lineman Bob Bell.

Flash forward two decades, and Stovall was LSU’s head coach. Originally, his coaching career got started as an assistant under Charles McClendon. Going into the 1980 season, Stovall remained on staff after the Tigers hired Bo Rein. However, Rein suddenly died in an airplane during a recruiting visit.

LSU kept Stovall as the head coach for four seasons, getting a mixed bag of results. His best finish came in 1982, when the Tigers finished with an 8-3-1 record. Wins over top-10 opponents included Alabama, Florida, and Florida State. At one point, the AP poll had them ranked as high as No. 6 in the country.

Unfortunately, the season did end on a sour note. LSU earned a bid to the Orange Bowl, where the No. 3-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers were waiting. Tom Osborne’s team earned the win and finished the year with a 12-1 record. However, the Huskers did not win the national championship.

Following the 1983 season, Stovall was let go from his position as LSU head coach. He never got back into coaching but was the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs athletic director beginning in 1990, all the way until 1994.

Stovall was the second overall pick in the first round of the 1963 NFL draft, selected by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was also the third overall pick of the 1963 American Football League draft. The Cardinals converted him to full-time defensive back. He was regarded as one of the top rookies in the league in 1963. During his nine seasons with St. Louis, Stovall had 18 interceptions in 97 games, and was selected to the Pro Bowl after the 1966, 1967, and 1969 seasons.

After his NFL career, Stovall became a college football assistant coach. He eventually returned to LSU, as an assistant for head coach Charlie McClendon. Stovall became LSU's head coach as an emergency hire after new head coach Bo Rein died when his plane depressurized and disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean.

In Stovall's four years with the Tigers (1980–1983), LSU finished 7–4, 3–7–1, 8–3–1, and 4–7. Only one of Stovall's teams appeared in the final AP Poll: the 1982 team. That team finished the season ranked No. 11 after it beat No. 4 Florida, No. 8 Alabama, and No. 7 Florida State and earned a spot in the Orange Bowl, where LSU lost, 21–20, to a No. 3 Nebraska team led by Tom Osborne. As a result of his performance in 1982, Stovall was named the national coach of the year by the Walter Camp Football Foundation, as well as the SEC Coach of the Year.

In 1983, Stovall's success of 1982 came unraveled. The Tigers went 0–6 in the SEC, including a 45–26 loss at home to Mississippi State, leaving Stovall 0–4 for his career against the Bulldogs.

Stovall had a 2–2 record against Tulane. To date, the Tigers have only lost to Tulane on two other occasions since 1948, both under McClendon. After the Tigers had secured the Orange Bowl berth in 1982, they suffered their only home loss to Tulane since 1948. The Tigers have won 18 in a row in the series since but has only played the Green Wave six times since 1994, typically winning by comfortable margins.

Stovall's dismissal by athletic director Bob Brodhead was approved by the LSU Board of Supervisors on December 2, 1983.

Paul LeDuc obit

Paul LeDuc Passes Away At 89

Paul LeDuc, one half of the LeDuc brothers and a former wrestler and promoter, has passed away at the age of 29.

 

He was not on the list.

Paul LeDuc, one half of the LeDuc brothers and a former wrestler and promoter, has passed away at the age of 89.

LeDuc would have a successful tag team career that began in 1957, alongside Jos LeDuc who was his wrestling brother, but a close friend in real life, capturing tag team championships in Grand Prix Wrestling, NWA Florida and more. LeDuc would feature in a wrestling wedding in Montreal in 1971 as well as owning his own promotion, The FLQ, which was founded in 2000 and remains open to this day.

On August 30th, it would be announced that Paul LeDuc had passed away at the age of 89 that morning, and is survived by his sons, Carl and Yan, as well as his daughter, Kim.

Sad news in the wrestling world.

Former wrestler and promoter Paul Leduc, one half of the famous Leduc Brothers, passed away this morning at the age of 89.

During his career, Leduc captured tag team championships in Grand Prix Wrestling, NWA Florida and NWA International. He also famously married in the ring in Montreal in 1971 and competed against the Vachon Brothers in front of the largest crowd ever recorded for a wrestling event in Quebec City.

In 2000, he founded his own promotion, the FLQ, which remained active for more than two decades.

My deepest sympathies go out to his sons, Carl and Yan, his daughter, Kim, and all his loved ones.

LeDuc’s last recorded match would take place in 2008, and was most prominent during his tag team run with Jos LeDuc from 1968 to 1974.

Anthony Mundine obit

‘Broken’: Anthony Mundine reacts to father and boxing great Tony Mundine’s death

 He was not on the list.

Australian boxing great Tony Mundine has died, aged 75.

The boxer, who is also the father of professional boxer and rugby league player Anthony Mundine, died at the weekend, sources close to the family have confirmed.

Mundine was the only Australian boxer to compete professionally across four weight divisions and held four different Australian titles.

On Sunday night, Anthony Mundine said he was “broken” in an Instagram post.

“Dad I love you man my Allah bless your soul. I’m on my way home to say goodbye one last time til we meet again... there’s only one Tony Mundine.”

In 2024, Anthony Mundine described his father as his “biggest inspiration” in and out of the ring.

“You’ve shown me what it means to be a man of strength and integrity, and for that, I’m forever grateful. I wouldn’t be who I am without your sacrifices, your wisdom, and your unwavering support,” he wrote at the time.

Tony Mundine retired from professional boxing in 1984 and became a member of the Order of Australia in 1986 for services to sport, particularly boxing and Aboriginal youth.

A Bundjalung man from Baryulgil, just north of the NSW town of Grafton, Mundine moved to Sydney in the mid-1960s with the hope of becoming a first grade footballer.

He played with the Redfern All Blacks and it was while doing some off-season training at a local boxing gym his talent was discovered.

Mundine had his first fight in Sydney in 1969 - competing in 96 bouts in a career that spanned till 1984 that also saw him travel the world and challenge unsuccessfully once for the World Middleweight belt in 1974.

Upon his retirement from boxing, Mundine was heavily involved in a gym in the neighbourhood known as The Block in Redfern, on the corner of Eveleigh and Vine Streets.

The gym had been set up inside an old shoe factory that had been acquired by the Aboriginal Housing Company and Mundine’s work had a positive impact on young Aboriginal people as the venue became a popular place for the community to spend time.

David Fair obit

David Fair of Half Japanese Has Died

 

He was not on the list.

David Fair, one half of the legendary indie rock outfit Half Japanese has died.

Along with his brother Jad, the two formed Half Japanese in the mid-seventies. Considered to be one of the greatest underground bands of all time, the Half Japanese journey began with the 1977 EP Calling All Girls and from there they went on to release classic albums like 1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts, Sing No Evil and Music To Strip By.

Along with Godley & Creme’s 1977 effort Consequences and Carla Bley’s Escalator Over The Hill (1971) Half Japanese are only one of a handful of artists to release a triple album as their debut. Low-fi, experimental and idiosyncratic, the music of Half Japanese eludes the cultural timeline and due to its DIY approach, remains fresh, vital and dynamic.

Over the course of their career, Half Japanese played with everyone from Nirvana to Neutral Milk Hotel. Fair released a series of records with his brother as well as a series of solo albums.

A filmmaker, an actor and an accomplished and renowned visual artist whose medium was both paper cuttings and sketches, the Michigan-born Fair’s artistic endeavors were the subject of Skizz Cyzyk’s 2015 documentary David Fair Is The King.

Producer and friend Don Fleming wrote of Fair’s passing on social media: “David Fair of 1/2 Japanese and Coo Coo Rockin’ Time died yesterday. His daughter Harper toasted him with a root beer float, and he passed soon after, peacefully. He had been getting treatments for cancer over the last couple of years. The sweetest guy, with a great sense of humor. He was a pure artist and musician, all from the heart. Goodbye David.”

Bill Doba obit

Long-time WSU football coach 

Bill Doba dies at 85, remembered with great affection

Palouse Posse in 1994, two Rose Bowls, a top 10 team in 2003 among his sterling crimson achievements

 He was not on the list.

PULLMAN, Wash. – Former Washington State Football Coach Bill Doba passes away at the age of 85.

Doba, a longtime defensive coordinator and five-year head coach of the Cougars (2003-07), worked 19 seasons at the Washington State coaching staff. Doba posted 30 wins including three Apple Cup victories his five seasons leading WSU.

“Coach Doba was a tremendous Coug and an incredible friend and mentor, who we will miss dearly,” WSU Vice President / Director of Athletics Jon Haarlow said. “Our thoughts are with Coach Doba’s loved ones and the entire Cougar family during this difficult time.”

Doba became Washington State’s 30th head football coach December 18, 2002, after serving as a Cougar assistant for 14 years. During that time WSU won two Pacific-10 Conference championships and made four bowl appearances, including two trips to the Rose Bowl. Doba’s appointment was the culmination of 40 years in the coaching profession at the high school and collegiate level.

In 2003, Doba’s first as WSU’s head coach, he won more games than any first-year coach in program history, reaching the 10-win plateau for the third straight season. No other Pacific-10 Conference school had back-to-back-to-back 10-win seasons since the early 1930’s and for the feat, Doba shared Pac-10 Coach-of-the- Year honors with USC’s Pete Carroll.

Doba joined WSU as an assistant coach in 1989 and served as linebacker coach for Mike Price’s Cougar teams for 14 years. His progression toward Price’s replacement as head coach at the end of the 2002 season included being named assistant head coach in 1991 and then defensive coordinator in 1994.

Throughout his tenure as an assistant at WSU, Doba tutored linebackers, including some super stars that went on to play in the National Football League. Mark Fields, Chris Hayes, James Darling, Rob Childs and Steve Gleason are among the NFL linebackers who took their game to the “A” level under Doba’s watchful eye and instruction at WSU. While serving as WSU’s defensive leader from 1994-2002, Doba mentored eight players named first team all conference, six All-Americans, and 2002 Outland Trophy Winner Rien Long.

It is hard to imagine a rookie head coach having more success than Doba did during the 2003 season. The Cougars finished second in the Pac-10 conference and then recorded the biggest bowl victory in the history of the program. WSU’s defeat of Texas in the Holiday Bowl was its first over a top five program since 1988 and without question was the school’s biggest bowl victory in the modern era of college football.

The 2003 Cougars featured a defense that led the nation in takeaways (48) and fumble recoveries (24), and finished second nationally in interceptions (24). WSU was also in the top 10 in pass efficiency defense and rushing defense. Doba’s guidance resulted in a No. 9 national finish in both the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today polls.

In 1994, Doba’s first season as defensive coordinator, the Cougs finished second in the nation in total defense, yielding a mere 229 yards per game, and third in rushing and scoring defense. The “Palouse Posse,” spearheaded by all-conference performers in linebacker Mark Fields, defensive end DeWayne Patterson, and defensive tackles Chad Eaton and Don Sasa, capped a 9-3 season by holding Baylor to just 151 yards total offense and three points in an Alamo Bowl victory.

The South Bend, Ind., native’s defensive units have always been highlighted by a penchant for speed and an attacking style. In 2001, the Cougars racked up 40 sacks and grabbed 26 interceptions, second only to national champion Miami. During the Cougars’ run to the roses in 2002, WSU broke the school record for sacks with 55, and led the conference in rushing defense, surrendering just 152 yards on the ground over the final five contests.

Doba entered the college ranks in 1977, joining former ESPN College Gameday host Lee Corso’s staff at Indiana University. He coached outside linebackers for five seasons and spent one season tutoring the quarterbacks and receivers. In 1979, the Hoosiers went 8-4 and knocked off Brigham Young in the Holiday Bowl.

Larry Christenson obit

Phillies World Series Champion 

Larry Christenson dies at 72

The former Phillies pitcher and 1980 World Series champion spent his entire MLB career in Philadelphia.

 

He was not on the list.

Larry Christenson, a workhorse pitcher for the Phillies in the 1970s and early 1980s, died unexpectedly Friday while on a fishing trip with family and friends in the state of Washington. He was 72.

A native of Everett, Washington, Christenson was the Phillies’ first-round draft pick in 1972. He pitched for the Phils from 1973 to 1983, spending his entire career in Philadelphia. After his playing days, he settled in the Philadelphia area, became successful in business and was active in local charity work. He was a tireless supporter of Phillies Charities, Inc.

“He was always helping people,” remembered former teammate Larry Bowa. “If you needed him, he was there. If there was a fundraiser, he’d be the guy who got everyone together.”

Christenson made it to the majors at age 19. He was a stalwart on three straight National League East championship teams from 1976 to 1978. Over that span, he went 45-28 with a 3.65 ERA in 616 innings. He won 19 games in 1977. He went 5-1 for the 1980 World Series Champion Phillies, but was limited to 14 starts because of injury.

Christenson was the Phillies’ starting pitcher on May 19, 1979 when the team wore burgundy uniforms. Management had intended to have the team wear the uniforms several times that season, but the Phillies lost to Montreal on the night the uniforms debuted and the players did not like them.

“We wore them once,” Bowa recalled. “After the game, Bull (Greg Luzinski) went upstairs and told (owner Ruly Carpenter) we we’re done wearing them.”

Christenson is forever captured in photographs wearing the burgundy uniform.

“He was a great teammate,” Bowa said. “He was a real good hitter for a pitcher. He had a great personality. He had a way of keeping the clubhouse loose, but he was tough and always prepared to pitch.

“I got along with him great. Sometimes when he gave up a long home run, I’d go to the mound and say, ‘How did you hold that pitch?’ He'd look at me and say, ‘Get the (bleep) out of here.’

“Just a great guy. He will be missed.”

Christenson attended Marysville High School in Marysville, Washington where he was noted more for his basketball than baseball skills. He struck out 143 batters in 72 innings and had an earned run average (ERA) of 0.28 in his senior year.

 

MLB debut

April 13, 1973, for the Philadelphia Phillies

Last MLB appearance

June 3, 1983, for the Philadelphia Phillies

MLB statistics

Win–loss record          83–71

Earned run average     3.79

Strikeouts        781

Stats at Baseball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Teams

Philadelphia Phillies (1973–1983)

Career highlights and awards

World Series champion (1980)

John Walker obit

John Walker BSC (1943-2026)

 He was not on the list.

It is with great sadness that we learn that our friend and colleague, John Walker BSC, has died.

John began his career as a trainee at the BBC, working his way through the ranks to become a highly respected cinematographer. Over a long and varied career, he worked across some of British television's best-loved productions, including The Onedin Line, Doctor Who, Miss Marple (Pictured) and Only Fools and Horses, as well as Bergerac, Juliet Bravo, Lovejoy, Wycliffe and Hamish Macbeth.

His work brought him into collaboration with many distinguished directors, including Martin Campbell, Michael Winterbottom and John Glenister.

John was invited to join the British Society of Cinematographers in 1991, becoming part of a community to which he remained a valued colleague and friend.

John is survived by his wife, Mavis Rose Walker, and his children, Wendy and Gareth.

A memorial service will be held at Dunster Tithe Barn on Wednesday 30th September at 1:30pm, followed by a wake at the same venue. A livestream is also being planned for those who are unable to attend in person, and we will circulate a link when further information is available.

Our thoughts are with Mavis, Wendy, Gareth and all of John's family, friends and colleagues at this sad time.

John will be greatly missed.

Jackie Glass obit

Judge Jackie Glass Dead: ‘Swift Justice’ TV Host Was 70

 She was not on the list.

Judge Jackie Glass, the former Clark County judge who hosted the syndicated court show Swift Justice, has died. She was 70.

Glass died on Friday afternoon in Las Vegas, TMZ reported after Glass’ daughter Rachel Wolfson posted a tribute to her late mother on social media.

“RIP my rock,” wrote Wolfson on Facebook. “I don’t know how I’ll do this life without you, I love you so much mommy Jackie Glass, I’ll see you again someday.”

Judge Glass made headlines in 2008 when she sentenced O.J. Simpson to 33 years in prison for armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel. Simpson was released on parole in 2017 before dying of cancer in Vegas in 2024.

In 2011, Glass took over for Nancy Grace as host of the small claims court show Swift Justice in Season 2, which moved production from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Glass hosted the syndicated reality series until it ended in April 2012.

Glass is survived by husband, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, and two daughters.

King Harald V obit

Norway's King Harald V dies at 89 and his son becomes King Haakon VIII

 He was not on the list.

STAVANGER, Norway — King Harald V of Norway, who went into exile in the United States as a child during the Nazi occupation of his homeland and refused a string of potential brides from the European nobility so he could marry his longtime sweetheart, died Friday. He was 89.

The palace said he died at the National Hospital in Oslo at 6:35 a.m.

Harald was Europe's oldest monarch. The popular king modernized the royal house but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son automatically became King Haakon VIII.

Like other royal houses in Europe, the Norwegian monarchs serve a largely symbolic role, enjoying celebrity status while real power in the democracy of 5.5 million rests with an elected parliament. Harald was crowned after his British-born father, King Olav V, died in January 1991, and reigned during an oil-and-gas-driven economic boom in his country.

"A whole nation is in mourning and the people of Norway are left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long life in the service of Norway," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement. "For more than three decades as monarch, Harald V demonstrated an unwavering faith in the Norwegian people. He helped us to see the best in ourselves — and in one another."

Funeral arrangements were not immediately released.

Royal family fled Norway during World War II

Harald was born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, becoming the first Norwegian prince to be born in the country since King Olav IV in 1370. In the following centuries, Norway didn't have a king of its own until Harald's grandfather, Haakon VII, was elected king following the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway.

Harald was 3 years old when the Nazis occupied Norway at the start of World War II. To avoid capture, his mother fled with him and his sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid, first to Sweden and then by boat to the U.S., while Harald's father and grandfather went into exile in Britain with Norway's government.

Haakon's refusal to go along with German demands garnered respect among his people.

During their time in the U.S., the Norwegian royals were often guests at the White House. Harald was 6 when he carried out his first official duty, christening new warplanes at a Norwegian air base in Canada.

The family was reunited in Norway in June 1945, shortly after the end of the war in Europe. Harald attended public schools, the Norwegian military college and Oxford University.

Like his father — an Olympic champion sailor in 1928 — Harald loved the sea and sailboats. He represented Norway at several Olympics, and in 1987 he skippered his yacht to gold in the World Championships.

Harald married his longtime sweetheart

As a young man, Harald was urged to find a bride among Europe's noblewomen and princesses. For nine years he shunned a series of prospects, holding out until he finally won his father's permission to marry his longtime sweetheart, Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a successful businessman.

King Olav had feared the marriage would weaken Norway's still-young monarchy. Instead, Norwegians greeted the Aug. 29, 1968, wedding with jubilation, and later embraced Sonja as their queen. The couple had two children, Haakon and his older sister, Märtha Louise.

The Norwegian Constitution was altered in 1990 to allow the first born, regardless of gender, to take precedence in the line of succession. However, it was not applied retroactively, meaning that Haakon continued to take precedence over his sister.

When Harald assumed the throne on Jan. 21, 1991, he adopted the same motto his father and grandfather had used: "All for Norway." He spent the next years trying to modernize the monarchy.

"It has been my experience that the monarchy stands strong," he once said. "This is not least because my father and grandfather did most things right. That puts me under pressure, but I take it as a challenge."

Harald won the praise of the country with an emotional speech at a memorial service after a right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, killed 77 people in bomb and gun attacks in Norway in 2011.

"I remain convinced that the belief in freedom is stronger than fear. I remain convinced in the belief of an open Norwegian democracy and society. I remain convinced in the belief in our ability to live freely and safely in our own country," the king said.

In 2016, Harald gave an unexpected and impassioned speech in support of LGBTQ+ equality, refugees and religious tolerance, saying "Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other." He added that many Norwegians have emigrated from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland and other countries and that they "believe in God, Allah, the universe and nothing."

The public speech extolled the diversity of the Scandinavian nation and was viewed on social media by millions.

Recent scandals have put royal family under scrutiny

Scandal and serious allegations have hung over the Norwegian royal family this year. Harald's daughter-in-law, now-Queen Mette-Marit, faced renewed scrutiny over her connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That raised questions over her judgment, though she is not accused of any wrongdoing. Mette-Marit apologized for the situation she put the royal family in, part of a broader apology for all those she had "disappointed."

At around the same time, her eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, was convicted of rape in a high-profile trial and sentenced to four years in prison. Høiby, Mette-Marit's son from a previous relationship before she met Haakon, has no royal titles or official duties.

In 2022, Harald's daughter Princess Märtha Louise gave up royal duties after raising eyebrows by saying she could communicate with angels and becoming engaged to an American man who identifies as a shaman. They married two years later.

In January 2024, after the abdication of Denmark's Queen Margrethe — his second cousin — Harald said that he stood by the oath he made when ascending the throne: "It lasts for life."

However, he was hospitalized twice on foreign trips after that, including during a 2024 vacation in Malaysia when he was fitted with a pacemaker and during a February 2026 holiday on the Spanish island of Tenerife when he had a skin infection.

Wacko obit

Popular 2000s New Orleans rapper dead at 52. Here’s what we know

 He was not on the list.

Popular New Orleans rapper Wacko has died, according to multiple reports.

 

He was 52.

According2hiphop.com said that a cause of death has not been reported.

Wacko, whose name is Damon Grison, is best known for his time as a member of UTP along with rappers Juvenile and Skip. He is credited with co-writing the group’s 2004 hit “Nolia Clap,” which went all the way to No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Former No Limit rapper Mia X was among those who took to social media to remember Wacko.

“Wacko was so talented,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “One of those gifted sons with word plays and a unique cadence that brought life to every beat he was on. He was sweet every time we spoke, he loved hard, even when he was going through things and trying to get his point across it was easy to understand that many of his emotions came from his passion and pain. You will truly be missed. You had been working on some very special and awesome music and your talent will never be forgotten. May peace cover your journey as the ancestors receive you. May God cover your family everyone who loved you in strength, love, and peace. Rest easy my brother.”

Juvenile formed UTP after he first left Cash Money Records in 2001. The group initially also included Young Buck, Soulja Slim and Corey Cee.

UTP released four albums. The first, “The Compilation,” came in 2002, and the last, “Back Like We Left Something,” came in 2007.

Jacques Doucet obit

Jacques Doucet, former voice of the Montreal Expos, dies at 86

Doucet's voice became synonymous with baseball for generations of francophone fans in Quebec

 

He was not on the list.

On Oct. 3, 2004, Marc Griffin, an analyst on Montreal Expos radio broadcasts, ended the final report in the baseball club’s history with the words: “Let me remind you of the final score: 1969-2004.”

Today, he could end his report by saying "1940-2026."

Griffin's longtime broadcast partner and mentor Jacques Doucet, known as the "Voice of the Expos" after calling the team’s games for 33 seasons, died Thursday evening at the age of 86.

His daughter Martine confirmed his death on social media Friday. The cause was not disclosed, but Doucet revealed in 2024 that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

“He was certainly a giant, and his loss is immense,” Griffin said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday. “His voice was part of our lives for generations. He’s the one who made me fall in love with baseball.''

“His honesty, his frankness, the way he described things… He was in everyone’s living room, so when people ran into him on the street, they felt like he was their buddy. He talked to them every night about what was happening with the Expos. There was a unique bond.''

Tributes poured in for a broadcaster whose voice became synonymous with baseball for generations of francophone fans in Quebec.

“My teacher and mentor left us today,” broadcaster Denis Casavant, who worked alongside Doucet at CKAC and TVA Sports, wrote on X. “Thank you, Jacques, for your generosity and kindness, and especially for the influence you had on my career as a play-by-play announcer. My condolences to his partner Corrie and the entire family.”

RDS baseball broadcaster Alain Usereau said the entire baseball community was mourning Doucet’s death.

“Anyone who has called baseball in Quebec was influenced in one way or another by Jacques,” Usereau wrote on Facebook. “His was the most-listened-to voice of the summer during the Expos years. Thank you for all those wonderful moments he brought us.”

The strike that killed the Montreal Expos' World Series dream in 1994

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette also paid tribute, saying the province had lost “a voice that left its mark on generations of baseball fans.”

“His legacy will remain very much alive in our memories and in our sporting culture,” she wrote on X.

An uncertain beginning

Born March 8, 1940, in Montreal, Doucet began his career as a sports journalist with The Canadian Press in 1959 and later covered the Expos for Montreal newspaper La Presse when the expansion franchise began playing in 1969.

He initially called about one game a week before becoming the team’s full-time French-language radio play-by-play announcer in 1972, a role he held until the franchise left Montreal after the 2004 season and became the Washington Nationals.

Doucet acknowledged in a 2020 interview with The Canadian Press that he initially wasn’t sure broadcasting was for him.

"I didn’t know if I was going to like it: I knew nothing about the job,” he said. “I was a reporter at La Presse. I was used to writing, not talking."

"I didn’t know whether people would take to me. You can do the best job in the world as a broadcaster, but if people don’t take to you, you won’t last long."

The next 33 years showed he had little reason to worry. Expos fans not only embraced Doucet, but his voice became the soundtrack of baseball for three generations of francophone fans.

Doucet called more than 5,500 Major League Baseball games during his career, including Dennis Martinez’s perfect game for the Expos on July 28, 1991. For years, he also provided French-language broadcasts of Major League Baseball playoff and World Series games.

For Griffin, the departure of the Expos was probably the hardest moment of Doucet’s career. Doucet was also repeatedly passed over for the Ford C. Frick Award, an honour presented by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., for excellence in broadcasting.

“The Expos leaving was probably what hurt him the most,” Griffin said. “Because that was 36 years of his life, of passion, of trying to sell his sport, the Expos, of getting everyone to love baseball, which he succeeded in doing.''

Rodger Brulotte, iconic Montreal Expos commentator, dies at age 79

After believing his broadcasting career was over with the departure of the Expos, Doucet received an unexpected call from the Quebec Capitales, then an independent professional baseball team in the Can-Am League.

He called their games from 2006 to 2011 before returning to Major League Baseball broadcasts with TVA Sports, where he called Toronto Blue Jays games and MLB playoff action in French.

His final innings behind the microphone came in September 2022, alongside longtime colleagues Rodger Brulotte, who died in March, and Casavant.

The Blue Jays were scheduled to honour Doucet before Friday’s game against the Seattle Mariners.

Awards galore

Doucet was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Expos Hall of Fame the following year. He received the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award in 2004 and the Quebec National Assembly’s Medal of Honour in 2011.

He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, though the COVID-19 pandemic and later health problems delayed his formal induction ceremony in St. Marys, Ont., until 2023.

Doucet also played an important role in developing and popularizing the French-language vocabulary used to describe baseball, helping generations of francophone fans follow a sport whose terminology was overwhelmingly English.

He also wrote several books, including Les Secrets du baseball with former major-league pitcher Claude Raymond and Il était une fois les Expos, an extensive history of the franchise co-written with Marc Robitaille.

In 2014, Doucet published his autobiography, Mémoires d’un micro.

Born    March 8, 1940

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Died    August 27, 2026 (aged 86)

Years active     1972–2022

Awards            Montreal Expos Hall of Fame

Sports commentary career

Teams 

Montreal Expos

Québec Capitales

Toronto Blue Jays

Genre  Play-by-play

Sport    Baseball

Employer        

CKAC 730

CHRC 800

TVA Sports

James Walsh obit

James Walsh Dies: Tony-Winning Broadway Producer Of ‘The Heidi Chronicles’ & ‘I’m Not Rappaport’ Was 89

 

He was not on the list.

James Walsh, whose many Broadway producing credits in the 1980s and ’90s included the Tony Award-winning productions of 1986’s I’m Not Rappaport starring Judd Hirsch and 1989’s Pulitzer-winning The Heidi Chronicles, died of sepsis Thursday, August 27, in New York City. He was 89.

His death was announced by his wife, the Emmy- and Oscar-winning casting director Juliet Taylor.

Born May 6, 1937, in Antonito, CO, Walsh attended UCLA before beginning his career as a Ford Foundation intern for administration in the arts at the Metropolitan Opera from 1961-1963. He then worked at the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center under Robert Whitehead and Elia Kazan, helping to manage their repertory company based in Greenwich Village at the ANTA Theatre while the Vivian Beaumont was still under construction. ANTA productions included such future stars as Faye Dunaway, Jason Robards and Roy Scheider.

He began his Broadway career as an assistant general manager on 1964’s After the Fall by Arthur Miller, directed by Kazan. Over the next 20 years, with one notable exception, he served as company manager, general manager or assistant manager for such memorable, even seminal, Broadway shows as Miller’s Incident at Vichy (1964), Tartuffe with Hal Holbrook and Salome Jens (1965), Jay Presson Allen’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starring Zoe Caldwell (1968), Arthur Kopit’s Indians starring Stacy Keach, Charles Durning, Raul Julia, Sam Waterston and many others (1969); Julian Barry’s Lenny Bruce bioplay Lenny starring Cliff Gorman (1971); Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City (1974); Herb Gardner’s Thieves starring Richard Mulligan and Marlo Thomas (1974); I Have a Dream starring Billy Dee Williams as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1976); Barnum starring Jim Dale and Glenn Close (1980); The Music Man revival with Dick Van Dyke (1980); Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981); and Beth Henley’s The Wake of Jamey Foster starring Anthony Heald and Holly Hunter (1982).

The one notable exception to his management roles from the era was The Watering Place, starring William Devane, Shirley Knight, Vivian Nathan and Ralph Waite. He produced the play by Lyle Kessler that opened — and closed — on March 12, 1969.

When he returned to producing 14 years later, it was with considerably more splash if not immediately greater success: Doonesbury, a high-profile musical with book and lyrics by Garry Trudeau, based on his wildly popular comic strip and with music by Elizabeth Swados, was neither a critical nor commercial success when it opened in 1983. Though it garnered considerable attention, the musical played only 20 previews and 104 performances.

Walsh’s luck would change drastically with his third producing effort: Gardner’s I’m Not Rappaport, the 1985 play directed by Daniel Sullivan and starring Hirsch and Cleavon Little. The play about two elderly men who become unlikely friends as they spend their days together on a park bench was a hit, winning Tony Awards for Best Play, for Hirsch’s performance and for lighting design. (A 1996 film adaptation starred Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis).

Walsh followed up that success with an even more celebrated production: Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles (1989), a generational touchstone starring Joan Allen, Peter Friedman, Boyd Gaines, Cynthia Nixon and others. The play, about a young feminist who choose to adopt a child on her own, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for six Tonys, winning for Best Play and Best Featured Actor (Gaines).

The early ’90s brought continued success for Walsh, with Broadway productions of Tony-nominated Once on This Island (1990), 1992’s Conversations with My Father, again starring Hirsch along with Tony Shalhoub, Jason Biggs and others; and, also that year, Gregory Mosher’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire starring Alec Baldwin, Jessica Lange and Amy Madigan.

Although the starry production was one of the most anticipated shows of the season and proved a major box office success, it received mixed-to-negative critical reviews and no Tony nominations. Lange’s performance would be favorably reappraised over the years, and in 1995 she was Emmy nominated when she starred, along with Baldwin, in a CBS film adaptation of the Broadway production.

Walsh largely retired from the theater following Streetcar, returning briefly in 2003 to produce the musical Never Gonna Dance, a short-lived project based on the 1936 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film Swing Time, starring Noah Racey, Nancy Lemenager, Karen Ziemba and Peter Gerety, with direction by Michael Greif and choreography by Jerry Mitchell.

In addition to Broadway, Walsh produced two notable Off Broadway plays in 1967: Norman Mailer’s The Deer Park and The Beard, Michale McClure’s controversial take on Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow (the playwright and poet would later go on to co-author the song “Mercedes Benz” with Janis Joplin).

Walsh also served on the Board of Governors for the League of American Theaters and Producers and on the Theatre Advisory Board for the American Soviet Theatre Initiative.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by sons Sam Walsh and Jason Walsh.