Penn Relays announcer dies; inspiration for Pete Taylor
USATF recently passed along the sad news that longtime Penn Relays announcer Jack O’Reilly had died at age 89. Why should masters care? He was a mentor for our own Pete Taylor. When I informed Pete of Jack’s passing, Pete shared this: “I enjoyed working with him at the Penn Relays, and he showed me how to announce a track event. He was the biggest influence on my announcing.” Our heart goes out to Jack’s family and friends, including Pete.
2 Responses
Rick Riddle - September 22, 2005
PA announcing and calling races is an art form. When one of these artists is lost it saddens us all.
Maybe Pete will pass on the art to enthusiastic others so that the stream of artists will continue.
Rich Stevens - November 4, 2018
I found my PA “style” when I first heard Jack O’Reilly at the Penn relays and Franklin Field when Marty Liquori and Jim Ryan had their big race for the dream mile in the early 70s. I copied Jack’s kind of “formal enthusiastic” style and I became a New York state track PA announcer for the state championships and PA basketball announcing for Marist College and when someone heard me doing a preliminary game to a Marist College game they set me up for a tryout with the New Jersey Nets and I became the Nets first PA announcer when they played in the meadowlands arena and served there for seven years Jack O’Reilly was my inspiration as a PA announcer
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