CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / 2017
College of Hawaii Circle of Honor inductee Jim Leahey on the Willows Restaurant.
DENNIS ODA / 2003
Jim Leahey and his son, Kanoa, talked about how they began in sports activities broadcasting whereas having breakfast at Massive Metropolis Diner.
Jim Leahey, an eloquent and ever-present voice synonymous with Hawaii sportscasting for practically 60 years, died this morning after a protracted sickness, individuals near the household stated.
Leahey was most generally known as the prolific play-by-play voice for the College of Hawaii sports activities on TV and radio. However he additionally hosted a number of radio and TV magazine-type exhibits over time, most just lately “Leahey and Leahey,” along with his son, Kanoa, on Hawaii Public Tv.
He was famed for his calls of UH soccer, basketball and baseball video games, however labored many different sports activities, too.
“Some years I used to be doing as many as seven completely different UH sports activities a yr,” Leahey advised the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 2018. “It was nice.”
Leahey was inducted into the College of Hawaii’s Sports activities Circle of Honor in 2016.
He retired in 2018. Leahey additionally labored sportscasts along with his father, Chuck, within the Nineteen Sixties.
Kanoa Leahey is now the lead TV sportscaster for many UH sports activities.
“I loved working with Josh Pacheco and Scottie Robbs, however I’m 75 years previous now and don’t need to take a place from guys who’re arising and dealing laborious,” Leahey stated on the time.
Earlier than turning into a full-time sportscaster, Leahey was a faculty trainer, most notably at Campbell Excessive College. He continued educating unofficially, as a mentor to generations of up-and-coming Hawaii sports activities journalists.
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