Chick Hearn Was a Lakers Legend
The Los Angeles Lakers had just beaten the New Jersey Nets for the 2002 NBA Championship. Double-decker buses carried players and coaches through downtown for the victory parade. Chick Hearn stood at the front of the first bus. He leaned against the railing, his hair dyed purple, his shirt drenched in sweat and champagne. He was 85 and he was exhausted. Fans cheered for Shaq and Kobe, but Chick was the true heart of the team. In less than two months he would suffer a fall at his Encino home that would take his life. On that day the sports world lost the greatest basketball announcer in NBA history.
Francis Dayle Hearn was born in 1916 in Aurora, Illinois. He played basketball at Bradley University. His teammates played a prank on him. He was given a box of sneakers and when he removed the lid he found a dead chicken inside. Thereafter he was known as “Chick.”
Hearn became the Lakers play-by-play man in 1961 after the team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. His announcing style featured an enthusiastic, rapid-fire delivery peppered with colorful phrases and offbeat humor. Hearn invented many of the terms that became common basketball parlance: Slam Dunk, Air Ball, Finger Roll, Give and Go, No Harm No Foul, Dribble Drive.
Hearn’s off-the-cuff phrases became known as “Chickisms.”
