Legendary college basketball broadcaster Billy Packer dies at age 82, family says

Legendary CBS and Raycom Sports college basketball broadcaster Billy Packer has died, his son Mark said on Thursday via Twitter.

Packer was 82.

"The Packer Family would like to share some sad news. Our amazing father, Billy, has passed," Mark Packer said. "We take peace knowing that he’s in heaven with Barb. RIP, Billy."

Mark Packer told the Associated Press that his father died of kidney failure after spending three weeks in a Charlotte hospital due to several medical issues.

Packer played college basketball at Wake Forest from 1958-62, leading the Demon Deacons to two ACC titles and a Final Four.

But most around ACC country and across the country remember Packer as the longtime analyst on Raycom Sports, NBC and CBS. Packer called every Final Four from 1975-2008, including seven seasons at NBC and 27 seasons at CBS. He worked with some of sports' greatest play-by-play broadcasters on championship weekend, including Brent Musburger, Curt Gowdy, Gary Bender, Jim Nantz and Dick Enberg.

The son of Anthony Packer, a longtime coach at Lehigh, the younger Packer opted for broadcasting in 1973, joining NBC while doing local games in North Carolina for Raycom. Packer continued to do ACC games for Raycom throughout his career until his retirement in 2008.

"I have had a chance to broadcast most of the great games since college basketball got on national television and I'm not interested in broadcasting any more games," Packer said to the Associated Press in 2008. "I enjoyed doing that but I won't be any more."

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Billy Packer dies: College basketball broadcaster on 35 Final Fours