January
Long-time Packers Radio Announcer Jim Irwin Dies at 77
For a younger generation of Green Bay Packers fans, Wayne Larrivee is the only man they know as the voice of Packers.
For everyone else, Jim Irwin is the play-by-play broadcaster who, from 1969 to 1998, helped place the Packers Radio Network among the best in the NFL.
And after a year-long battle with kidney cancer, the Hall of Fame announcer died Sunday at the age of 77.
His voice extended throughout Wisconsin, as Irwin was also the play-by-play for University of Wisconsin football and Milwaukee Bucks basketball. But it was the voice he provided for Packers games that will be forever remembered for generations of Packers fans, both in good times and bad.
Irwin became the Packers play-by-play man after six years as a color commentator. From 1975 to ’98, Irwin became the voice that Packers fans routinely chose over television broadcasts. Teamed with personalties such as Lionel Aldridge, Max McGee and Larry McCarren, Irwin was the man that called so many memorable moments in Wisconsin history before retiring in 1998.
He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2003.
Here is his Super Bowl XXXI call of Brett Favre’s first touchdown pass to Andre Rison:
Ah the Raiders, no one can blame them for not being true to themselves; recently the Raiders just pulled off perhaps one of the most Raider-esqe moves of all time by giving up a 2012 1st round draft pick plus a conditional 2nd round pick in 2013 (which can become a 1st round pick should the Raiders win a playoff game this year) for disgruntled Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer.
