Sportscaster Charlie Jones, 77, Dies of Heart Attack

Sportscaster Charlie Jones dies of a heart attack at 77 at home in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Charlie Jones, the deep-voiced sportscaster whose career as a play-by-play announcer dated to the beginning of the American Football League in 1960, has died. He was 77.

Jones died of a massive heart attack Thursday at his home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, said his wife, Ann.

Jones, who retired in the late 1990s, had been in poor health for several years, she said.

Jones worked for ABC and NBC in a career spanning 38 years.

"He said, 'I never felt like I ever went to work,'" Ann Jones said Friday. "He loved it. He said, 'I've got the best seat in the house.' "

Jones started at ABC in 1960, the year the AFL made its debut. He moved to NBC in 1965, remaining with that network until 1997.

Jones announced 28 different sports, while with NBC, from golf to tennis, baseball to figure skating. He called events at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"He really liked them all," Ann Jones said. "He really did. He wasn't particular, because they were all so different."