Bill King: Sportscaster named to National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame.
Bill King, the late Bay Area sportscaster and former voice of the A’s, Warriors and Raiders, was elected to the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame, the organization announced Monday.
King was at the mike for championship wins by all three teams. He was the A’s radio play-by-play man from 1981 until his death in 2005 and won the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence, presented by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Six others were voted to the NSMA’s 2021 Hall of Fame class: sportscasters Jim Nantz and Dick Stockton and sportswriters Larry Merchant, William Nack, William C. Rhoden and Rick Telander.
King, known for his “Holy Toledo!” call and trademark beard, called Warriors games from 1962, when they moved to San Francisco, until 1983. He became the Raiders’ play-by-play announcer in 1966 and was behind the mike for such moments as the “Sea of Hands,” the “Immaculate Reception” and the “Heidi Game.”
With the A’s, King partnered with Lon Simmons, another Frick Award recipient, and Ken Korach over 25 years as the play-by-play voice. King was a finalist for the Frick Award seven times before being named the winner and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July 2017.
Among other NSMA award winners, Giants play-by-play announcer Duane Kuiper was named 2020 California Sportscaster of the Year in a tie with Ted Leitner of the Padres’ radio network. It’s the first NSMA award for Kuiper.