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The “voice” was remembered for his heart.
“He was a great storyteller,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said of sportscaster Jim Leahey, “who had the ability to really connect with people and bring everything together and touch your heart.”
Leahey, who was considered the “voice of sports at the University of Hawaii” during a six-decade broadcast career, died Monday morning at Queen’s Medical Center. He was 80.
“There will never be another Jim Leahey,” said retired UH volleyball coach Dave Shoji.
Leahey and Shoji’s birthday was December 4th. “We used to call each other and say ‘happy birthday,'” Shoji said. “He was the voice of UH athletics. He just had a way of describing the game like no other. He always added a bit of local color, which made it interesting for me.”
Leahey has been named Hawaii’s sportswriter of the year 17 times. His play-by-play views were so detailed and emotional that the category was paused for 14 years after his win in 1991. “He could have won it at least 25 times,” said Dave Goren, executive director of the National Sports Media Association.
Leahey was inducted into UH’s circle of honor in 2016.
In 2018, Leahey retired from a television and radio career dating back to 1957 when he was a 15-year-old student at Saint Louis School who stepped in when an illness prevented his father Chuck from attending a boxing match at Schofield Barracks to call Jim Leahey’s son Kanoa is now the play-by-play announcer for Spectrum’s televised UH sports.
“You can’t tell the history of Hawaiian sports without the Leaheys,” said Larry Beil, a former Hawaiian sportscaster who now works in the Bay Area. “You were so much a part of it. All of them. Three generations. But Jim, I think, was the one who really took it to great heights. Back then (in the 1980s) we didn’t have every single game on TV. When they started broadcasting everything, Jim was basically at our house every night.”
Leahey was a teacher at Campbell High School when he received an offer to join KGMB as a sports anchor. “Jim was a great journalist,” said Gary Sprinkle, who worked with Leahey at KGMB. “He expected to publish a story every day. He thought it would be a failure if we didn’t pull this off. If ever there was a pro, it was Jim.”
At the time, KGMB was televising some UH sporting events. Beil recalled Leahey writing notes on post-it cards with different colored pens. “He invested hours and hours and hours of preparation,” Beil said. “I just asked him, ‘Do you really have to do all this?’ He said, ‘No, no, no. Only if you want to do it right.’ It has accompanied me for many, many years.”
In 1984, Leahey joined KIKU, which began televising UH baseball and soccer games. Blangiardi, who managed KIKU, served as football analyst. They were best friends who frequently feuded off-air. “He loves telling the story of how I fired him several times and then hired him back the next day,” Blangiardi said. “I feel privileged to be more than just a colleague. We shared so many incredible memories together. I’ve been his boss at various times. But through it all, there was a deep and intense friendship and respect.”
KIKU became KHNL in 1989 and four years later KFVE was formed as a mainly sporting offshoot.
Leahey has played play-by-play for a variety of sports including soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, soccer, and swimming.
For several years he collaborated with Kanoa on the show “Leahey & Leahey” on PBS. On a set designed to replicate their kitchen, the Leaheys and guests discussed sports topics and offered opinions.
“I grew up with him and idolized him,” said KHON-TV athletic director Rob DeMello, who was the talk show’s producer. “When I was a kid, it wasn’t cool to learn new words. He made it cool. He made me expand my vocabulary. … He’s someone who celebrated language and linguistics and found creative ways to say things that have been said a thousand times before.”
Pal Eldredge, who was Leahey’s color analyst on baseball television shows for 33 seasons, praised his television partner’s love of books, music and words. “He was one of the most brilliant guys I’ve ever met,” said Eldredge. “His vocabulary was really great. His delivery. The guy was an absolute pro. He was a pain in the neck for everyone, but he was a perfectionist, wasn’t he?”
Leahey often said to cohorts: It’s better to do the right thing than to be right. He begged people to be kind to one another. He stepped into cracks and encouraged rapprochement.
When he first started naming games, he brought several Campbell students to events. “Jim really struck me with his humanity towards these kids,” said Don Robbs, the 40-season UH baseball game radio announcer. “You loved him. I was told he was the best teacher they ever had.”
After recovering from leukemia in the 1990s, he continued to send gift baskets to nurses.
He would end each meal at Jack’s Restaurant by thanking the chef and waitress, and then often picking up the bill for a random dinner.
A believer in diversity, Leahey once joined the Asian American Journalists Association. He served as the commissioner of AAJA’s Media Basketball League and provided the water bottles for each game
In what was once known as the Reno Hilton, Leahey saw some bikers at a restaurant. He approached them and asked their stories. They rode Harleys and served in Vietnam. Leahey also had a stint in Vietnam. Leahey thanked them for their services and then paid for all of their breakfast orders.
“He was a good guy,” said former UH soccer coach June Jones.
On Sundays after a home game, Leahey would take Jones and his friends on motorcycle rides. “We drove all around the island,” Jones said. “We were probably on our bikes for five or six hours. He told me I was crazy, that I was speeding. I probably did. But we had a great time. That was the nicest thing on a Sunday.”
Leahey is survived by his wife Toni, three children and a granddaughter.