Maury Magill, the legendary former WWL broadcaster whose 44-year radio career included serving as the New Orleans Saints color commentator during game broadcasts in their inaugural season, died Friday.
He was 89-years-of-age according to WWLTV.com.
Magill began his career at WWL Radio in 1961 and became one of the most versatile voices in New Orleans radio. In addition to broadcasting Saints games, he hosted nightly sports talk shows on WWL and served as sports director, staff announcer, news anchor and disc jockey.
Magill was part of the WWL broadcast team that covered the Saints throughout their early years, including their first game on Sept. 17, 1967 in Tulane Stadium.
Pandemonium broke out just minutes into the game as Saints rookie John Gilliam ran back the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Magill told The Houma Courier in a 2007 story that he quickly began to worry if the building he was working in was going to hold up.
"Tulane Stadium was steel," Magill said. "The stairs and everything were steel. The people just went insane. The people just started pounding their feet. I thought the place was going to fall apart."
Magill was also on hand at the stadium on Nov. 8, 1970 for his broadcast partner Al Wester's call of Tom Dempsey's record-setting 63-yard kick. At that exact moment, a swarm of bees invaded the WWL-AM transmitter, knocking the historic broadcast off the air in New Orleans.
"We were off the air for only about five minutes," Magill later told The Times-Picayune, "but, of course, it was a crucial five minutes."
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