R.I.P.: Terry Boers, Pioneering Chicago Sports Talker

Terry Boers (1951-2026)

Terry Boers, a founding host of Chicago's pioneering sports talk station 670 The Score (WSCR-AM) and a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist, died Friday at age 75 from liver failure at his home in Florida, surrounded by family.

Mitch Rosen, vice president of The Score, confirmed the death. 

Boers had publicly battled health issues for years, including cancer treatments in the months leading up to his retirement from the station on Jan. 5, 2017—just three days after its 25th anniversary.

According to The Chicago Tribune, Boers helped shape The Score's early identity as a raw, unfiltered "clubhouse" for sports talk. He co-hosted first with Dan McNeil for 7½ years, then with Dan Bernstein on the long-running Boers & Bernstein show. Their style—edgy, opinionated, often laced with humor and innuendo—drew loyal fans who valued his authenticity, even as it sometimes pushed boundaries and drew criticism amid evolving standards.

"We push it. We blur it," Boers told the Tribune in 2007. "All of us go overboard. I plead absolutely guilty on many fronts."

To admirers, that unapologetic honesty was his hallmark. Former colleague Steve Rosenbloom praised him after retirement: "Live microphone or not, he didn’t change. ... He was honest in his writing. He was honest on the air. He never lost his witty, embracing sense of humor. He never lost his capacity for raging against injustice."

Boers joined The Score at its 1991 launch after being recruited by Seth Mason of parent company Diamond Broadcasting, who sought the funniest Chicago sportswriter in the press box. Boers left his Sun-Times features job eight months later on advice from friend Mike Downey.

A key early boost came in 1992 when Mike Ditka moved his call-in show to The Score. Boers often served as co-host or interlocutor, leading to memorable, unpredictable moments—including Ditka's infamous outbursts like "I'll whip your ass!" and "Who ya crappin'?"—that became Chicago sports radio lore. 

Boers later credited Ditka's star power as vital: "I cannot be sure the station would have succeeded without him," he wrote in his 2017 autobiography, The Score of a Lifetime. While the show's provocative edge helped build an audience, station leaders occasionally urged focus on sports and discretion. Boers acknowledged the risks, once calling some interactions "kind of like a suicide mission only less fun."

His legacy endures as one of Chicago sports media's most distinctive, enduring voices—outrageous, outraged, and always opinionated.