Iconic sports broadcaster Darrell Eastlake dead at 75
TRIBUTES have flooded in for iconic Australian sports broadcaster Darrell Eastlake after he died on Thursday aged 75.
ICONIC Australian sports broadcaster Darrell Eastlake has died aged 75.
Channel Nine reported the former Wide World of Sports commentator passed away on Thursday morning at a nursing home on the NSW central coast after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Eastlake was a larger-than-life personality who called rugby league matches and motorsports, as well as weightlifting and the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. His over-the-top descriptions and ability to hype up any event with his booming voice made him a favourite among sports fans.
Eastlake worked in TV and radio for more than 40 years and was the voice of State of Origin games in the 1980s and early 1990s.
He had been fighting Alzheimer’s and emphysema for the past eight years.
AFL commentator and Nine personality Eddie McGuire, who worked with Eastlake at the Commonwealth Games, said he was “larger than life” and a man who did his homework.
“He was a great teammate and I had many great times with him. He was sensational on air,” McGuire told Triple M.
news.com.auAPRIL 19, 20188:53AM
Fellow Wide World of Sports legend Ken Sutcliffe worked alongside Eastlake and remembers a man who was full of enthusiasm.
“Darrell used to get to a fever pitch from very early on in the game,” Sutcliffe told The
Daily Telegraph in 2013.
“He’d get so excited that David Hill, our executive producer, stood behind Darrell in the broadcast box at Lang Park with a rolled up Courier Mail.
“He’d belt him over the head if he started getting too carried away but Darrell just kept on calling in his own unique style.
“He had his own unique style. You heard his voice and you knew you were watching State of Origin.”
Eastlake was the voice of Origin.Source:News Corp Australia
Speaking in 2016, Eastlake’s wife Julie detailed the tragic toll his illness had taken on both of them.
“It’s been so hard for me to tell him he can’t come home,” Mrs Eastlake told Channel Nine’s
A Current Affair.
“If he falls I can’t pick him up — and he has fallen so many times.
“He gets very down because he thinks he’s forgotten, but he’s not forgotten, he’s really and truly not.
“I do a lot of crying when I leave the nursing home.
“I sit here and say to myself, ‘Where’s my man gone?’”
Comedian Billy Birmingham included Eastlake in his popular
12th Man projects in which he would impersonate famous identities including the Channel 9 cricket commentary team.
Eastlake started his working life as a baggage handler at Qantas, then ran a surf shop before entering the media.
Eastlake retired in 2005.