Legendary sports broadcaster Bill Mercer has died. He was 99.
.JPG "Legendary sports broadcaster Bill Mercer, shown in a 2005 photo, died on Sunday. March 23, 2025. He was 99.")
Legendary sports broadcaster Bill Mercer died on Sunday, March 23.
He was 99.
His family confirmed that the Texas Radio and Sports Hall of Fame member died from an aortic aneurysm.
Mercer’s death was initially announced Sunday by Dallas Cowboys broadcaster Brad Sham on X according to WFAA.
“Truly the Godfather of DFW sports broadcasting, a national treasure, mentor, teacher, story teller & friend,” Sham wrote. “Race well run old friend.”
Mercer has been a staple in North Texas sports for more than six decades. He started as a radio broadcaster of professional wrestling in the 1950s, later became the first voice of the Texas Rangers as well as broadcasting thousands of sporting events from across North Texas to a local and national audience.
Along with covering pro wrestling, Mercer was a broadcast journalist who covered such major events as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Mercer was the first person to inform Lee Harvey Oswald he had been charged with murdering Kennedy.
Born in Muskogee, Okla. in 1926, Mercer relocated to North Texas after serving in World War II to attend North Texas State University in Denton, now known as the University of North Texas, where he earned his master’s degree.
Mercer covered many other sports on the radio, including baseball, football and basketball. He was the color commentator for seven years of CBS Radio’s broadcast of the Cotton Bowl Classic. In 1967, he called the 1967 NFL Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. He also called the Cowboys’ second Super Bowl appearance.
Mercer would later go back to the University of North Texas where he would teach new generations of sports broadcasters as part of the school’s radio/TV department. He would later be inducted into the North Athletic Department Hall of Fame.
Other awards Mercer earned include induction into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2020, the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Hall of Fame in 2009.
Mercer co-wrote a book about covering the Kennedy assassination called When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963, and wrote a memoir called Play-by-Play: Tales from a Sportscasting Insider.
A Mercer family member told the Dallas Morning News that a private memorial service would be held.
Various news reports contributed to this story, including WFAA.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 10:01 PM.