Legendary College Basketball Analyst Billy Packer, Who Called 34 Final Fours, Dies At 82

Longtime CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer has died, his family announced Thursday night. Packer, 82, spent 34 years on Final Four broadcast teams, 27 of them with CBS as its lead college basketball analyst before his last Final Four in 2008.

During his three-plus decades as a leading voice in the sport, Packer helped popularize three-man TV broadcast teams with DIck Enberg and Al McGuire and was never afraid to speak his mind. 

Packer starred as a player for Wake Forest from 1958 to 1962 but became better known through the sports world for opinionated analysis from the sidelines of the biggest games in college basketball including many years calling ACC games in addition to his duties at CBS, where he was an analyst from 1981-2008.

Though he was known best publicly for his role as a college basketball analyst, Packer was a man with wide-ranging pursuits. A 1999 profile of Packer in the Tampa Bay Times revealed his forays into real estate and a "fascination with the legal system." He was also a father to Mark, Liz and Brandt and was predeceased by his wife, Barb.

Packer was also impactful as a player, averaging 14.1 points as a 5-foot-9 senior guard on the 1962 Wake Forest team that reached the Final Four under coach Bones McKinney.

"Rest in Peace to the most incredible Dad, mentor and best friend," Brandt Packer wrote on Twitter. "My entire life I always tried to emulate him - how to be a husband, father, to prep for a telecast, you name it, he was the bar for me. Just crushed. But we have peace knowing Billy is in Heaven tonight with Barb.