Growing up a Philadelphia sports fan, we spent many hours of summer vacation listening to the Phillies' broadcasting team of Bill Campbell, Byrum Saam and Rich Ashburn on our transistor radio.

Before the dawn of ESPN and 24/7 television sports, Pennsylvania fans in the 1960s and '70s were fortunate to hear some of the legendary play-by-play voices or all time.John Facenda, who became known as "The Voice of Philadelphia" when he first anchored the news at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia in 1948, was later referred to as "The Voice of God" when he worked as narrator for NFL Films. Facenda's baritone voice, matched with Ed Sabol's classic video, helped rocket pro football into national prominence.Sportscaster Bob Costas referred to Facenda, who died in 1984, as "one of the most remarkable instruments in the history of broadcasting."Western Pennsylvanians had their own sports broadcasting super star in the gravel-voiced Bob Prince, who called Pirate baseball games from 1948 to 1975. He also later added Steelers football and Penguins hockey to his broadcasting resume before his death in 1985 at the age of 68.Phillies public-relations executive Larry Shenk called Bill Campbell, who died last October at the age of 91, the dean and the voice of Philadelphia sports. Merrill Reese, the articulate radio play-by-play voice of the Eagles since 1977, called Campbell the greatest in the history of Philadelphia broadcasting.Along with the Phillies, the versatile Campbell also broadcast Sixers' basketball, Eagles football, college basketball and the Penn Relays.One of his most famous calls came in 1962 when Wilt Chamberlain had his incredible 100-point scoring game against the New York Knicks.While Campbell's play-by-by play call of that game is forever etched in NBA lore, Paul Vathis, a Mauch Chunk native working as a photographer for The Associated Press at the time, provided the only visuals of that game.Vathis was in the crowd at Hershey Arena with his young son when, sensing this could to be a special moment in sports history, he went to his car to get his camera at halftime.Last week, Pennsylvania lost a contemporary of these legendary sports broadcasters when Fran Fisher, the voice of Penn State football games for three decades, died of natural causes at the age of 91 in his State College town house. Lou Prato, an author and Penn State sports historian, called Fisher a great ambassador for the university.Fisher now joins that legendary class of World War II-era broadcasters who were able to breath life into sporting events with their gifted voices.By JIM ZBICKtneditor@tnonline.com