Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American
sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time
play-by-play announcer for the
Los Angeles Lakers of the
National Basketball Association, Hearn was remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, associated with colorful phrases such as
slam dunk,
air ball, and
no harm, no foul that have become common basketball vernacular, and for broadcasting 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting on November 21, 1965. Additionally, Hearn started the now common tradition of estimating the distance of shots taken Of note is that most of Hearn's games in the
television era were
simulcast on both radio and television, even after most teams chose to use different announcers for the different media.