Jim Huber (August 28, 1944 – January 2, 2012) was an American
sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
, writer, and essayist. He worked as a
sports anchor
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
for the former
CNN Sports Illustrated
CNN/Sports Illustrated (CNN/SI) was a 24-hour sports news network. It was created by Time Warner, merging together its CNN and ''Sports Illustrated'' brands and related resources. It was launched on December 12, 1996.
Other news networks like E ...
, before joining
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS (American TV ch ...
in 2000.
Huber was raised in
Ocala, Florida
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
.
[ He attended ]Presbyterian College
Presbyterian College (PC) is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina.
History
Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by the William Plumer Jacobs. He had served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Cl ...
,[ but graduated from Central Florida. ][ He began his career in ]sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the ...
as a sportswriter for the ''Miami News
''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the '' Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...
'' and ''The Atlanta Journal''.[ He joined WXIA in ]Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, before moving to a relatively new cable news network called CNN.[ Huber was also Public Relations Director for the ]Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta from 1972 until 1980. They played home games in the Omni Coliseum and were members of the West and later Patrick divisions of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with t ...
from 1972 until 1975.
Huber had a long history with the Turner Broadcasting Corporation. Huber first joined CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
in 1984, where he hosted a sports show called ''The Sporting Life With Jim Huber''.[ He also contributed to CNN Sports Illustrated, a sister network of CNN, as an anchor and sports announcer. In 2000, Huber became a full-time on-air announcer and commentator for Turner Sports, which allowed him to cover both golf and the ]National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
(NBA) in greater depth.[ During the 1990s, Huber was awarded an ]Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for an essay, "Olympic Park Bombing", which he wrote and delivered in response to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing
The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, on July 27, 1996, during the 1996 Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed ...
during the Atlanta Olympics.[
Huber died in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 2, 2012, at the age of 67.][ He had recently been diagnosed with ]leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huber, Jim
1944 births
2012 deaths
Emmy Award winners
American sports journalists
Sportswriters from Florida
American television sports anchors
American television sports announcers
CNN people
American essayists
Sportspeople from Ocala, Florida
College of Central Florida alumni
Presbyterian College alumni
Golf writers and broadcasters
National Basketball Association broadcasters
Atlanta Falcons announcers