Lester Keiter (April 27, 1919 – April 14, 2009), also known as the "General", was a

newscaster A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and

sports director The title of sports director can refer to the director of a live sports broadcast. It can also refer to an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. Director {{Job-stub ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

television station

KHON-TV KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of Fox and The CW. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). Both stati ...

. Keiter, who also lived in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, also called some of the biggest fights in the history of

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

Early career

Lester Keiter was born and raised in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

.Tsai, Stephen. "Keiter was 'a golden voice'," ''The Honolulu Advertiser'', Wednesday, April 15, 2009.
He began his broadcasting career after World War II when he began announcing for a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

baseball team.

During World War II

Les Keiter enlisted in the Navy in early 1942. After basic training he became a Yeoman 3rd Class,

U.S. Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

, and was shipped to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. By August, 1942 Les had been promoted to ensign, and after training was deployed with the 93rd Seebee Battalion towards the

Russell Islands :''See also Russell Island (disambiguation).'' The Russell Islands are two small islands (Pavuvu and Mbanika), as well as several islets, of volcanic origin, in the Central Province of Solomon Islands. They are located approximately northwest of ...

, just north of

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

. Les was reassigned to a communications outfit, bouncing from one

Pacific Island Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

to another for over a year, before landing on

Peleliu Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II. H ...

, Palau, where Les ran the Palau Armed Forces Radio Station as the station's manager. The station had a full staff and aired music and news, and Les did sports. He announced boxing matches, had his own show covering baseball, including an exhibition visit and game with the navy All-Stars. Les returned stateside near the end of the war.

After the war

During the 1960s, he called some of the biggest fights in the history of boxing, including the 1964 victory by

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

(then Cassius Clay) over heavyweight champ

Sonny Liston Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 1930 – December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson i ...

.Fitzpatrick, Frank. "Broadcaster Les Keiter dies at 89," ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', Wednesday, April 15, 2009.
/ref> Keiter said the Ali-Liston match was the biggest fight he ever called. His frequent partner during boxing events for ABC radio was the late

Howard Cosell Howard is an English language, English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (disambiguation), Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defe ...

.McWhorter, A. J. "Broadcaster Keiter gave voice to sports," ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'', Monday, March 3, 2008.
/ref> Keiter also called the infamous "no MAs" fight between Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard November 25, 1980 at the Superdome. Keiter served as sports director at WINS–AM in New York from the mid-1950s to 1963, mainly hosting the pre- and postgame shows for

Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

broadcasts. He also did

play-by-play 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 football Giants (1956–1959),

Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

(1955–1962) and Rangers. He was most remembered for his re-creations of

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

games from 1958 to 1960, broadcast back to New York listeners in the first three seasons after the

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

's departure from the city. His re-creations were so popular, many fans had no idea he was not covering the action live. Keiter left New York and headed to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1963, calling games for the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

and Big Five

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

. While broadcasting at the

Palestra The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball, is a historic arena and the home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball. Located at 235 South ...

, Keiter was known for his sign-on phrase, "Welcome to Panicsville, USA,"and also coined phrases such as "ring-tailed howitzer," "tickled the twine" and "in again, out again, Finnegan.""Les Keiter, called Palestra bomb scare game, dies at 89," ''Philadelphia Daily News'', Wednesday, April 15, 2009.
/ref> Keiter also covered the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

for Mutual Radio, working with Olympian

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifet ...

, whom Keiter once called the greatest athlete he had ever known. During those

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, Keiter called the play-by-play for

George Foreman George Edward Foreman (born January 10, 1949) is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he was nicknamed "Big George" and competed between 1967 and 1997. He is a two-time world heavyweight champio ...

's gold-medal boxing victory.

KHON-TV sports director

In 1970, Keiter and his wife moved to Hawaii. The following year, he was hired as KHON's sports director, where he would stay for over two decades.Yamane, Marisa. "Remembering Veteran Sportscaster Les Keiter," KHON–TV (Honolulu), Tuesday, April 14, 2009.
During Keiter's tenure, he guided many up and coming sportscasters. Fellow KHON sportscaster Ron Mizutani called Keiter his "mentor", saying, "I was a day away from entering the police force. I was his sports producer and he said where you going kid. I said I'm giving up. He said no you're not. Three days later I was his sports reporter."

Bob Hogue Robert Charles Hogue (born September 7, 1953) is an American athletic conference commissioner, author and columnist, sportscaster, and a former Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the Hawaii Senate, Hawaii State Senate repres ...

, another colleague, said about Keiter, "He was the man that I was just so proud to have an opportunity to work with to say you worked with someone who saw alongside some of the greatest athletes in the history of sports."

"General" Les Keiter

Keiter played military generals in two episodes of ''

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

''. Fellow KHON-TV news anchor Joe Moore started calling Keiter "General" as a result of these appearances. Moore recalled thinking, "Oh, I'm going to call him 'General' on the air. I always called him that around the news room, but never on the air. I thought, what the hell. It really took off." Keiter's nickname stuck until he retired from KHON in 1993.

Post-KHON work

After retiring from KHON, Keiter became the spokesman for the

Aloha Stadium Aloha Stadium is a closed multi-purpose stadium located in Halawa, Hawaii, a western suburb of Honolulu (though with a Honolulu address). It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. , the stadium ceased fan-attended operations indefinitely ...

. Until late 2008, he was also the host of the Honolulu Quarterback Club. In his later years, he reportedly had problems with his vision and difficulty walking. He also reportedly battled

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

in the months preceding his death.

Death

Keiter died on the afternoon of April 14, 2009, surrounded by his family. The KHON-TV web site reported Keiter's death as from

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...

. On April 21, Keiter's family scattered his ashes off Waikiki from a canoe procession. Keiter was posthumously inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame on November 22, 2013.

Notes

References

External links

Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia web page
*https://www.leskeiter.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Keiter, Les 1919 births 2009 deaths American Football League announcers American sports announcers Boxing commentators College basketball announcers in the United States Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters Motorsport announcers National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters New York Giants announcers New York Knicks announcers New York Rangers announcers People from Honolulu Philadelphia 76ers announcers Radio personalities from Seattle San Francisco Giants announcers United States Navy personnel of World War II University of Washington alumni