Loel Elijah Passe (; May 29, 1917 – July 15, 1997) was an American sports broadcaster. After working for a radio station in Alabama, Passe was a baseball

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 ...

announcer for the minor league

Houston Buffaloes The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League Baseball, Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals. The clu ...

beginning in 1950. When Houston was awarded a major league franchise, the Houston Colt .45s (later renamed the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

), Passe was one of the team's broadcasters from 1962 to 1976.

Biography

Passe had worked in radio in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

since at least 1944.

Roy Hofheinz Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912 – November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1934 to 1936, county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city ...

owned several radio stations in the American South, including the Birmingham station that employed Passe. In 1950, Hofheinz hired Passe to broadcast for the Houston Buffaloes, a minor league baseball team. When Houston received the expansion Colt .45s in 1962, Passe was one of the major league team's original broadcasters, joined by

Gene Elston Robert Gene Elston (March 26, 1922 – September 5, 2015) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) broadcaster, primarily with the Houston Astros. Early life and career A native of Fort Dodge, Iowa, Elston was born on March 26, 1922. He started work i ...

and

Al Helfer George Alvin "Al" Helfer (September 26, 1911 – May 16, 1975) was an American radio sportscaster. Nicknamed "Mr. Radio Baseball", Helfer called the play-by-play of seven World Series, ten All-Star Games, and regular season broadcasts for sev ...

. While Helfer only spent one season in Houston, Passe was partnered with

from 1962 to 1976. In a 1971 ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' article, Passe said that he preferred the rare televised game to his radio work, but he affirmed his love for broadcasting, saying, "When you love baseball the way I do and broadcast major league games from the great cities of the country—man, that's living." While Elston was calm and neutral in the broadcast booth, Passe impartially cheered on the Astros, even when the team was not having a good season. After a nice Astros play, Passe was known to use colorful phrases such as "Now you're chunkin', in there, pardner!" and "Hot ziggety dog and good ole' sassafras tea!" During away games, the Astros Spanish-language broadcasts were not live, as broadcaster René Cárdenas simply listened to the English broadcasts and translated them. Cárdenas said that Passe spoke such non-standard English that his words often could not be intelligibly translated into Spanish. Passe did not miss a game during his tenure with the Astros. He remained on the Astros broadcasting team until 1976. After leaving baseball, Passe was vice president of Osborne International, a freight company. He died of cancer at his Houston home on July 15, 1997. He was buried at Forest Park Westheimer in Houston. Passe was posthumously inducted into the

Texas Radio Hall of Fame Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Passe, Loel 1917 births 1997 deaths American radio sports announcers Deaths from cancer in Texas Houston Astros announcers Houston Buffaloes Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters People from Walker County, Alabama