Sportscaster McNamara, 76, dies

Bob McNamara, for an era considered the dean of Capital Region sports in a notable newspaper and broadcast career that touched six decades, died Sunday after battling cancer.

The Cathedral Academy grad and former St. Anselm's College basketball player served as a sportswriter and editor for The Knickerbocker News for a decade before embarking on a television career that featured stops at three local network affiliates.

A 1956 graduate of St. Anselm's, he began his career later that year as a sportswriter with The Knickerbocker News rising to the rank of sports editor before jumping to television and WTEN Ch. 10 in 1966.

McNamara reigned largely in a time before the Internet and an exponentially expanded cable universe diluted the news audience and chipped away at local TV news viewership.

Part of McNamara's appeal was his comination of hard-nosed reporting and on-air commentary, which Baboulis called a "stew of very, very interesting television."

The hiatus stemmed from his verbal abuse directed at a young Pro Bowlers Association staffer; McNamara publicly chastised the aide for not calling to let him know a bowler had rolled a perfect game during qualifying at a Latham PBA tournament, an outburst witnessed by others.

Afterward, many a comparison was made to Woody Hayes, the legendary Ohio State football coach whose career ended when he punched an opposing player.

Even that incident was a testament to McNamara's tenaciousness as a reporter, a trait he brought with him from his days in newspapers.