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Billy Packer, a broadcaster for NBC and CBS who covered 34 Final Fours in college basketball and won an Emmy, passed away on Thursday. He was 82.

Packer’s son, Mark, revealed to The Associated Press that his father spent the previous three weeks in the hospital in Charlotte due to a number of medical problems before passing away from renal failure.

Packer’s career as a broadcaster developed at the same time as collegiate basketball. From 1975 until 2008, he served as an analyst or colour commentator for every Final Four. For Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio and Sports Analyst in 1993, he was awarded a Sports Emmy.

According to Mark Packer, “He really loved performing the Final Fours.” He timed it well. Timing is everything in life. He delighted at the opportunity to participate in something that, in all honesty, he was going to see anyhow. When Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the college basketball scene, it sort of took off, and I believe it was the turning point that caused March Madness to become an obsession for college basketball fans.

However, it was his work as an analyst that earned him the greatest recognition. Packer spent three seasons as a basketball player at Wake Forest, where he helped the Demon Deacons reach the Final Four in 1962.In 1975, he called his first Final Four after joining NBC in 1974. John Wooden’s final game as a coach that year saw UCLA defeat Kentucky in the championship game.

Along with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire, Packer contributed to the 1979 coverage of the NCAA championship game, in which Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State team. With a 24.1 Nielsen rating, which translates to an estimated 35.1 million viewers, that game is still the highest-rated basketball match in history.

In the autumn of 1981, when the network secured the NCAA Tournament rights, Packer joined CBS. Up to the 2008 Final Four, he continued to serve as the network’s primary analyst.

When Packer used the nickname “tough monkey” to characterise then-Georgetown star Allen Iverson during a game in 1996 while working on CBS, it caused controversy. Later, Packer stated that he was not sorry for what he had said because it had no bearing on his position.

Packer has been “synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and established the bar of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament,” according to Sean McManus, the head of CBS Sports.

He significantly influenced the development and acceptance of the sport. said McManus. In typical Billy flair, he offered his own own style, viewpoint, and ideas when analysing the game, but he never lost sight of the action on the field. Billy was a dedicated basketball player, but at his core, he was a family man. His contributions to college basketball, CBS Sports, and—most importantly—his reputation as a devoted husband, father, and grandpa will all live on. Everyone will miss him much.

In 2008, Packer became a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

As news of Packer’s passing circulated, ESPN commentator Dick Vitale posted on Twitter. We were shocked to learn of Billy Packer’s demise since he loved college basketball so much “Tweeted was Vitale. “My thoughts and prayers are with Mark, Billy’s son, and the whole Packer family. Billy and his associates Dick Enberg and Al McGuire were outstanding, and I have always had the utmost respect for them. Billy be reborn.

We fell in love (with) college basketball because of you, tweeted college basketball commentator Fran Fraschilla. I’ll always hear your voice in my thoughts.

During his time as a broadcaster, Packer was seen as a contentious personality who frequently drew the ire of college basketball fans, notably along North Carolina’s “Tobacco Road.”Growing up, I was a huge NC State supporter. After watching a game, I would say, “Boy, you definitely have it out for NC State, don’t you?” Mark Packer said that the man would simply chuckle.

No matter the school, the majority of fans felt the same way about the elder Packer, according to the younger Packer, who hosts ACC PM on the ACC Network.

When he covered a North Carolina game, Tar Heels supporters would yell at him, according to Mark Packer. Wake (Forest) supporters would say, “You detest us. And Billy just sort of found that amusing.

While the majority of his followers would remember his father as a broadcaster, Mark Packer said he will remember him more more for his financial savvy. He said that in addition to owning several other businesses, his father was a significant real estate investor.

Packer claimed that Billy “was always a little bit of a hustler – he was always seeking for that next business transaction.”