Cumberland-area sports broadcasts will be less colorful, informed and fun with Monday's death of  radio sportscaster Tom O'Rourke.
The longtime voice of Fort Hill and Allegany football, as well as other play-by-play broadcasts, O'Rourke, 66, was stricken Saturday at home, and died yesterday at the Western Maryland Health System.
Anyone who heard Tom O'Rourke will remember his voice. Rich and deep, it conveyed the man's unabashed love for sport, and a similarly boundless devotion to his hometown.
A graduate of LaSalle High School, O'Rourke was a decades-long fixture on the local sports scene. Numerous people called in to Cumberland's WCBC radio station Monday morning offering fond memories of O'Rourke as a friend and colleague.
According to WCBC, where O'Rourke worked for 30 years, he was watching a sports program on TV Saturday when he told his wife Mary Jane that he was not “feeling right” and that he should get to a hospital. Minutes later he collapsed.
O’Rourke had been a fixture in Cumberland on both television and radio, broadcasting everything from high school football and basketball to Allegany College basketball. In addition he often provided coverage of events featuring the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Steelers, Redskins and Ravens.
O’Rourke began his broadcasting career in the 1970’s and at one time hosted the popular “Time-out with T.O” call in sports program on WCBC.
Known for his down-to-earth, folksy style and numerous signature catch-phrases he shared during broadcasts, O’Rourke was one of the region's most identifiable and distinctive voices in local radio.
But it was more than the golden voice that made the man so successful behind the microphone, it was his passion for sport, the people who played the games, and the legions of fans who tuned to his broadcasts to follow their favorite local teams.
We join the larger Cumberland-area community in extending our condolences to the O'Rourke family.