Is Mark Packer related to Billy Packer?

Publish date: 2024-08-11

Anthony William Packer, an American sportscaster, and the published author was born on February 25, 1940, and died on January 26, 2023.

Packer worked as a color analyst for college basketball coverage on television for more than three decades.

Packer was a Liberty High School graduate from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. From 1958 to 1962, he attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and played guard on the school’s basketball team for his final three years (freshmen were not eligible for varsity sports at the time), leading Wake to two Atlantic Coast Conference titles and 1962 Final Four. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity’s Delta Nu chapter.

Following graduation, he worked as an assistant coach for his alma mater. Packer began his broadcasting career in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1972, when he was asked to fill in as color analyst for a regionally televised ACC game. The following season, Packer was promoted to the starting lineup.

Packer began his career as a network employee, first with NBC (1974-1981) and then with CBS (1981–2008). From 1975 to 2008, he covered every NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, including the Final Four. He also covered ACC games for Raycom Sports for many years. He contributed to the development of the computer game Hoops in 1986. In 1993, Packer received a Sports Emmy Award.

Packer received the Marvin Francis Award in 2005 for “notable achievement and service in ACC coverage,” according to The Washington Post.

On July 15, 2008, CBS announced that Packer would be replaced on the network’s lead broadcast crew by Clark Kellogg. This marked the end of Packer’s 35-year run as a TV analyst for the NCAA tournament.