Sportscaster Charlie Jones dies; covered Gainesville Olympics events

SAN DIEGO - Veteran sportscaster Charlie Jones, who declared Gainesville the "hospitality capital of the world" while covering the 1996 Olympics, has died.<br /> <br /> Jones, whose career as a play-by-play announcer dated to the beginning of the American Football League in 1960, was 77.<br /> <br /> He died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, his longtime agent, Martin Mandel, told The Associated Press.<br /> <br /> "Charlie is one of the legends of sports broadcasting starting with covering the first Super Bowl,'' Mandel said. "He had a wonderful kettledrum voice. He was known for that and his versatility.''<br /> <br /> NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol called Jones "one of the great pioneers of NBC Sports. His work in particular on the NFL, golf and the Olympics left a lasting legacy.''<br /> <br /> It was at the conclusion of NBC's coverage of the Olympic rowing and canoe/kayak competition on Lake Lanier in 1996 that Jones, as he signed off the final day of the coverage, declared Gainesville "the hospitality capital of the world."<br /> <br /> To this day, that quote is included on the City of Gainesville's Web site.<br /> <br /> Jones worked for ABC and NBC in a career spanning 38 years.<br /> He started at ABC in 1960, the year the American Football League made its debut. He moved to NBC in 1965, remaining with that network until 1997.<br /> Jones announced 28 different sports, while with NBC, from golf to tennis, baseball to figure skating. He called events at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.<br /> <br /> He is survived by wife Ann Jones, two children and three grandchildren.<br /> <br /> <I> (AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this report.)<I><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />