Sports journalist Phil Jackson dies at age 84

GAINESVILLE -- Phil E. Jackson, the former longtime Sports Editor for the Times and a sports play-by-play announcer for WGGA (now 1240 ESPN Radio) and WDUN has died at the age of 84.<br /> <br /> Jackson began his journalism career in the 1930s at the Times and at the same time had a daily early morning sportscast on both Gainesville radio stations.<br /> <br /> For years, Jackson was a fixture at the Masters Golf Tournament each year for radio and the newspaper, and when Gainesville's Tommy Aaron was on the PGA circuit, he provided hole-by-hole coverage of Aaron's play.<br /> <br /> He was also a mainstay for many years at the Hall County Courthouse, doubling as the paper's court reporter when he wasn't covering sports. <br /> <br /> Jackson was instrumental in the development of the Northeast Georgia Sports Hall of Fame at the Northeast Georgia History Center. <i>(See article linked below.)</i><br /> <br /> In 1997, he wrote a book titled "50 Years of Cheers and Jeers," a collection of his newspaper columns.<br /> <br /> He and one of the National Basketball Association's most successful coaches shared the same name. And, at least one person, according to a posting on nytimes.com, ordered his book - thinking it was about the the NBA coach - only to discover after it arrived it was not.<br /> <br /> Private funeral services have been scheduled.