CLEVELAND (AP) — Jim Donovan, the beloved radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Browns and a TV sports fixture for more than four decades, died Saturday. He was 68.
Donovan retired from his broadcast career earlier this year and stepped away from his game-day duties with the team before this season while battling cancer. He had called Cleveland's games since the team's expansion rebirth in 1999.
"This is an incredibly difficult day for us and the entire Cleveland Browns organization,” Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said. “His impact as the Voice of the Browns for 25 years is immeasurable as he touched the lives of our fans each and every Sunday with his love for the Browns and his brilliance at his craft.
“He will be greatly missed, but he cemented a legacy that will live on forever. The only thing that outweighed his love for this city and this team was the love he had for his family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Cheryl, his daughter, Meghan, and everyone who was fortunate enough to call Jimmy family or friend.”
A Boston native known to everyone as “Jimmy,” Donovan endeared himself to Cleveland fans with his passion, sense of humor and professionalism. He was a stickler for detail, spending countless hours preparing for game broadcasts.
Donovan had recently been inducted into the Browns' Legends Club and the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. He had been too ill to attend the events.
When he was forced to step down in August, Donovan wrote a letter to Browns fans expressing his gratitude for their support.
“I have called Browns games for 25 years. Not a day has gone by when I haven’t paused and been so proud to be ‘The Voice of the Browns,’” he wrote. “Cheryl, Meghan and I thank you for all the love, support and prayers during my rough patches. It’s like having a huge family around us. And that’s what makes the Cleveland Browns so special. You do.”
Donovan had to step away as sports director at WKYC-TV last fall for several months to undergo treatment for leukemia. He returned to the broadcast booth in time to call the team's late-season run to the playoffs.
He had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2000 and underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2011.
A graduate of Boston University, Donovan got to Cleveland in 1985. Along with doing local reporting of the city's three professional sports franchises, Donovan also had several national network assignments and was part of NBC's coverage team at the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.
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FILE _ Cleveland Browns radio broadcaster Jim Donovan stands on the field prior to an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013 in Cleveland. The Browns won 37-24. (AP Photo/David Richard, File)
SAO PAULO (AP) — Voters in Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, went to the polls Sunday in a mayoral race pitting incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes against leftist lawmaker Guilherme Boulos.
Nunes has lukewarm support from former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, while Boulos is an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Various polls published Saturday showed Nunes, who inherited the mayorship after Bruno Covas died of cancer in 2021, is the favorite. His advantage over Boulos is greater than the margin of error of the Datafolha and Quaest polls.
In a day of mild rain, turnout appeared to be smaller than in the first round of voting, with no lines.
Sao Paulo Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas, a Nunes supporter, claimed during a press conference, without offering evidence, that police had detected an endorsement of Boulos by criminal organization PCC.
Boulos, who frequently accused Nunes of harboring members of the criminal group in his administration, said in a press conference the governor should be arrested for his comments during the vote.
Boulos on Friday in a last-ditch effort for exposure accepted an invitation to debate self-help guru turned far-right politician Pablo Marçal, who finished third in the first round of voting on Oct. 7. At the end of the debate, Marçal urged his voters not to vote Sunday.
Lower turnout could work against Nunes.
Most of the attention in this year's municipal elections in Brazil has been on Sao Paulo, where the race was marred by episodes of violence involving Marçal in the first round of voting. Boulos, a longtime housing advocate for the poor, seeks to avoid his second consecutive defeat in the race.
Other Brazilian cities with more than 200,000 registered voters were also holding mayoral elections.
In Rio de Janeiro, incumbent Mayor Eduardo Paes was reelected in the first round for his fourth, non-consecutive term. Paes, an enthusiastic fan of Carnival, had Lula’s support but focused his campaign on local issues against Bolsonaro’s candidate, Alexandre Ramagem.
Brazilians were also watching closely for results in Belo Horizonte, one of the country’s biggest cities, where polls suggested Mayor Fuad Noman faced a close race with pro-Bolsonaro candidate Bruno Engler.
The vote in Fortaleza, another of the nation’s biggest cities, was in a dead heat between the candidate from Lula's Workers' Party, Evandro Leitão, and pro-Bolsonaro challenger André Fernandes.
Follow AP’s Brazil coverage at https://www.apnews.com/hub/brazil
FILE - A view of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a signing ceremony of a compensation agreement for damages caused by the 2015 collapse of the Mariana dam owned by the mining company Samarco, a joint venture of Vale and BHP, at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
