About Craig Sager
Craig Graham Sager ( SAY-ghər; June 29, 1951 – December 15, 2016) was an American sports reporter who covered an array of sports for CNN and its sister stations TBS and TNT, from 1981 until his death in late 2016. Sager worked as a sideline reporter pacing the floors of the National Basketball Association, as he invariably sported one of his vast collection of garishly eccentric jackets and suits. He was a 2016 inductee of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. During the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, Sager was named the 2017 recipient of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award. == Early life and education == Sager was born June 29, 1951, in Batavia, Illinois. He attended Batavia High School, gaining recognition in 1966 by writing an essay entitled "How and Why I Should Show Respect to the American Flag" for a patriotism contest sponsored by the American Legion. Sager's essay was published in the Congressional Record. It drew editorial accolades from conservative newspapers around the country for his declaration that he was an "untypical teen" of the silent majority that was not part of any protest movement and "happy we were born in America and not in Havana, Moscow, or Peiping". Growing up in Batavia, Sager was friends with his basketball teammates Ken Anderson and Dan Issel. Greg Issel, Dan's brother, was very close with Sager.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.