About Bill King
Wilbur "Bill" King was an American sports announcer. In 2016, the National Baseball Hall of Fame named King recipient of the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. On Opening Night, a video tribute was played on the Diamond Vision screen, and in lieu of the ceremonial first pitch, Bill King's chair, a baseball, and his headset were on the pitcher's mound. King announced Warrior games from 1962 to 1983, through the Wilt Chamberlain, Nate Thurmond, and Rick Barry eras and the team's first NBA Championship on the West Coast, in 1974–1975. For the first 15 years as A's announcer, King was paired with another legendary Bay Area sports announcer, Lon Simmons, with whom King had worked briefly with the Giants in 1958. He also described a grinning John Madden as a "slit watermelon" as a compliment when Raiders won the Super Bowl in 1977 with Madden as a coach.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.