J. Fred Duckett Credit: photo courtesy of Rice University

I first attended the Texas Relays back in high school in the early 1980s and have been many times since, and through all of those, the big, booming voice of J. Fred Duckett has been a constant. For decades, his announcing over the PA system has been the voice of the Texas Relays. In addition to being a passionate fan of track & field, he was also a loyal Rice Owl and announced at many of their sporting events; also, he served a stint as the announcer at Houston Astros games. However, I only knew him from a spectator’s view, so, in a rare nod to the competition, I’ll hand over the obit duties to someone who knew him better, the Statesman‘s Randy Riggs.

This article appears in June 22 • 2007.

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