Former WMC Action News 5 Sports Director Jack Eaton passed away Tuesday night at the age of 86.
Eaton, the legendary voice of Tigers football and basketball, served as WMC Action News 5's sports director from 1956 until he retired in 1991. It was a stellar career that included an early stint as the Ole Miss play-by-play radio man.
Big Jack had been in poor health for the past two years and spent his last week in the intensive care unit at St. Francis Hospital.
Longtime viewers remember Jack on the air reporting the sports news of the Mid-South every night in the 1950s and 60s. Jack was courtside for every Tigers basketball game, including Larry Finch and company's brilliant run to the 1973 national championship game.
Jack did play-by-play of Tigers basketball from 1959 through the Keith Lee era until 1987. He did the Tigers football broadcast from 1964 until 1986. As a Tigers fan, Jack cheered from afar for the Tigers' 19 gridiron victories over the last two seasons.
