Legendary sports broadcaster Darrell Eastlake dies after long battle with Alzheimer’s
Iconic sports broadcaster Darrell Eastlake has died aged 75 after fighting a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease and emphysema.
Eastlake, best known as the booming voice of State of Origin, passed away at a nursing home on the NSW Central Coast.
His wife of 22 years Julie was by his side through it all, visiting him every day at his aged care facility.
“I'm the only one who can still get a laugh out of him,” she said previously.
“Sometimes he forgets who I am, like Christmas Day one year he actually told me 'thank you for coming to visit but you should be getting along to your family’.”
The rugby league and Commonwealth Games commentator’s death comes 13 years after he retired from his media career in 2005.
Fellow broadcasting legend Ken Sutcliffe recalled working alongside the big personality.
“Darrell used to get to a fever pitch from very early on in the game,” Sutcliffe told The Daily Telegraph in 2013.
“He’d get so excited that David Hill, our executive producer, stood behind Darrell in the broadcast box at Lang Park with a rolled up Courier Mail.
“He’d belt him over the head if he started getting too carried away but Darrell just kept on calling in his own unique style.
“He had his own unique style. You heard his voice and you knew you were watching State of Origin.
Eastlake loved all sport and also called surfing, 500cc Motorcycle World Championship, Formula One and weightlifting in a career that spanned four decades.