Longtime Memphis sports broadcaster George Lapides dies

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A funeral home says George Lapides, a longtime fixture in the Memphis sports scene as a newspaper reporter, broadcaster and team executive, has died. He was 76.

Warren Canale, funeral director at Canale Funeral Directors in Memphis, confirmed Saturday that Lapides died Friday. An obituary on the Canale Funeral Directors website said Lapides died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a form of lung disease.

Lapides hosted a sports talk radio show for 45 years and maintained that role until shortly before his death. He was sports editor of the Memphis Press Scimitar until the paper folded in 1983.

Lapides spent a year as athletic director at Rhodes College and was an executive with the Memphis Chicks minor-league baseball team. He was sports editor for television station WREG from 1995 to 2005.