Bert Wilson (broadcaster)

Ralph Bertram Puckett, using the radio name Bert Wilson (1911 – November 5, 1955), was a play-by-play broadcaster for Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs from 1943 to 1955. He spent his first year as Pat Flanagan's assistant, then took over in 1944. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He began his radio career in Cedar Rapids before moving to Indianapolis and then Chicago.

Wilson was an unabashed "homer," known for two catchphrases: "I don't care who wins, as long as it's the Cubs!" and "Sic 'em, Cubs!" He also invented a short-lived catchphrase for the double play combination of Ernie Banks, Gene Baker and Steve Bilko: "Bingo to Bango to Bilko". This phrase did not threaten the fame of "Tinker to Evers to Chance". He also had other well-known phrases, such as "It's a beautiful day in Chicago" and, when the Cubs were doing poorly near the end of the season as they frequently were, "Bring on the Bears." Wilson also called Chicago Bears football in the 1940s.

The Cubs were contenders when Wilson first began covering them for WGN, but by the mid-1950s were engaged in an annual battle with the Pittsburgh Pirates for last place in the National League. Following the 1955 season, Wilson, worn out by travel and suffering from heart trouble, left the Cubs and signed with the Cincinnati Reds to do a less taxing schedule of play-by-play on television. Wilson, however, died at age 44 from heart failure that November near his winter home in Mesa, Arizona. He left a wife and three children.

He is a member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.

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