Merle Harmon

Merle Reid Harmon (June 21, 1926 – April 15, 2009) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play voice for five Major League Baseball teams, two teams in the American Football League and the World Football League's nationally syndicated telecaster. Harmon also owned a chain of sporting good clothing stores.

Born and raised in Salem, Illinois, Harmon served with the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II. After the conflict ended, he attended Graceland College on the G.I. Bill, earning an Associate of Arts degree in 1947. He graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelor of Arts degree in radio & television broadcasting and marketing in 1949. He began his broadcasting career later that same year with the Topeka Owls, a minor league baseball team in the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League.

For two years beginning in 1953, Harmon broadcast University of Kansas football and basketball games as the first-ever voice of the KU Radio Network. In 1954, he called baseball for the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, moving to the major league Kansas City Athletics the following year after that franchise's relocation from Philadelphia. He replaced By Saam, who returned to being the Phillies' main voice. Harmon first did Athletics play-by-play on KMBC-AM with Larry Ray (1955–56) and Ed Edwards (1957–58), then later on WDAF radio and television with Bill Grigsby (1959–61).