Longtime sports anchor Alan Massengale — who worked at ESPN, Fox Sports, and KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles — has passed away at the age of 63.
Nicknamed “The Legend,” Massengale was one of ESPN’s early SportsCenter anchors in the mid-1980s. From Bristol, he moved on to his native Florida as a sportscaster at WPLG-TV before heading out to California to anchor Prime Ticket Regional Sports Network coverage.
Massengale stayed in Los Angeles to broadcast for Fox Sports Net prior to taking the sports anchor position at KCBS and KCAL9, where he also hosted the station’s Sports Central program along with pre- and post-game Los Angeles Lakers coverage.
Additionally, Massengale was a prominent presence in boxing, hosting and calling play-by-play for Top Rank, the World Series of Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, and RingTV.com.
Massengale was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2015 and became an outspoken advocate for undergoing colonoscopies and getting preventative checks. He frequently shared updates on his treatments and pertinent information on Twitter.
His last tweet dealt with that very subject, sharing an article about someone who had died because he failed to get diagnosed at an early age.
According to reports, Massengale was placed on life support following a slip and fall which resulted in him suffering a brain bleed.
Massengale was a graduate of the University of Georgia and was named as a 2022 fellow of its school of journalism. He began his career out of college as a sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
