Feb. 12, 2008

Bill Currie, former radio play-by-play man for University of North Carolina sports, has died at age 85, television station KDKA in Pittsburgh reports.

Currie, who preceded Woody Durham as the voice of the Tar Heels, was known as "The Mouth of the South" during his days at the UNC microphone in the 1960s. He left for Pittsburgh in 1971 to be a sports commentator on the KDKA Evening News, where he worked until the mid-1980s.

Currie, a High Point native, began his career as a reporter for The High Point Enterprise and also worked at The Salisbury Post. He worked at WRAL in Raleigh and WSOC in Charlotte during his broadcasting career.

He died of a brain hemorrhage in Yelma, Wash., where he lived with his daughter, KDKA said. The date of his death was not reported.