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FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) -- Rich Bircumshaw, the play-by-play voice of the Colorado State University Rams football and men's basketball teams since 2002 and news director for a cluster of Clear Channel radio stations in northern Colorado, has died after a stroke.
He was 54.
Bircumshaw died late Wednesday, a few hours after being rushed to Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, said Scott James program director for KCOL-AM in Loveland.
"All of us in the Ram family, all across the country, are deeply saddened by Rich's passing," Paul Kowalczyk, CSU director of athletics, said in a statement. "Rich had a wonderfully quirky sense of humor and the ability to connect with his listeners in a unique fashion."
Bircumshaw broadcast five college football bowl games and an NCAA basketball tournament for the Rams. He previously spent eight years announcing University of Wyoming sports with the Wyoming Radio Network, and before that worked as a color analyst with Weber State University in Utah.
"We have lost a dear friend in Rich," said Tim Miles, head men's basketball coach at CSU. "It was very apparent, something that I noticed right after I met him, that it wasn't the job that mattered to Rich, but it was the Rams family that he truly cared about. When we won, he felt like he had won."
Bircumshaw suffered a stroke in his sleep late Tuesday, said Zak Gilbert, CSU director of media relations. James said Bircumshaw was taken to the hospital after his wife discovered him on the couch having convulsions the next morning.
Bircumshaw was born in Park City, Utah, on June 30, 1954.
He is survived by his wife, Wendy Lange; a sister, Roberta King; a brother, John Bircumshaw; a nephew; two nieces; and several great-nieces and great-nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Mary D. and Richard F. Bircumshaw, of Salt Lake City.
A memorial service is scheduled Monday at 1 p.m. at Bohlender Funeral Chapel in Fort Collins.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
