On Tuesday it was announced that former Robert Morris Athletic Director Ken Mease passed away. Mease was a decorated and multi-talented sportscaster who had over five decades of experience, spanning from the early ‘60s to his eventual retirement in 2010.

His career started in 1963 working for WUNS-AM, where he became an announcer and color commentator for Bucknell University football.

Mease then worked on KDKA and WPXI-TV as a sportscaster from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. Many Western Pennsylvanians grew up hearing him on these stations.

Mease also took his talents elsewhere, appearing at TV and radio stations in Harrisburg, Pa., Charlotte, N.C., and Providence, R.I.

While in Providence, Mease was awarded the 1973 “Rhode Island Sportscaster of the Year” award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

From 1975-78, Mease was the athletic director for Robert Morris University (at the time, Robert Morris College). He was instrumental in the University’s leap from junior college status to NCAA Division I, helping the basketball, tennis, golf, and baseball programs make that transition.

Mease also did play-by-play of Colonials basketball for three seasons and coached the school’s basketball team for one season. While with the Colonials, Mease laid the groundwork for the school’s Sports Management program, which continues to flourish today.

Mease’s last two decades in the sportscasting business found him in Washington, D.C. covering various sports such as NFL, college football, and college basketball.

Mease was an instrumental piece of Robert Morris’ history, and will not be soon forgotten.