Voice of the Razorbacks killed in car accident

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2006/07/eells_update.aspx

RIP.

 

OH MY GOD.

http://www.asp.state.ar.us/fatal/index.php?do=view_reports&accident_number=354&year_rec=2006

The official report from the ASP.

 

From the AP wire...
Prominent Arkansas sportscaster killed in I-40 accident

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Paul Eells, sports director of Little Rock television station KATV for nearly three decades, was killed Monday evening along with another driver in a head-on collision on Interstate 40 at Russellville, state police said.
A police report said Eells' car, eastbound near the Arkansas 331 exit from I-40, crossed the median and collided in the westbound lanes with a car driven by Billie J. Burton, 40, of Dover. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene after the accident at 8:13 p.m., the report said.
Eells, 70, was returning to his home to Little Rock after participating in a golf tournament for sports figures and the media at Fayetteville.
Eells, a West Branch, Iowa native, joined the staff at KATV in 1978, and was widely known by sports fans in Arkansas as well as by reporters and editors across the South.
He was named Arkansas Sportscaster of the Year 11 times and was also honored with the Associated Press award for best sports play-by-play several times.
A graduate of the University of Iowa, he began his broadcast career with radio station KOKX in Keokuk, Iowa, as an announcer. He then moved to WMT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as sports director where he did play-by-play for his alma mater.
He was sports director at WSM radio and television in Nashville, Tenn., from 1967 until his move to KATV in 1978. While at WSM, he did play-by-play for Vanderbilt University in addition to covering Tennessee regional high school sports.
Eells is survived by his wife, Vickie, a son and two daughters.

 

I'd like to add that I knew Paul a little and he truly was one of the nicest people in the business.
He'll be missed.

 

This is going to rock a lot of people's worlds when they wake up in the morning. People are NOT going to be happy tomorrow. Lots of tears will be shed in this state. He was beyond loved.

 

Didn't one of Eells' predecessor -- B.J. Sams -- also die in a traffic accident back in the early/mid 70s? I want to say it was 73 or 74, so there was probably someone in between them. If I remember right, Sams was also the sports anchor at Ch. 7 in Little Rock.

 

It was Bud Campbell.
Sams is still doing the noon news.

 

I saw Paul this afternoon at the gold event and had an all-too-brief exchange with him. A great guy who will be missed.

RIP Paul.

 

RIP, Paul ... and the woman who also died in the accident.

 

This school is hardly a stranger to this sort of tragedy.

Brandon Burlsworth was an offensive guard and was part of their "renaissance" under Houston Nutt in his first year. A few weeks after he was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts, he was killed in a car wreck.

 

This is very sad news.

May have met him once or twice, briefly. But he did seem like a nice man. An upbeat guy, for sure.

RIP Paul.

 

Sad news for the UA family. I hope Paul enjoys eternity in the great boundary in the sky.