Merrill Reese – Eagles play by play announcer (1977- present) Merrill Reese has been the voice of the Philadelphia Eagles for over 40 years. He is the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in the NFL. Reese, a native-Philadelphian, was born on September 2^nd, 1942. He made his play-be-play debut on December 11^th, 1977 in an Eagles 17-14 home win over the New York Giants in game 13 of the 1977 season. Reese’s 1^st full season doing play-by-play was the NFL’s 1^st 16-game season. In his 40+seasons in the booth, Merrill Reese has never missed a single game. In honor of Reese finally getting a Super Bowl Ring on Thursday, here’s a look at the career of Merrill Reese by the numbers. Let the celebration begin!

5 – color commentators during his Eagles tenure (Herb Adderley, Jim Barniak, Bill Bergey, Stan Walters, and Mike Quick).

10 – Head Coaches

8 – Hall of Famers

39 – Quarterbacks

3 – Team owners

672 – Consecutive Eagles games called (634 reg season, 38 playoffs)

368 – Called Eagles wins (350 reg season, 18 playoffs)

300 – Called Eagles losses (280 reg season, 20 playoffs)

4 – Called Eagles ties

1,641 – Career Eagles Touchdown calls (1,552 reg season, 89 playoffs)

986 – Career “It’s Goooood!” Eagles Field Goals called (927 reg season, 59 playoffs)

64 – Career pick-6’s called (57 reg season, 7 playoffs)

Congrats to Merrill Reese and the entire Eagles family on their Super Bowl Rings!

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Eric Desjardins – Flyers/D (1995-06) Eric “Rico” Desjardins joined the Flyers on February 9^th, 1995 as part of the trade with the Montreal Canadiens that brought John LeClair and Gilbert Dionne in exchange for Mark Recchi and a 1995 3^rd round draft pick. He became a mainstay on the Flyers blueline winning the Barry Ashbee Award for the Flyers best defenseman a team-record seven times. Rico was a two-time All Star and a two-time 2^nd team All Star. Rico became the 12^th captain in team history during the 1999-2000 season replacing Eric Lindros. Desjardins won the Yanick Dupre Award in 1999. Rico is the 2^nd leading scoring defenseman in team history behind Mark Howe.  Desjardins entered the Flyers Hall of Fame in 2015.

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Ken Giles – Phillies/P (2014-15) Flamethrower Ken Giles and his 100 mph fastball rose quickly up the minor league ranks, making his Phillies debut on June 12th, 2014. Giles gave up a homer to Yasmani Grandal, the first batter he faced in his MLB debut.  But there were bright spots during Giles’ time with the Phils. On September 1st, 2014, Giles was part of the Phillies combined no-hitter, when he, Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, and Jonathan Papelbon combined to no-hit the Atlanta braves in a 7-0 Phillies win.  Giles was 4th in NL Rookie of the Year voting for 2014.   

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Von Hayes – Phillies/OF-1B (1983-91) Von Hayes was a smooth hitting OF/1B known more for how he got to Phillies, than what he did for the Phillies. On December 9^th, 1982, Hayes was traded to the Phillies from the Cleveland Indians for Julio Franco, Manny Trillo, Jay Baller, George Vukovich, and Jerry Willard.  He quickly became known as “5 for 1”.  While it was nearly impossible to live up to the hype of being traded for five players, Hayes did enjoy some success with the Phillies. Hayes was the first player in MLB history to hit 2 HRs in the 1^st inning of a game, doing so on 6/11/1985. He smacked a lead-off dinger off Mets starter Tom Gorman, and later that inning he knocked a grand slam off reliever Calvin Schiraldi. The Phils won the game 26-7.  Hayes led the NL in Runs and Doubles in 1986 and finished 8th in MVP voting.  And Mr. 5-for-1 was a 1989 NL All-Star. Hayes was nicknamed “purple” by ESPN’s Chris Berman, calling him Von “Purple” Hayes.

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