Nick Charles, the first sports anchor at CNN, died June 18, 2011, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 64.

According to news reports, the cause was bladder cancer.

Charles began broadcasting at CNN on the news network’s first day, June 1, 1980.

Along with Fred Hickman, he was part of a team on the popular show Sports Tonight.

After anchoring Sports Tonight for 17 years, he had his own show, Page One with Nick Charles. He left CNN in 2001.

In 1992 and 1994 he anchored Winter Olympic coverage for the TNT network, and was co-host of the network’s Goodwill Games in the 1980s and 1990s. He covered most of the leading sports events around the world, including Super Bowls, the Kentucky Derby and the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

For all of his versatility as a sportscaster, Charles was best known for his boxing coverage. While at CNN, he interviewed former heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson and after leaving the network he became a boxing commentator on the Showtime network until 2009.

He was born Nicholas Charles Nickeas in June 30, 1946, in Chicago. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago and was a taxi driver before he began his broadcast career in 1970 in Springfield, Illinois.

Before ascending to CN, he worked in local TV in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Charles had three children from his first two marriages, which ended in divorce.

Other survivors include his third wife, Cory Azumbrado Charles, and their daughter.