The Los Angeles broadcasting community and local sports fans lost a friend and a passionate sports voice on January 4, 2010, with the sudden passing of Rory Markas. Only a month earlier, the 54-year-old had been named permanent television play-by-play announcer for the Angels. This, in addition to his work calling games for the USC Trojans and reporting for Fox 11 KTTV made Markas one of the busiest broadcasters in this market.
Rory grew up in Chatsworth and graduated from Cal State Northridge. He began his sportscasting career in the 1970s in Tucson, with stops in Milwaukee, Salt Lake City and Vancouver. In Los Angeles, Markas spent three seasons at the mike for the Clippers, in radio and television, for KNX, KCBS, Prime Ticket and Fox Sports Net West. Shelves of awards bear witness to his talent and skills.
Whether he was reporting on a fire or a free throw, Rory put you in the picture. You’d sense his excitement when calling a game — witness the final out of the Angels’ victory in the 2002 World Series. You’d see his compassion as a reporter covering the Malibu fire a few years back, helping a woman evacuate her seaside home, and you’d feel the victim’s loss.
And if you were a colleague working alongside him, you’d find a humble, quiet guy who almost always was smiling. He smiled because he was doing what he loved to do. We smiled because we loved working with him. Rory was a man who loved his work — really lived for his work — and yet didn't seem to regard it as work at all. That, in itself, is worthy of a halo.