According to multiple sources former Cleveland Browns radio voice Jim Donovan has died after several bouts of cancer over the last several years. Donovan became the team’s play-by-play announcer when it was reborn as an expansion franchise in 1999. Three years earlier the team was moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens.
Donovan was beloved by fans and those who knew him. For 25 years he called games for Browns’ radio broadcasts and for the vast majority of those with color commentator Doug Dieken, who spent 37 years holding down that position after a career at offensive tackle for Cleveland.