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Nick in the AM: Des Moines sportscaster killed in flood worked in Peoria frequently

Larry Cotlar loved Drake University men’s basketball, it appears. Enough to visit Peoria whenever the Bulldogs played Bradley the past 13 years.

Cotlar, the radio play-by-play voice of Drake hoops, was killed Saturday during a flash flood in Des Moines, Iowa, where the university is located. He was 66.

According to The Des Moines Register, Cotlar was inside a van that stalled on rain-swollen streets. When he exited the van, the water swept him away.

Cotlar was a longtime Des Moines radio personality who most recently was host of a weekly show on KRNT-AM (1350).